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From article to ecosystem with PKP and Crossref: How an updated OJS 3.5 installation supports trusted metadata

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Text reads the same as title. PKP and Crossref logos are displayed at the bottom, side by side, representing our partnership. Background photo of stoic mountains and cityscape in valley represents the importance of updating from foundational to new PKP software version 3.5 for improved travel of metadata.

In part two of this blog post series from PKP and Crossref, we focus on how upgrading PKP software supports trusted metadata and enriches the scholarly publishing ecosystem. Read on to learn about the metadata journey, why it matters, how it is a shared responsibility, and how to take action.

When a journal publishes an article, the goal is not simply to make it available on a website. Research needs to be discoverable, attributable, connected to people and institutions, and reusable long after publication. Achieving that depends on rich metadata, and on the infrastructure that moves metadata throughout the scholarly ecosystem.

For many journals, Crossref sits at the center of that process.

As a metadata registration agency, Crossref helps publishers share trusted metadata about scholarly content with thousands of systems and services around the world. But the value of that metadata depends on what publishers provide in the first place.

That’s where OJS 3.5 comes in.

By upgrading to OJS 3.5, journals can capture and deliver richer, more complete metadata to Crossref, enabling stronger connections across the scholarly record and improving the visibility and trustworthiness of published research.

The journey from article to ecosystem

An article’s impact depends on more than its content. Every published work is accompanied by metadata that describes who created it, where it was published, which institution supported the work, what it references, and how it relates to other research.

Once an article is published in OJS, that metadata can be registered with Crossref alongside the article’s DOI. From there, it becomes part of a global network of open scholarly information used by libraries, repositories, indexing services, discovery platforms, funders, institutions, and researchers.

In many ways, Crossref serves as a hub through which scholarly metadata flows.

The richer the metadata supplied by publishers, the more effectively Crossref can connect research outputs, contributors, and organizations across the scholarly communications landscape.

Why Metadata Matters

Most publishers know Crossref as a DOI registration agency, but DOI registration is only the beginning.

A DOI provides a persistent identifier for a scholarly work, ensuring that it can be reliably found and linked over time. Every DOI registered with Crossref is accompanied by metadata that describes the work itself.

That metadata can include:

  • Author information
  • Institutional affiliations
  • ORCID iDs
  • Funding information
  • References and citations
  • Publication dates
  • Licensing information
  • Relationships to other research outputs

Together, the DOI and its metadata create a trusted record that helps systems understand, discover, and connect scholarly content.

When metadata is incomplete, those connections become weaker. When metadata is rich and well-structured, it becomes far more useful across the ecosystem.

OJS 3.5 Helps Publishers Deliver Better Metadata

As scholarly infrastructure evolves, expectations around metadata continue to grow. Researchers, institutions, funders, and service providers increasingly rely on persistent identifiers and standardized metadata to ensure accurate attribution and interoperability.

OJS 3.5 helps journals meet these expectations by supporting more complete metadata workflows and improved integration with scholarly infrastructure providers.

This enables publishers to send higher-quality metadata to Crossref from the moment an article is published. 

The key improvement you will experience is the ability to send your affiliation metadata to Crossref for the first time!

Persistent Identifiers Strengthen Metadata

One of the most important developments in scholarly communications has been the adoption of persistent identifiers (PIDs). These identifiers reduce ambiguity and create durable connections between people, organizations, and research outputs.

ORCID: Identifying Researchers

Researcher names are not always unique. Authors may change their names, publish under different variations, or share names with other researchers.

ORCID provides a persistent identifier that uniquely identifies researchers throughout their careers.

When ORCID iDs are included in metadata deposited with Crossref, they strengthen attribution and improve the accuracy of connections between researchers and their work. They also make it easier for external systems to link publications to researcher profiles and reporting systems.

Affiliations and ROR: Identifying Institutions

A long-standing request from OJS users was to enable affiliations metadata to move from the OJS system to Crossref. You can see what the case is for your organisation in the Crossref Participation Report. We have honoured this request in OJS 3.5 and you can now add affiliations to your publications metadata.

Notably, institutional affiliations present similar challenges as author names. Universities and research organizations may have multiple names, abbreviations, or translations.

The Research Organization Registry (ROR) provides persistent identifiers for research organizations, helping ensure that affiliations are represented consistently across systems.

When publishers include ROR identifiers in their metadata, Crossref can carry those institutional connections forward, improving organizational attribution, reporting, and discovery.

Better Metadata Creates Better Connections

Rich metadata benefits everyone who relies on scholarly information. Persistent identifiers help ensure that authors, reviewers, institutions, and funders receive accurate recognition for their contributions. 

Further, the more complete the metadata deposited with Crossref, the easier it becomes for discovery services and research platforms to find, categorize, and connect content. This is increasingly the case with the growing use of automation and artificial intelligence in the research discovery process. Crossref metadata helps establish reliable linking between articles, references, datasets, grants, organizations, and researcher profiles. These connections make the scholarly record more navigable and more useful.

Finally, metadata is reused repeatedly throughout the research lifecycle. Libraries, repositories, indexing services, analytics providers, and preservation systems all depend on accurate metadata to support their work. High-quality metadata increases the long-term value of published research.

Trust Factor and the Cost of Outdated OJS Installations

Many journals continue to operate on older, unsupported OJS versions that were developed before today’s metadata standards became commonplace.

As a result, publishers may struggle with:

  • Missing ORCID identifiers
  • Incomplete affiliation data
  • Lack of ROR support
  • Metadata fields that do not align with current standards
  • Reduced interoperability with external services
  • Less complete Crossref deposits

These gaps limit the effectiveness of metadata and reduce the ability of scholarly infrastructure to create meaningful connections between research outputs and contributors. Being connected to the scholarly ecosystem through complete and thorough metadata is also a signal of credibility. When article metadata can be independently verified, linked to persistent identifiers, and consistently reused across platforms, it demonstrates that a journal is participating in the shared infrastructure that supports transparency and accountability in research. 

That is, metadata connections create a visible chain of trust. When publishers register complete metadata with Crossref, including persistent identifiers such as ORCID iDs and ROR IDs, they make it easier for others to verify authorship, affiliations, funding, and relationships between research outputs, people, and organisations. These transparent connections help strengthen confidence in the scholarly record.

Metadata is a Shared Responsibility

No single organization creates a connected scholarly ecosystem on its own. Publishers collect metadata. OJS helps manage and structure it. Persistent identifier providers such as ORCID and ROR add trusted identifiers. Crossref brings these elements together through DOI registration and metadata sharing, making them available across the wider research landscape.

Each part of the chain matters. By upgrading to OJS 3.5, publishers can contribute richer metadata that help create a more connected, discoverable, and trustworthy scholarly record.

Upgrade for Stronger Metadata

The scholarly ecosystem depends on metadata that is accurate, complete, and persistent.

OJS 3.5 gives journals the tools to capture richer metadata and share it more effectively through Crossref, helping research travel further and remain connected over time.

Upgrading OJS helps your metadata travel further and stay trustworthy.

Importantly, Crossref encourages members to update their metadata records as often as required, so if you wish – you can include richer information about your earlier publications once you transition to OJS 3.5.

Upgrading Resources

PKP and Crossref recently hosted two OJS 3.5 upgrading webinars. The recordings are now available on PKP’s YouTube channel. 

Other upgrading and learning resources include: 

The call to action is to upgrade your OJS installation.

If you are not on 3.5 yet, you will need to upgrade to 3.3 first, then 3.5, as fully demonstrated in this upgrading webinar for System Administrators. If you are already on 3.5, keep up to date with patch releases. As of 3.5.0-5 (released June 30th, 2026) your system will be on LTS. 

Please note that OJS, OMP, and OPS share a common codebase which means that all three platforms have now been designated LTS. 

Join in contributing fully to the global open scholarly publishing ecosystem by upgrading today, and be sure you are making the most out of all that PKP software and interoperability partners have to offer!

This article is Part 2 in a series from PKP in collaboration with Crossref.

📌 Jump to Part 1 in this OJS blog post series by PKP in collaboration with Crossref: Why Upgrading OJS is Key to Participating in Open Scholarly Infrastructure

Please stay tuned for Part 3 in this series. 

Thank you to Kornelia Korzec, Crossref Director of Community Team, and Reyhana Mahomed, Crossref Communications Manager, for helpful notes on this article.