User Roles in OJS

On this page, we will provide a brief description of the responsibilities and capabilities of the various user roles. For a more detailed description of the user roles in OJS please consult the OJS User Guide. Wherever available, links will be provided to the appropriate chapters in the User Guide for a given user role.

Journal Manager

The Journal Manager is responsible for setting up the journal website, configuring system options, and managing user accounts. The Journal Manager also assigns roles to users, can create new journal sections, edit review forms and default emails, manage Reading Tools, configure and activate OJS plugins, and view Statistics and Reports for the journal. For more information on the Journal Manager, please consult Chapter 4: Journal Management.

Editor

The Editor is responsible for overseeing the entire submission, review, editing, and publishing process. Working with the Journal Manager, the Editor often establishes the policies and procedures for the journal. The Editor often assigns new submissions to a Section Editor, who oversees the review process and editing (copyediting, layout editing, and proofreading). The Editor also creates the journal issues, schedules submissions for publication, arranges the Table of Contents, and publishes the issue. For more information on the Editor, please consult Chapter 6: Editors.

Section Editor

The Section Editor oversees the review and editing process for submissions that are assigned to them by the Editor. Depending on your journal’s task assignment, Section Editors might also assume the roles of Copyeditor, Layout Editor, and/or Proofreader. For more information on the Section Editor, please consult Chapter 7: Section Editors.

Copyeditor

The Copyeditor edits submissions to improve grammar and clarity, works with authors to ensure everything is in place, ensures strict adherence to the journal's bibliographic and textual style, and produces a clean, edited copy for the Layout Editor to turn into the galleys that will be in the published format of the journal. For more information on the Copyeditor, please consult Chapter 9: Copyeditors.

Layout Editor

The Layout Editor transforms the copyedited versions of submissions into galleys in HTML, PDF, PS, etc. -- files which the journal has elected to use for electronic publication. Please note that OJS does not have an internal mechanism for document conversion, so the Layout Editor must have access to and be able to use a third-party software for document conversion and styling. For more information on the Layout Editor, please consult Chapter 10: Layout Editors.

Proofreader

The Proofreaders carefully reads through the galley file, produced by the Layout Editor, noting typographical and formatting errors for the Layout Editor to correct before publication. For more information on the Proofreader, please consult Chapter 11: Proofreaders.

Author

Authors submit their work to the journal directly through the journals website. Authors upload their submission file, provide metadata and/or indexing information, and can upload supplementary files to accompany their submission. By logging in to the journal website, Authors can track their submission through and participate in the review and editorial process. For more information on the Author, please consult Chapter 5: Authors.

Reviewer

The Reviewer is selected by the Section Editor to review a submission. Reviewers are asked to submit reviews to the journal's web site and are able to upload attachments for the use of the Editor and Author. For more information on the Reviewer, please consult Chapter 8: Reviewers.

Reader

The Reader role is the simplest role in OJS, and has the fewest capabilities. Readers include both subscribers for journals for which access is subscription-based, and readers who choose to register for open access journals. Registered Readers receive a notification email with the publication of each issue, which includes the Table of Contents for that particular issue. For more information on the Reader, please consult Chapter 12: Readers.

Subscription Manager

The Subscription Manager manages the journal's subscriptions and subscription types, and can also configure where and how payments are handled within the system. This role is only available when a journal has activated subscriptions in OJS. For more information on subscriptions, please consult section 2.12 of the OJS User Guide: Subscriptions.

Editorial and Publishing Workflow

PKP has produced a very helpful chart detailing the Editorial Workflow in OJS. For more information about the workflow consult the OJS User Guide.