Revision as of 16:43, 17 August 2010

Using PayPal for OJS and OCS Payments

The latest versions of OJS and OCS support the use of the PayPal online payment system (http://www.paypal.com) for secure online financial transactions. In OJS, this can be used to collect subscription fees, pay-per-view fees, membership fees, author submission fees, fast-track peer review fees, and donations. In OCS, this can also be used to collect registration fees.

This document will outline the basic steps in getting this up and running. You should, however, review the PayPal documentation to ensure that you have setup your PayPal profile to meet your specific requirements.

First Advice: Experiment with the paypal sandbox feature. This is a paypal website without money. Switch to the real website only after the sandbox is working well. this is the approach that this note now takes.

A Paypal Sandbox Account

Go to https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_onboarding-list&getStarted=true . Sign up for

Your Real PayPal Account

Set up a PayPal Website Payments Standard account: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_onboarding-list&getStarted=true

Hit the Go button. If you already have a PayPal account, login now. If not, select your country:

Fill in the resulting form:

Fill in the forms and save. Next, create your business account:

Confirm your registration using your email account:

Once you`ve confirmed your account, go to your Account Overview:

Using the Unverified link, go ahead and verify your account.

Next, from your Account Overview, choose the Edit Profile link:

On the Profile page, choose Instant Payment Notification Preferences:

Use the Edit button to turn on Instant Payment Notification (IPN):

Check the box and add the URL below (you will also find this URL when you setup your payment methods in OJS or OCS):

Configuring OJS/OCS

Now that you have setup your PayPal account, you will need to activate your payment methods in OJS or OCS. To do so, login as the Journal Manager or the Conference Manager, and select Payments. Under General Options, choose your currency:

Next, select the kind of payments you wish to charge on your site. These could include author submission fees, fast-track peer review fees, article publication fees, subscription fees, pay-per-view fees, membership fees, or, as in the example below, donations:

This will create a DONATION link in the sidebar:

When readers select the DONATION link, they will be taken to the PayPal Fee Payment page:

After clicking Continue, the reader will be taken directly to PayPal, where they can select their donation amount (e.g., $10.00) and pay using a credit card or with their own PayPal account:

If they choose to use a credit card, they will need to fill in the resulting form:

Once the payment is complete, they will return to the journal or conference. The payment will appear in your PayPal Account Overview:

If you have any questions about using OJS or OCS with PayPal, please let us know at pkp-support@sfu.ca