Table of Contents
Migrating to OJS
This guide walks through the process of moving an existing OJS journal to a new CSU Open Journals instance.
Creating a New Instance
Editors should reach out to their publishing contact to migrate journal content. Publishing contacts will work with the Chancellor’s Office to create a new instance of the journal and work with editors to migrate content.
Copying and Pasting Journal Settings
Copy and paste the contents from Journal, Website, Workflow, and Distribution Settings, making sure to go through each tab on a page.
This content includes:
- All journal copy (about the journal, author guidelines, etc.) will need to be copied from one "journal page" to the other:
- The contents of Journal Manager > Setup.
- The contents of Journal Manger > Journal Sections (although sections will be created in migration, their policies and options will not).
- The contents of Journal Manager > Subscriptions.
- The contents of Journal Manager > Languages should be checked to ensure that the same number of languages are enabled and the settings between each journal match. native.dtd has elements for locale, and will populate those fields accordingly, but they will not display if languages are not properly configured.
- The contents of Journal Manager - Masthead should be configured after importing users.
- The contents of Journal Manager - Prepared Emails might need to be altered if the editor made any adjustments to the system's automatic emails.
- Check System Plugins for both installations to see if there are any you're missing or aren't configured. Of note, especially, would be Google Analytics or other stat tracking plugins. You'll need to configure a Google Analytics account specifically for that journal. Also check Static Page and Custom Block plugins.
- CSS for the journal will need to be migrated. If you have HTML galleys, this is particularly relevant. You may need to write whole new CSS scripts, depending.
- Any content currently in the editorial process cannot be migrated in any convenient way. You'll have to either resubmit that content as an editor, on behalf of those users, or keep the submissions going on one page until the cue is empty.
Migrating Users
Under Tools, select the Users XML Plugin to Export and Import users.
Export All users from original journal instance. Click OK to confirm. This will produce an XML file.
Import Users to the new journal instance. Select Import Users and select the XML file created in the previous step, then Import Users:
This should migrate all Users with appropriate User Roles, though it may be smart to check that those attributes migrated successfully. You may also receive error messages that a user could not be moved.
Migrating Content
Similar to migrating Users, OJS allows you to Import and Export content with the Native XML Plugin. If your journal has DOIs you can also use the CrossRef XML Export Plugin to migrate those.
For each item exported, like the Users XML Plugin, OJS will create a single XML file for an article or issue. It is recommended to export by individual issues, as OJS is likely to run into memory issues that result in errors.
Again under Tools, navigate to the Export Issues tab, select the Issue you want to export, and select Export Issue. Name and save the XML file.
From the Import tab of the new journal instance, select the XML file and click Import.
Upon successful Import, OJS will provide a completion message.
If importing works correctly, articles and issues should be fully published. If the results tab is blank, check to see if any content has been imported. Re-importing may prove successful.
If issues or articles do not Import or Export through the built-in OJS tools, you will have to download and upload PDFs and metadata manually.
Please see the CSU OJS Guide for information on additional OJS processes.