Book Reviews and Case Studies on OJS

[ClausRose]

Hi all,
I'm quite new with the OJS-system so forgive me if my question has been asked before.
We want to be able to publish book reviews and Case Studies that are not part of the actual journal flow. The best way is perhaps to use the Statuc Page plugin, but what else? We'd like to bring an abstract and a link to a pdf-file with the actual review of the book. Can you guide me to the best way to do that? Thanks.

Best,
Claus

[ramon]

Hello Claus,

It will depend on how you want those items published.
You can skip "unnecessary" steps of the general workflow whenever you want.
If you want the Case Studies and Book Reviews to be published within an issue, you can create a specific section for each.
If they are to be reviewed, you can use the regular process. If only editors "submit"/upload these types of documents, then you can prevent other users with only author roles to submit to those sections.

Also, OJS has a Book Reviews plugin you should check.
It may be more complex than what you may want, if all you need is to publish those items, not actually perform a review.

[ClausRose]

Thanks for your answer, Ramon.

I think you've misunderstood, what we're trying to do - I didn't explain myself accurate enough. Sorry!

What we want to do is to be able to publish reviews of books and case studies completely seperate from the journal flow. You can compare it to an arrangements site or a news site, where you post arrangements and news on a static page - and where you add one review or study to the next.

However the reviews and the case studies are quite substantial in size so we want to publish an abstract and a link to pdf-file, which contains the hole review or study. Thats quite important for us - and that's why we can't just use a static page.

Is that possible - and how?

Thanks for reading.

Best,
Claus

[ramon]

Hello Claus,

If you want to keep those publications separate from your journal issue, currently, the only way to do something like that would be to use the Static Pages plugin.
If I remember correctly, the pages can be navigable by using header tags (not sure if h3 and h4), otherwise you'll have to add the navigation manually.
This would provide a general page, that would work as a Table of Contents, linking to the abstract pages of each book review and case study, in order to keep page sizes small, and maintenance less cumbersome (updating the TOC after adding a new review/case, for example).

The Static Pages are published in a "higher" level of OJS, which means you can add a link to the main navigation pointing to the Case Studies TOC and another to the Book Reviews (if you want to separate them, for example, allowing for an easier maintenance as well).

I believe the Files Manager within OJS will enable you to upload your files to a "public" directory, but I'm not 100% sure.
I was just testing this but the PubliFolderPlugin isn't working on my 2.3.6 test install (upgraded from a 2.3.1-2).
You may need an FTP/SSFTP tool to upload the files to your "public" folder.

You'll have to play with the plugin to figure out the best way and if it does indeed fit your needs. It will all depend on your information structure and how much content you have now vs. how much content will be published, and how soon does the content grow. A structure that works now may not work in the near future. For example, a single TOC page with all links to Case Studies and Book Reviews may seem the best and quickest approach, but in a few months you may have to separate them because the TOC is very long.

These documents won't be searchable through OJS search, although they will probably be indexed by Google and similar.

[jmacgreg]

Hi Claus,

Just to add to Ramon's excellent suggestions -- there's more information on using the new Books for Review plugin here: http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/docs/userguide/2. ... sForReview. The plugin is available in OJS 2.3.3+. I don't believe you can currently publish book reviews completely outside of the usual journal workflow -- for example, the book review does have to be published in an issue at some point -- but you could always use the plugin to manage your reviews; publish them in a particular issue; and then link to them via a static page. If you have suggestions on how we might improve the plugin, please let us know.

Cheers,
James

[ClausRose]

Thanks to both of you.

It works quite well now - however there is one problem still.

When a user/reader clicks on the static page we're calling "Case Studies" and then clicks on a link to a pdf-file, the system wants he/her to login. Why is that? I've checked out the '4.1 Access and Security Settings' and we're going for completely open access, so it can't be this setting. Do you know what's wrong?

Thanks again. Your answers have been very helpful.

Best,
Claus

[andreaszalay]

Did you upload the article to your files browser? That's what I've done and I get the log in screen too. I'm wondering if there is another area to upload files. Is OJS hosting your site or do you have your own server? I am very new to this.

[andreaszalay]

Ramon,

What is the PubliFolderPlugin?

[ClausRose]

Yes, I uploaded it directly to the Files Browser. And yes, we have our own server.

I just tried using a link uploaded like a normal article submission - and the system still wanted me to log in. So apparently the problem is not connected to the way you upload the file. But what then? Has it got to do with the Static Pges plugin? Does anyone know?

Thanks,
Claus

[ramon]

Ramon,

What is the PubliFolderPlugin?

Hello andreaszalay,

Check the Plugin Gallery forum. The Public Folder Browser Plugin will add a new link to the Journal Manager's menu at the end of the list, to access OJS's public/ folder. This will enable you to upload files and create folders within a "web-accessible" area. This is something the original File Browser (which navigates within the submission folder, created while installing usually outside of a "web-accessible" area for security reasons) available in OJS does not do without some modifications.