An OJS journal website is no longer simply a place to display published articles, submission guidelines, and the latest issue. It has become an important part of how authors, reviewers, readers, institutions, and indexing services evaluate a journal’s credibility. Before submitting a manuscript, many authors visit the journal website to understand whether the journal is active, transparent, professionally managed, and other important aspects. For this reason, the information displayed on the homepage can strongly influence how the journal is perceived.
Two types of information can make an OJS journal website more informative that is Author Diversity and Journal Metrics. Author Diversity shows the geographical distribution of the journal’s contributors, while Journal Metrics provides a summary of submission and editorial activity. Together, these features help visitors understand who contributes to the journal and how actively the editorial process is being managed. They also turn information that is normally hidden inside OJS into useful and accessible insights.
Author Diversity and Journal Metrics can be valuable supporting features for journals that are working toward indexing. While indexing decisions are based on many different factors, these features can help journals show their transparency, international reach, publication activity, and editorial progress. By displaying clear information about where authors come from and how the journal performs, these features help journals demonstrate their growth and commitment to professional publishing. They can also support other important aspects of indexing preparation, such as maintaining a strong peer-review process, following ethical publishing practices, providing accurate metadata, and publishing consistently.
Table of Contents
What is Author Diversity?
Author Diversity describes the geographical range of authors who have contributed to a journal. It can be presented through the number of represented countries, the percentage of authors from each country, or a visual distribution of author origins. This gives visitors a quick overview of whether the journal mainly serves one local community or attracts contributions from a broader academic network. It can also show how the journal’s reach has developed during a selected reporting period.
For example, a journal may have published authors from Indonesia, China, Denmark, Algeria, France, and several other countries during the last five years. Without a summary, visitors would need to open individual articles and inspect each author’s affiliation manually. An Author Diversity section brings this information together in a format that can be understood within seconds. This makes the journal’s geographical reach more visible and easier to evaluate.
Author Diversity should not be understood simply as a collection of country flags. Its real value comes from showing that the journal is reaching contributors beyond a narrow institutional or regional circle. A diverse author base may indicate that the journal’s subject area, visibility, and editorial network are becoming more widely recognized. It can also help demonstrate that the journal welcomes submissions from different academic communities.
What Are Journal Metrics?
Journal Metrics provide a summary of the journal’s submission, editorial, and publication activity during a selected period. Depending on the available data, the summary may include submissions received, acceptance rate, published submissions, and the average number of days to the first editorial decision. These indicators help visitors understand whether the journal is actively receiving and processing manuscripts. They also provide more context than a publication schedule alone.
Journal Metrics can also include detailed workflow information from OJS. For example, the detailed view may show how many submissions are currently in the submission, review, copyediting, and production stages. It may also display the number of accepted, declined, published, or still-in-progress manuscripts. This provides a structured overview of how manuscripts are moving through the editorial workflow.
These operational metrics are different from citation-based indicators such as CiteScore, Journal Impact Factor, or the h-index. Citation metrics focus on how often published research is cited, while editorial metrics focus on how the journal manages submissions and publication processes. Both types of metrics can be useful, but they answer different questions. A new journal may not yet have citation indicators, while still being able to demonstrate an active editorial operation.
Why Author Diversity is Important
Author Diversity gives journals a clearer picture of where their authors come from and how widely they are reaching researchers from different countries and regions. It can help strengthen a journal’s international presence, build trust, and show whether its contributor base is becoming more diverse over time. This information can also be useful when a journal is preparing for indexing or working to improve its international visibility.
Here are a few points regarding the importance of showing author diversity on your journal’s OJS site:
1. Demonstrates the international journal’s reach
A journal may call itself an international journal, but visitors will usually want to see clear evidence of this. One way to show this is by having contributors from different countries. This can make the journal’s international status more believable because it shows that the journal does not only promote itself internationally, but also receives contributions from researchers in different parts of the world. This can make the journal more attractive to authors and other contributors.
This feature can also show whether the journal is reaching more countries over time. If the number of represented countries continues to grow, the editors can see that their efforts to improve the journal’s visibility, promotion, or indexing may be working. Visitors can also see that the journal is becoming more international and is not limited to contributors from only one institution or country.
2. Increases confidence among prospective authors
An author from another country may feel more confident submitting to a journal that already publishes work from international contributors. This shows that the journal has experience working with authors from different institutions, systems, and regions. It can also reduce the impression that the journal mainly serves authors from its own institution. As a result, more qualified authors may see the journal as a suitable place to publish their work.
Authors also want to know that their manuscripts will be reviewed fairly and professionally. Seeing contributors from different countries can give the impression that the journal is open to authors from a wider range of backgrounds. This does not guarantee acceptance or high editorial quality, but it can give authors more confidence in the journal. In the publishing field, this extra confidence may affect an author’s decision to submit their work.
3. Helps identify excessive institutional concentration
A journal may receive many articles from the same institution or region without noticing it. Without clear data, this pattern can be difficult for editors and other stakeholders to see. Author Diversity helps journal managers understand where their authors come from and whether the journal is reaching researchers from different institutions and regions. This information can also help editors review their outreach efforts and find ways to attract a wider range of contributors.
Author Diversity can also help show whether too many contributors come from people who are closely connected to the journal. For example, many published articles may come from editors, editorial board members, reviewers, or people from the same institution. By monitoring where authors come from, journal managers can better understand these patterns and take steps to make the journal more open to contributors from different backgrounds.
4. Author Diversity can support international indexing
Scopus or DOAJ does not evaluate a journal based on only one feature on its website. They look at many aspects, such as the quality of peer review, editorial policies, regular publication, relevance, citation performance, and contributions from different countries. An Author Diversity summary can help show the journal’s international reach. It can also provide added value during an indexing evaluation by giving evaluators clear, data-based information about where the journal’s contributors come from.
You can see how author and editor diversity is one of Scopus’s evaluation criteria. Please click here: Scopus Journal Selection Criteria.
This feature is especially useful when a journal describes itself as an international journal. In this case, visitors and evaluators may expect to see contributors from different countries. Author Diversity helps support this claim with real contributor data. This gives the journal added value because its international reach is not only stated in words, but also supported by visible evidence.
Why Journal Metrics Should Be Visible
Journal Metrics make it easier to see how active a journal is and how its editorial process is running. They can show how submissions are being handled, how long the process may take, and whether there are any delays at certain stages. This gives authors and readers a clearer idea of what to expect, while also helping journal editors evaluate their workflows more easily.
Here are a few points regarding the importance of showing author diversity on your journal’s OJS site:
1. Demonstrate that the journal is active
A statement such as “published twice a year” only tells visitors how often the journal plans to publish new issues. It does not show whether the journal is currently active or whether the editorial process is running well. Submission and workflow data can give a clearer picture of what is happening behind the journal website. For example, visitors may be able to see that new manuscripts are being submitted, reviewed, revised, edited, and prepared for publication. This makes the journal’s activity easier to understand.
This information is especially useful for journals that are still building their reputation. New authors may hesitate to submit their work if they are not sure whether the journal is still active. A journal website may look complete, but without signs of recent activity, visitors may wonder whether submissions are still being handled. Showing simple activity data can reduce this uncertainty and give authors more confidence that the journal is being managed regularly.
It also helps show that the editorial team is doing ongoing work. Instead of only telling visitors that the journal is active, the journal can support that message with real data. This adds value because visitors can see that manuscripts are moving through different stages of the publication process. The journal’s operation becomes more visible and easier to trust.
2. Improve editorial transparency
Authors often want to know what happens after they submit their manuscript. They may wonder whether their submission is already being handled by an editor, is currently under review, or is still waiting for the next step. Showing a summary of the journal’s workflow can help reduce this uncertainty and give authors a better understanding of how the editorial process is progressing.
Transparency does not mean that journals need to share confidential manuscript details. Simple statistics and overall workflow information are enough to show that submissions are actively managed. Journals can provide insight into their editorial activity without revealing article titles, author information, reviewer details, or private communication. This approach helps journals build trust while still protecting the confidentiality of the review process.
3. Help authors evaluate editorial timelines
Metrics such as Days to First Decision can be useful because the review timeline is an important consideration for many authors. By showing the average time taken for the first decision, journals can give authors a better idea of how the editorial process usually works. This information can help authors decide whether the journal’s timeline matches their expectations. Providing this type of insight is more helpful than not showing any information about the review process.
However, this metric should be presented as an average result, not as a fixed guarantee. Each manuscript may require a different amount of time depending on factors such as the complexity of the research, reviewer availability, revision requests, and editorial workload. By explaining the metric clearly, journals can provide useful information while avoiding unrealistic expectations from authors.
4. Support internal performance monitoring
Journal Metrics are not only useful for readers and prospective authors. They can also help editors and journal managers identify operational problems. A growing number of submissions in one workflow stage may indicate a bottleneck. The editorial team can then investigate the cause before the problem becomes more serious.
For example, a large number of manuscripts in review may indicate a shortage of available reviewers. An accumulation in copyediting may suggest limited editorial resources. A production backlog may point to delays in layout, proofreading, or issue scheduling. Metrics turn these problems into visible patterns that can be addressed more effectively.
5. Create realistic expectations
Clear journal data can help authors understand that editorial publishing involves several stages. A manuscript does not move directly from submission to publication. It may require initial screening, peer review, revision, copyediting, production, and final scheduling. Showing the workflow helps explain why the process takes time.
Realistic expectations can improve communication between authors and editors. Authors may be less likely to send repeated status inquiries when they understand the journal’s general workflow. Editors can also refer to published metrics when explaining average processing times. This supports a more informed relationship between the journal and its contributors.
How Can Journals Display Author Diversity and Journal Metrics in OJS?
OJS already stores valuable information about published articles, author affiliations, submission activity, and editorial workflows. However, much of this information remains accessible primarily to journal managers and editors through the OJS dashboard. As a result, readers and prospective authors may have limited visibility into the journal’s contributor reach and editorial activity.
Journal managers can manually present selected statistics through the Custom Block Manager. This approach may work for displaying a small amount of static information, but the ongoing effort can be difficult to justify. Each figure still needs to be collected, calculated, formatted, and updated regularly, while additional work may be required to keep the presentation visually consistent and responsive. As the journal grows, the time spent maintaining these statistics can quickly outweigh the value of displaying them manually.
Our Noble Theme or Novelty Theme provides a more seamless way to bring these journal insights into the public website. Author Diversity and Journal Metrics are integrated into the themes and designed to present information from the journal’s existing OJS data in a clear and visually consistent format. Instead of building and maintaining a separate statistics block, journal managers can make these insights a natural part of the homepage experience.
The Journal Metrics section can highlight submissions received, acceptance rate, days to first decision, and published submissions within a selected reporting period. Meanwhile, the Author Diversity section provides an overview of the countries represented by contributors and their percentage distribution. Overall, these sections enable visitors to effectively understand the journal’s editorial activities and its geographic diversity.
To keep the homepage focused, Noble and Novelty Theme display the most relevant information as a concise summary. Visitors who require additional context can use the View Details option to access a broader overview of editorial activity, including submissions in review, copyediting, production, and other workflow statuses. This structure provides greater transparency without turning the homepage into a complex administrative dashboard.
By connecting these insights with the journal’s existing OJS records, our Noble and Novelty Theme reduces the need for repetitive manual maintenance. The result is not simply a collection of statistics, but a more informative journal homepage that helps communicate editorial activity and contributor diversity through actual journal data.
Why Use Noble and Novelty for Showing Author Diversity and Journal Metrics?
Rather than treating Author Diversity and Journal Metrics as another static homepage block to maintain, Noble and Novelty Theme make these insights part of the journal theme. This gives journal managers a more simple and seamless way to present existing OJS data while keeping the information clear, configurable, and visually consistent with the rest of the website.
Here are some of the benefits you’ll get by using the Noble and Novelty Themes:
1. Automatically Generated from OJS Data
Noble Theme and Novelty Theme automatically generate the Author Diversity and Journal Metrics summary from the journal’s existing OJS records. Submission, publication, author-affiliation, and workflow data are processed into public-facing figures, so journal managers do not need to collect, calculate, or update each number manually through a custom block.
When new submission and publication data is added to OJS, the summary can reflect the journal’s latest activity without editing a separate statistics section. Journal managers can therefore spend less time maintaining a separate statistics section and more time focusing on editorial quality and journal development.
2. Easy to Choose How Many Years and Countries to Show
Different journals may need to present their data within different reporting periods. Noble and Novelty Theme allow journal managers to define how many calendar years should be included in the Journal Metrics summary:
The Journal Managers can also choose how many author countries are shown in the Author Diversity section. When there are more countries than the selected number, the remaining countries can be grouped as Other:
These options provide seamless control over the presentation without requiring journal managers to rebuild the section or edit custom HTML whenever their display preferences change.
3. Flexible Placement for Different Homepage Layouts
The Journal Metrics and Author Diversity block can be displayed either in the main content area or in the journal sidebar.
Placing the block in the main content area gives the information greater visibility and makes it a more prominent part of the homepage. The sidebar option provides a more compact presentation that complements the journal’s primary content.
Here is a preview of that placement:
a. In the sidebar
b. In the main content (journal homepage)
The layout adjusts to the selected placement, allowing journals to present the same information in a format that better suits their homepage structure and communication priorities.
4. Clearer Insights for Visitors
Visitors can quickly see submissions received, acceptance rate, days to first decision, and submissions published within the selected period. They can also see how many countries are represented by the journal’s authors and the percentage of authors from each displayed country. There is no need to open individual articles or search for a separate statistics page. The most useful information is available in one clear summary.
This makes the information more accessible to prospective authors, readers, institutions, and others who want to evaluate whether the journal is active, transparent, and has more author diversity.
5. Mobile Responsive
Noble and Novelty are fully responsive, so the Author Diversity and Journal Metrics sections can be viewed comfortably on different screen sizes. Whether visitors access the journal from a desktop, tablet, or mobile phone, the information adjusts to fit the available space while remaining clear and easy to read.
This is especially useful for sections that contain several metrics, percentages, and country information. Journal managers do not need to create a separate mobile version or simplify the content for smaller screens. The same journal data can be presented consistently across devices, giving visitors an easier way to understand the journal’s activity wherever they access the website.
6. Built with Important OJS Theme Principles
A good OJS theme should do more than improve the appearance of a journal. It should also support important aspects such as responsive design, clear navigation, easy access to journal information, article files, statistics, technical support, and long-term maintenance.
Noble and Novelty are developed with these needs in mind, making them suitable not only for presenting Author Diversity and Journal Metrics, but also for supporting the wider needs of an OJS journal website. You can read more about these considerations in our guide, Important Principles in Choosing an OJS Theme.
Bring Author Diversity and Journal Metrics to Your OJS Journal
Showing journal activity and author diversity does not have to mean manually collecting statistics and updating custom blocks. With Noble and Novelty Theme, these insights can become a natural part of your journal website and stay connected to the data already available in OJS. Explore Noble and Novelty to see their layouts, features, and live demos, then choose the theme that works best for your journal.
Explore more:
a. Noble Theme
b. Novelty Theme
Conclusion
Author Diversity and Journal Metrics can help journals make their activity, transparency, and international reach easier to understand. They give visitors a clearer view of where authors come from, how actively submissions are being managed, and how the journal is developing over time. These features do not replace strong editorial policies, peer review, publishing ethics, or other important requirements for journal quality and indexing, but they can provide useful supporting information based on real journal data.
With Noble or Novelty Theme, this information can be shown directly on the journal website without creating and maintaining separate statistics blocks manually. The themes use existing OJS data, allow journal managers to control the year range and number of countries shown, support different homepage placements, and remain easy to read across different devices. This makes Author Diversity and Journal Metrics more practical for journal managers and easier for visitors to understand.
