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CC Journal

An open source platform for academic journals, in the style of OJS: submission, blind peer review, copyediting, DOIs and Crossref, all in one Django app on a single SQLite file.

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Django Django REST Framework HTMX OJS Python SQLite

Most academic journals run on Open Journal Systems. It works, but it is PHP and MySQL, it needs cron, and setting it up is a job for a specialist. CC Journal does the same work as one Django app on a single SQLite file. No Celery, no Redis, no message broker, nothing else to run.

It takes a manuscript all the way: submission, peer review, copyediting, production, and finally a published article in an issue with its own DOI.

For authors and reviewers

  • Submission wizard. Metadata, co-authors, files and suggested reviewers, step by step.
  • No account needed. Authors work on their submission through a private link. Reviewers get a one click link too: download the files, fill in the form, attach an annotated copy, done.
  • Reminders. Reviewers who are close to their deadline or past it get an email, without cron.

For editors

  • The full OJS pipeline, with blind review rounds, recommendations and decisions.
  • Decisions with a preview. The editor picks a decision, then edits the exact email the author will get before it is sent.
  • Files by stage. Submission, review, revisions, copyedit, proof and production each have their own column, and a file can move to the next stage with its history kept.
  • Custom review forms, built in the admin. Old reviews keep their answers even if the form changes later.
  • 16 roles, from editor to proofreader to translator. Reviewers and production staff only see the submissions they are assigned to.

Publishing

  • DOIs and Crossref. A DOI is minted on publication and the metadata is sent to Crossref.
  • PDFs without design work. A branded, citable PDF is generated from the article. Its layout is designed in the admin with colour pickers, fonts and drag and drop, or in raw HTML for people who prefer that.
  • Word in, clean HTML out. Upload a .docx and it becomes clean HTML in the editor, images included.
  • Citations. Every article has an APA “how to cite” block and BibTeX and RIS downloads for Zotero, Mendeley and EndNote.
  • Harvesting. An OAI-PMH endpoint in Dublin Core, DataCite and JATS, plus a sitemap, RSS and schema.org data, so indexes can find the articles.
  • Versions. Published articles keep a history of every version.

The rest

51 content languages with proper plural rules, six reader themes with dark mode, full text search, a REST API with scoped keys, optional two factor login, login throttling, account merging, audit logs, and WhatsApp notifications as a plugin. A theme is test rendered before it goes live, and a broken one switches itself back. Upgrading is one command.

It runs at journal.ubermensch.cc.

Built with Django, Django REST Framework, SQLite, HTMX and WeasyPrint.