In September 2019, we announced a code freeze leading up to the release of OJS/OMP 3.2 in what we hoped would be January 2020. Between holding an international conference, the December holidays, and some exciting new advancements, we admittedly got a bit off schedule. We now expect to have this major release completed for the end of February 2020.

This is the third in a series of blogs based on excerpts from an early and ongoing draft of a book (here for comment) in which I develop a case for amending copyright in the United States so that it is once again serving research and scholarship.

Starting with OJS/OMP 3.2, the Public Knowledge Project (PKP)  is moving from version 2 to version 3 of the GNU General Public License (GPL) for its software releases. The software license is a legal document that safeguards free and open source software to keep it free and available to the community that builds it. The GPL is one of the most common free software licenses.

How does software, created nearly twenty years ago at a university in Canada, become one of the world’s most widely used journal publishing platforms? Being free and open source hasn’t hurt the success of Open Journal Systems (OJS), but another major factor has been, and continues to be, the countless volunteers who have translated our software into more than 35 languages.

The PKP 2019 International Scholarly Publishing Conference was held November 20-22, 2019 at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. Attended by more than 150 community members from around the world, we’ve enjoyed since then hearing post-conference reflections about the six workshops, five keynotes, and more than 30 presentations that took place.

On behalf of the entire PKP team, I would like to wish our global community a very happy new year and decade. The Public Knowledge Project is poised to contribute much to scholarly publishing this year thanks to the ongoing support of our contributors, sustainers, partners, and granting agencies. Together, we are making knowledge public.

The Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) has launched its second funding cycle. We are pleased to announce that PKP is one of three vetted services – along with the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)/Open Access Publishing in European Networks (OAPEN) and OpenCitations – that has been selected and presented to the SCOSS  international scholarly community for funding.

This is the second in a series of blogs on how U.S. copyright law has, with the emergence of open access to research and scholarship in the digital era, slipped into an unconstitutional state because it can no longer be said, in the case of science, “to promote the progress of science and useful arts” (U.S. CONST. art. 1, § 8, cl.8.). Rather, the law is called upon to constrain such progress.

Couldn’t make it to PKP 2019 this year? No worries! Get the PKP conference experience without leaving your chair! Follow along online November 20-22, 2019 and watch for recordings and updates following.

Our 7th International Scholarly Publishing Conference, PKP 2019, is a great time for us to showcase and thank our community. This year, we have a few extra big thanks – including a round of applause to ReviewerCredits, one of our Silver sponsors. To learn more about what they do and their role in the PKP community, we chatted with co-founder Giacomo Bellani. PKP: Thank you again to you and your team for sponsoring PKP 2019.

Back in August, we launched a five-part series aptly named “Five Reasons Why” to entice participants from around the world to attend PKP 2019, our 7th International Scholarly Publishing Conference at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) November 20-22, 2019. With just one week left until registration ends on November 15, we present not only our final reason, but some exciting activities for those already registered.