Open Journals (The Project) develops and deploys open source software for open access publishing and enables publication credit for software and other research and educational products. In addition it coordinates the operations of the Open Journals publications. It is a fiscally sponsored project of the 501(c)(3) NumFOCUS Foundation.
The software developed and maintained by The Project is released under the MIT (or similarly permissive) open source license, developed openly, and hosted in public GitHub repositories under the Open Journals GitHub organization. Examples of Project Software include the JOSS web application, the Whedon RubyGem, and the Whedon bot.
The services run by The Project consist of public websites and web services that are hosted under the theoj.org and briefideas.org domains, and include the Journal of Open Source Software (http://joss.theoj.org), the Journal of Open Source Education (http://jose.theoj.org), the Journal of Brief Ideas (http://beta.briefideas.org), and the Open Journal of Astrophysics (http://astro.theoj.org).
The Project is formally affiliated with the 501(c)(3) NumFOCUS Foundation (http://numfocus.org), which serves as its fiscal sponsor, may hold project trademarks and other intellectual property, helps manage project donations, and acts as a parent legal entity. In addition, currently one of our journals, the Journal of Open Source Software, is an affiliate member of the Open Source Initiative (https://opensource.org/affiliates/list). NumFOCUS is the only legal entity that has a formal relationship with The Project.
This section describes the governance and leadership model of The Project.
The foundations of Project governance are:
- Openness & Transparency
- Active Contribution
- Institutional Neutrality
The Project leadership consists of a BDFL (Arfon Smith) and Steering Council.
The Project has a BDFL (Benevolent Dictator for Life), who is currently Arfon Smith. As Dictator, the BDFL has the authority to make all final decisions for The Project. The BDFL, being benevolent, in practice chooses to defer that authority to the consensus of the community discussion channels and the Steering Council (see below). It is expected, and in the past has been the case, that the BDFL will only rarely assert their final authority. Because rarely used, we refer to BDFL’s final authority as a “special” or “overriding” vote. When it does occur, the BDFL override typically happens in situations where there is a deadlock in the Steering Council or if the Steering Council asks the BDFL to make a decision on a specific matter. To ensure the benevolence of the BDFL, The Project encourages others to fork the project if they disagree with the overall direction the BDFL is taking. The BDFL is chair of the Steering Council (see below) and may delegate their authority on a particular decision or set of decisions to any other Council member at their discretion.
The BDFL appoints their successor, and it is expected that the Steering Council is consulted on this decision. If the BDFL is unable to appoint a successor, the Steering Council will appoint a successor with a majority vote.
The Project has a Steering Council that is elected to further the overall mission of the The Project. The initial Steering Council was created by the BDFL, however, future membership rules will be determined by the Steering Council itself. The overall role of the Steering Council is to ensure, through working with the BDFL and taking input from the community, the long-term well-being of the project, both technically, editorially, and as a community.
The Steering Council and its Members play a special role in certain situations. In particular, the Council may:
- Make decisions about the overall scope, vision, and direction of The Project.
- Make decisions about strategic collaborations with other organizations or individuals.
- Make decisions about starting a new journal (or incorporating an existing journal) under the Open Journals organization.
- Make decisions about the Services that are run by The Project and manage those Services for the benefit of the Project and Community.
- Make decisions when regular community discussion doesn’t produce consensus on an issue in a reasonable time frame.
- Provide financial oversight and planning for the The Project
To be written by the Council.
Subcommittees may be established by the Steering Council to assist in managing the The Project.
Individual journals are responsible for their own editorial process, including their editorial board composition. However, by being an Open Journals publication, each journal must:
- Be open access
- Have an open review process
- Use the Open Journals open source toolchain