Section outline

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    Introduction

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    • Implementing technical publishing standards remains a key challenge for many stakeholders in Diamond Open Access (OA) journal publishing. Work Package 3 (cf. Background) of the CRAFT-OA project was designed to target these challenges by identifying technical standards and requirements, analysing key challenges and developing tailored training material and training sessions. 

      This toolkit makes training material, training sessions and information about training events available specifically targeting technical publication standards. The material covers technical standards and requirements in OA publishing, ranging from metadata and publishing systems to JATS XML.

      Please contact Jorina Fenner (jorina.fenner@tib.eu) if you have any questions or feedback on this page.

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      Background

      This page provides an overview of training material and training sessions that took place or were developed as part of Task 3.3 in the CRAFT-OA project. Task 3.3 is part of Work Package 3, “Technical Standards for Professional Institutional Open Access”. The task builds on previous work in the work package: first, existing technical standards and requirements were collected according to the FAIR principles. The results are published in the "Report on Standards for Best Publishing Practices and Basic Technical Requirements in the Light of FAIR Principles" (Armengou et el. 2023). Subsequently, the work package partners identified the key challenges faced by the Diamond OA publishing community when following these technical publication standards. The study draws on a variety of data sources, such as DOAJ rejection data and the DIAMAS survey. It was published as "Report on challenges and help measures faced by OA journals and platforms" (Laakso et al. 2023).
       
      Finally, based on this gap analysis, the partners of Task 3.3 developed and provided training and education to enable the adoption and implementation of these technical standards. The presented material and sessions follow the categories used in the report: "Identifiers", "Metadata", "Content" and "Website Features", with the addition of the category "Overarching". Furthermore, "FAIR Self-Assessment Toolkit" and "Training Sessions and Community Consultations" are presented alongside a section with "Further Reading and Platforms".
       
      To help you select the most suitable training material, each entry in the Toolkit is described in terms of content, the technical standard addressed, the creators, the year it was created and the mode of training. 

      The Toolkit was first published in June 2025 and will be updated until the end of the CRAFT-OA project at the end of 2025.
    • Announcements Forum
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    Identifiers

    • Diamond OA journals make use of a variety of identifiers to make their content more findable and accessible. This may range from ISSNs for journals, to ORCiDs for authors and RORs for their respective organisations, as well as several identifiers, such as DOI or Handle, at the article level.

    • Wie nutze ich DOI, ROR und ORCID? (How do I use DOI, ROR and ORCID?) URL

      The coffee lecture by Nelli Taller (TIB) from 2024 covers an introduction to persistent identifiers (PIDs) and presents DOI, ROR and ORCID in more detail. It was organised by TIB as part of the CRAFT-OA coffee lectures series. The slides are available via Zenodo:https://zenodo.org/records/14228633.

      The material is primarily in German but an English transcript is available alongside the recording.

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    Metadata

    • High quality metadata is crucial for findability, indexing and interoperability. However, Diamond OA publishers surveyed in the DIAMAS survey indicated that, besides a lack of human resources, a lack of expertise was the biggest challenge with regards to "metadata, PIDs, supplying and enriching metadata, or making metadata available for use" (Laakso et. al 2023, p.42/43).

    • Jupyter Notebook for depositing metadata in Crossref URL
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      This Jupyter notebook was created by IBL PAN in 2024 and includes a script to create XML files and upload them to the Crossref deposit page to register DOI numbers. It specifically addresses the lack of DOIs for historic issues of SSH journals.

    • Jupyter notebook automating of OJS publication processes URL
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      This Jupyter notebook was created in 2024 by IBL PAN and includes a Python script to enable the automatic transfer of texts and their metadata to OJS instances.
    • OpenAIRE Guidelines: Integration into the OpenAIRE Graph for maximum interoperability URL

      The short lecture by Leonidas Pispiringas (OpenAIRE) was delivered as part of the CRAFT-OA Coffee Lecture series organised by TIB in 2024/25. Alongside the video, the slides are also available on the video page and on Zenodo (https://zenodo.org/records/14850915).

    • Metadata Introduction and Metadata Healthcheck URL

      The recorded webinar in collaboration with Crossref took place in 2025. The slides are available on the video page as well.

    • OpenAIRE Graph - Aggregation, content acquisition URL

      This 2025 presentation from the 2nd CRAFT-OA Summer School by Leonidas Pispiringas (OpenAIRE) introduces the OpenAIRE Graph. It was part of a session on aggregators and their requirements.

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    Content

    • Both human and machine readers consume published content. Making it as accessible and reusable as possible is one of the aims of Diamond OA publishing. This may, for example, be facilitated by publishing content in a machine-readable format that follows the JATS XML standard or by depositing it with a digital preservation service to ensure long-term preservation.

    • JATS XML Converter Service Guidelines and Tutorial URL
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      This 2024 video tutorial by SRCE explains how to use the JATS XML Converter Service by SRCE, which allows for converting .docx files into JATS XML files.

    • XML Publishing I URL

      The slide set contains an introduction to XML publishing presented by Dulip Withanage (TIB) at the CRAFT-OA Summer School 2024.

    • JATS XML Converter Service Guidelines and Tutorial URL

      The Guidelines on JATS XML for editors of OA journals and a tutorial for using the JATS XML Converter Service were published by SRCE in 2025.

    • Self-paced course: Practical First Steps in Digital Preservation URL

      This self-paced course was created by TIB as part of the CRAFT-OA project. It provides an introduction to practical first steps in digital preservation/long-term archiving. It represents the more practical part of the two-part course. A more theoretical approach may be found in the corresponding course, "Basic Principles of Digital Preservation".

    • Self-paced course: Basic Principles of Digital Preservation URL

      This self-paced course was created by TIB as part of the CRAFT-OA project. It provides an introduction to basic principles in digital preservation/long-term archiving. It represents the more theoretical part of the two-part course. A more practical approach may be found in the corresponding self-paced course "Practical First Steps in Digital Preservation".

    • XML (in) Publishing URL

      This presentation was delivered during the 2nd CRAFT-OA Summer School by Maxim Kupreyev (OPERAS) in 2025. It introduces the use of XML in the context of publishing.

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    Website Features

    • A journal's website includes more than just the journal’s brand; it provides a unique landing page for each article, statistics, e.g. on the most read article, and a connection between the research article and related objects, such as research data.

    • Self-Archiving Policy-Benefits and Implementation at TIB Open Publishing URL

      This 2025 lecture by Xenia van Edig (TIB) covers self-archiving policy and how and where it is implemented TIB's Diamond Open Access publisher TIB Open Publishing. It was part of the CRAFT-OA coffee lecture series, organised by TIB, and provides insights on a policy but also a practical level in terms of phrasing and placement on the journals' websites.
      The slides are available alongside the video and on Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/15601248.

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    Overarching

    • Some technical standards overlap, depend on each other or are easily implemented together. This is why some training sessions and materials may be considered part of an overarching category. In this section, we also present material that addresses publication software, since the implementation of a dedicated publication software often enables the adoption of a number of technical standards at once.

    • PKP & OJS: What is going on right now? URL

      The slide set summarises the workshop session given by Dulip Withanage (TIB) on 27th May 2024 at the CRAFT-OA Summer School.

    • Training Material for Technical Standards in Diamond OA Publishing URL

      The 2025 course, created by TIB, maps out training material by a variety of institutions in accordance with the "Reusable Curriculum for Upskilling Trainings" developed in CRAFT-OA.

    • OJS u naučnom izdavaštvu u otvorenom pristupu: prednosti, izazovi i praktična rešenja [OJS in open access scholarly publishing: advantages, challenges and practical solutions] URL

      The recording of a webinar (in Serbian/Croatian) from 2025, organised by the University of Zadar and the Croatian Association for Scholarly Communication, provides an introduction to Open Journal Systems (OJS) for journal editors at a beginner's level.

    • Technical standards of journal hosting. An overview for beginners URL

      The lecture by Oliver Krüger (SUB Hamburg) covers an introduction to Open Journal Systems (OJS) and how technical publishing standards may easily be implemented by using this dedicated publishing software. The lecture was part of the CRAFT-OA coffee lecture series organised by TIB in 2024/25. Next to the recording, the slides are available on the video page and on Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/14999324.

    • Training materials: Enhancing Technological Competence in the Process of Scholarly Publishing URL

      The training materials were created by IBL PAN as part of the CRAFT-OA project in 2025. They primarily address staff of academic publishing houses, regardless of their level of proficiency in using tools that support the publishing process. 

    • GDPR Support - PKP Applications (OJS/OMP/OPS) URL

      The 2025 coffee lecture with Dulip Withanage and Ipula Ranasinghe adresses "GDPR Support - PKP Applications (OJS/OMP/OPS)". It was presented as part of the CRAFT-OA Coffee Lecture series, organised by TIB. The slides are available alongside the video and on Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/15648322.

    • A guide to DOAJ indexing URL

      The slides represent the material of the workshop "A guide to DOAJ indexing" presented by Dominic Mitchell (DOAJ) and Clara Armengou (DOAJ) during the CRAFT-OA Summer School 2025.

    • OpenAIRE Publisher Dashboard URL

      This presentation from the 2nd CRAFT-OA Summer School in 2025 by Leonidas Pispiringas (OpenAIRE) provides an overview on the OpenAIRE Publisher Dashboard and possible integrations into Open Journal Systems (OJS).

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    FAIR Publishing Self-Assessment Toolkit

    • The FAIR publishing toolkit is meant to help either publishers or publishing services undertake a self-assessment of their data collections according to the FAIR principles. The final goal is to increase the data and metadata quality of their content so it becomes more easily and more broadly discoverable.
      As a self-assessment toolkit, it provides a review grid that does not include any evaluation, especially since there is no automated assessment. It instead supports a manual, but guided, adapted, and open assessment of the FAIR principles implementation.

    • FAIR Publishing Self-Assessment Toolkit URL

      The 2025 toolkit, developed by AMU as part of the CRAFT-OA project, enables the reflection on FAIR principles and moving towards possible improvements with the help of a FAIR review grid as well as a guide.

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    Training Sessions and Community Consultations (in Task 3.3 )

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    Further Reading and Platforms

    • The links below are an invitation for you to engage with additional material and other Diamond OA practitioners.

    • Reusable Curriculum for Upskilling Trainings URL

      The curriculum, developed in the CRAFT-OA project in 2024, provides a comprehensive framework for upskilling training focusing on technical publication standards.

    • EDCH Registry & Forum URL

      Highlight your Diamond OA organisation or get in touch with other community members on the EDCH Registry and Forum.