On the Peripheries of Scholarly Infrastructure: A Look at the Journals Using Open Journal Systems

The Public Knowledge Project (PKP) is a research and development initiative of Simon Fraser University and Stanford University, with a focus on understanding and building enhanced modes of scholarly communication that facilitate open access, high quality publishing, and local capacity building and participation. One of the most significant contributions from PKP has been the development of its free, open source Open Journal Systems (OJS) software. Although some existing publishers have made use of the system, the majority of OJS users are new to publishing and are based in academia, either through library publishing programs or by individual "scholar-publishers," determined to build communities of interest around their research areas (Edgar & Willinsky, 2010). Most are small-scale, often operating with in-kind contributions and minimal budgets (Edgar & Willinsky, 2010). This type of use suggests an increased participation in scholarship, both in terms of who publishes and who read.