The TL;DR
- The Commons offers free WordPress hosting with up to 600MB of storage
- The repository automatically assigns a DOI and the metadata is fed to aggregators (like Google Scholar) all over the world
- The Commons community is alerted to the new journal through the activity feed and the ability to tag appropriate groups in deposits
Publishing open access benefits everyone.
Imagine a small group of scholars who see the need for an open-access journal within their discipline. They’ve started on their own with a small WordPress site and a handful of issues. They realize that hosting a website on their own can be expensive, even with a small subsidy from their department. Without a larger network to share their work, they’ve also been struggling to find and engage with new readers.
Fortunately, the Humanities Commons uses WordPress and, if the editor exports their current site, these scholars could work with the Commons team to import the content to a new WordPress site on the Commons. The first step is to create a private or hidden group with a group site. The group will allow them to communicate with one another and keep a calendar of deadlines.
Once the site is imported, they can work to design the site and begin the process of uploading PDFs of previous articles to the CORE repository. They plan to post online-readable articles as blog posts on their website, using the link created after uploading the PDFs to the CORE repository. While they only have about 30 articles to deposit, if they had over 50, they could work with the Commons team to do a bulk upload to the repository. The deposits are automatically aggregated by Google Scholar, and fed to other aggregators around the world.
Every time they post and make a deposit, their updates are added to the site’s activity feed. Not only can they tag their own group when they deposit an article to the repository, but they can also tag four other appropriate groups to increase the visibility of the content. With over 50,000 members, this is a lot more visibility than they’ve had previously with only a little added work.
FAQs
| Question | Answer |
| My journal uses a content management system other than WordPress. Can I import the content onto the Commons? | While importing may not be possible, copying and pasting content within WordPress using the block editor is relatively easy. |
| My journal has a dedicated domain name. Can I still use it on the Commons? | All Commons sites must have the hcommons.org domain in their URL. However, most registrars allow domains to be pointed to a new host. While your posts won’t be in a https://yourdomain.com/post format, you can establish a redirect to the new site. |
Examples
Journal of the Northern Renaissance ↗
A journal dedicated to the study of early modern Northern European cultural practices.
Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies ↗
A journal centered on interdisciplinary, social justice-oriented, feminist, queer, and innovative biblical scholarship.
Roman Artistic Journals ↗
A database that showcases late eighteenth- to early nineteenth-century Roman artistic journals.
Intaglio Journal ↗
A journal focused on work related to visual culture, seeking to bridge disciplinary and geographical divides.
2 responses to “Publish Your Journal”
This is a good opportunity. Can I publish our journal wherein the articles are all preprint, not yet peer reviewed? Thanks and more power to HC.
Yes, as long as your journal allows preprints to be published to an open access repository! Let us know if you have more questions at hello@hcommons.org.