Table of Contents
History
Since we first founded Openjournaltheme company in 2016, we had no plans to focus on hosting services. At that time, our primary focus was on creating and expanding theme and plugin products. This decision was influenced by the presence of many hosting providers in the market who offered competitive specifications and affordable hosting prices. We considered the market for hosting services to be quite small and not suitable for our business at that time.
As time has passed and we have continued to sell theme and plugin products, we’ve come to realize that even though every product undergoes rigorous testing for functionality and features, it doesn’t always yield perfect results when clients install and use them. Often, we receive negative feedback on the products we sell. However, we can conclude that the primary cause of this issue is often related to differences in server specifications provided by hosting servers compared to the minimum requirements of OJS. These differences can include the need for specific PHP packages (such as PHP-curl) and ensuring that certain PHP functions are activated, while others like ‘exec’ are not blocked.
With problems like this, we are aware that several hosting providers out there still do not provide server features and specifications that are truly suitable for use on the OJS/OMP platform.
Not only that, but we often receive emails from several administrators who require assistance with server setup and troubleshooting. In fact, there have been several instances where the hosting provider’s support team lacks a deep understanding of how the OJS/OMP workflow system operates. As a result, users seeking help with OJS-related issues do not receive answers that can effectively resolve the problems they are encountering.
The following are some of the question requests we receive from our clients:
1. Questions regarding email problems
2. Questions related to file upload problems in the submission
3. Error in back-end OJS
So is the external hosting provider’s support team incompetent? No, this is because several hosting providers out there have general technical capabilities such as WordPress, Drupal, and other general platforms. Remember that the hosting packages they offer are not specifically designed to only be used for the OJS/OMP platform, but they also design them so that their hosting supports generally supported platforms. So basically their capabilities will be limited to specific supports on the OJS platform.
Not to mention if the upgrade required by this platform promises several additional features or urgent hotfixes. For provided hosting, this is not included in their services. What happens is, that OJS users use the Softcalous service which provides an upgrade feature, but the upgrade activity carried out by Sofcolous only makes version changes without paying attention to necessary changes to the data. As a result, many of our clients complained about missing data from OJS or OJS causing errors.
The following are the problems we faced before deciding to open this hosting service:
- Hosting does not comply with the requirements of OJS, causing several features in OJS to not work without platform users realizing it.
- Customer service from hosting does not have capabilities related to the OJS platform so it takes up time from hosting users to optimizing journals because
- Hosting ability to provide general services for specific OJS and OMP platforms such as technical issues, upgrading, improving, and other technical issues.
- Problems in sending emails. Some hosts like GoDaddy and BlueServer implement strict policies on sending bulk emails. So that email notifications to authors, reviewers, and notifications of new issue publications will not reach the recipient of the notification.
- Vulnerability of protection by hackers and backup of a site on hosting is not set automatically and must be done manually so that users do not have a backup.
We feel that the need for hosting for OJS/OMP users handled by staff who can truly provide specific support is a segment that we believe is still underserved.
Some case study cases that you have experienced in helping clients with problems:
- How we managed to Optimize OJS Frontend for almost 300% load speed ?
- How do we remove a bunch of spam users on OJS?
- How do we fix slow journal access abused by the fake traffic on the OJS?
What differentiates OJT Hosting from other providers
Just like other hosting providers, the OJT hosting system also uses a Managed system, meaning that everything technical on the server will be handled by our team so that you as a user don’t need to worry, and waste time in the server management preparation process.
However, there is a very significant difference between the OJT Hosting service and other hosting providers, namely in terms of support and technical personnel, as in the historical explanation presented above in several cases where it was found that some of the current hosting providers were not created specifically for OJS/OMP In fact, some providers also hand over all security to the user. This is of course very difficult to do if we don’t have a specific background and this is also considering that the background of some editor managers is more in academic knowledge.
Therefore, to be a solution to all these problems, we have built a server infrastructure specifically made for users of OJS, OMP, Eprits, and other repositories, so that all required software components and configurations have been created automatically to be compatible with all repositories.
We also realized that C-Panel, which is the standard panel provided by hosting providers, has a very complicated interface. This causes difficulties for users in doing things that are simple, such as uploading files to the server panel and making modifications to the configuration. This also happens to other panels such as Plesk, DirectAdmin, and so on.
Technically we also understand that the default panels from hosting providers are not designed specifically for the needs of OJS/OMP platforms. Armed with our experience in serving various requests from our clients. Such as not providing security protection specifically for the OJS/OMP platform, protection against bots/spam, and support for other features.
With that reference, our team has decided to build this panel from scratch. This way, we can implement development and upgrades with ease without depending on developers from another panel.
OJT Hosting Panel Preview
The OJT Hosting panel will provide several important features that are used in general panels, such as the following features:
Dashboard Page
Hosting panel start page that provides general information about the server status. On this page, you can also find several specially created plugin features that can be installed and used to maximize the performance of your journal.
File Manager
This feature makes it easier to manage files and directories on your hosting server. You can upload, download, edit, and delete files as well as create and organize directories.
Domain
This menu allows to management of domain names. You can add, remove, or modify domain names, as well as configure DNS, subdomains, and domain redirects.
FTP Account
FTP Account allows you to manage FTP accounts that are used to access and manage files on the hosting server via the FTP protocol. You can create, delete, or manage FTP access permissions.
You can create, manage, and delete your professional email address, as well as configure the account email service in this menu.
Manage Database
You can create, manage, and access the databases used by your web applications. It also includes settings for database users, access permissions, and database recovery. and you can directly access your database structure using the PHPMyAdmin feature
Smart Invoice
We are now using the invoicing system from WPSora.com to streamline our billing process. With Invoize Pro, we can provide full transparency to our clients regarding any invoices related to the services they receive. Clients can easily access invoice details, payment status, and other relevant information at any time. This system not only simplifies our transaction management but also strengthens client trust by ensuring they always have clear and accurate information.
Development & Support Team
To be able to overcome any problems that may arise, whether in the scope of server configuration or in the scope of using Open Journal Systems (OJS), we have prepared a team that has experience and expertise in both positions. Currently, we have three division teams that play a role in supporting our operations, namely:
1. OJS support specialist.
This team will provide technical support and training to users in using OJS, help them understand the system features, and resolve problems encountered by clients.
2. OJS Developer Specialist.
This team has primary responsibility for developing and improving features in OJS, including theme development, plugins, OJS installation, and handling specific customization requests from clients. They focus on improving the visual appearance of OJS, developing additional plugins to expand functionality, ensuring stable installations, and responding quickly to clients’ specific requests for the development of unique features in OJS.
3. OJS Server Specialist.
This team has responsibility for managing the server configuration running OJS. They ensure that servers run smoothly, ensure strong security, and ensure all client data is backed up regularly. This team focuses heavily on infrastructure and server performance aspects.
Server Specifications
NGINX
Based on our experience in providing hosting services, nginx has better performance than Apache. As can be seen in the image below, several sources also say that Nginx has better performance than Apache.
Anti-Bot
This feature protects servers from attacks and malicious bot activity. These features include protecting against spam, DDoS attacks, and scraping. Apart from that, this feature is also used to verify user identity, secure accounts, and optimize server performance.
Security
The servers we build are equipped with various security anticipation standards, including protection against potential vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers, monitoring systems against HTML injection attacks that can threaten data security, and preventing host header injection which can result in threats to server integrity. , as well as HTTP security layers that have been carefully implemented to mitigate potential threats and attacks against our server infrastructure.
Caching
Caching has significant benefits in improving application performance. Caching is the process of storing data that is frequently accessed so that the data can be retrieved more quickly than retrieving it from the source. By implementing caching, website/site performance can be improved.
Location
Currently, our servers are available in several locations covering regions such as Indonesia, Singapore, the United States, and Germany. We chose these locations because they were considered the most relevant to serve our clients from various countries. However, we always expand the availability of server locations based on requests from clients who will use our hosting services.
Advantages of OJT Hosting
Free installation and migration
All installation and migration processes will not incur any additional costs. We have a team that will manage all these installation and migration steps professionally and without requiring any team involvement on your side.
Email notification
Every OJS installation is equipped with email notification settings that have been prepared by our team. With this configuration, every time there is a process activity in OJS, such as sending an article or changing the status of a submission, all users involved will automatically receive a notification via email. This ensures that efficient and transparent communication can be maintained in the process of using OJS.
Free SSL forever
You will get an SSL certificate for free which will ensure that the connection between your users and your server is secure and encrypted. This is one of the key steps in keeping sensitive data secure and providing greater trust and privacy. Even though this is currently a necessity, many users of this platform have difficulty carrying out this setup or it is not provided directly by the hosting provider. This SSL ensures that data transmission activities between OJS users (authors, reviewers, journal managers) who use browsers and OJS servers (OJS sites) cannot be intercepted so that credentials can be stolen by users of the same network.
Server panel included
Each client using the hosting service will be given access to their own OJS server panel. With this panel, clients can easily make modifications, install custom plugins, and back up their OJS data to device/local storage.
Automatic daily backup of all journal files to S3 Cloud storage
Every day, all your journal files will be taken and stored automatically in S3 (Simple Storage Service) storage which has a different location from the server used in OJS. This is a very important measure to protect your journal data from loss or damage. We have encountered many cases where the OJS server suddenly had problems resulting in past submissions and databases being lost without any responsibility from the hosting provider. Realizing this, daily backups are crucial so that clients don’t have to worry about the data they have.
Of course, you don’t want the same thing to happen to your journal.
Data backup for 7 days
Each backed-up data will have a copy of the journal data stored in S3 (Simple Storage Service) for seven days. This provides sufficient time to restore data according to the required backup data.
Uptime Monitoring
In our effort to provide support to our customers, we provide an uptime monitoring feature. Several indexing companies such as DOAJ and Scopus pay close attention to this issue. For them, journals that often go down due to server or DNS problems are journals that are not credible, and are not managed well, so they will reduce the indexation assessment of the journal and will even be postponed for several years before being resubmitted (for example, WOS postponed it for 4 years).
By implementing this feature, our team can quickly investigate and improve journal uptime so that it does not affect or slow down the progress of your journal.
Priority Support
With support priority, you will get access to help and technical support at a higher priority level. This means your request for assistance will be processed more quickly.
Every client who uses hosting services will get the convenience of the support panel feature as shown in the image above. This panel will automatically be installed in the journal backend page menu, making it easier for the journal manager to create ticketing.
LoA plugin generator
Each hosting client will get one of the LoA to generate plugin features of 50 quotas/year, and this feature is a tool that allows you to create and send LoA certificates to authors automatically.
Indexing Copernicus plugin generator
Every hosting client will get one of the Copernicus Indexing plugin generator features of 50 quotas/year, this plugin feature will make it easier for you to register all your journal articles with Copernicus Indexing, so there is no need for a manual process, just import the generated results then the articles will be registered in Copernicus indexing database.
Who is suitable to use OJT Hosting?
OJT Hosting is a hosting solution specifically designed to support repository platforms such as Open Monograph Press, Open Journal System, Dspace, and EPrint. If you are a librarian, researcher, or organization focused on developing and managing digital repositories, then OJT Hosting is an option to consider.
What makes OJT Hosting stand out is our dedication to addressing all technical aspects so you can fully focus on developing and enhancing your repository’s reputation. We understand how important security, availability, and performance are to your repository, and that’s why our services are designed to provide those solutions.
With OJT Hosting, you don’t have to worry about server maintenance, software updates, or other technical issues. Our experienced team will manage all of that for you, so you can allocate your time and resources to more important things, like content development and serving your users.
Some of our clients who have used OJS Hosting?
To date, we have succeeded in collaborating with more than 30 clients from various countries, ranging from newly published journals to journals that have built a high reputation in various fields of science.
Some of these clients are:
- JIMS (Indonesia)
- Patalogy (Indonesia)
- Belitung Raya (Indonesia)
- Monthly Review (US)
- Journal Inceif (Malaysia)
- Spast (India)
- Annals of Tropical Pathology (Nigeria)
One of the things we are proud of is the variety of types of services we offer. Some of the journals we serve choose to use the hosting services we provide. This allows them to focus completely on their scientific content without having to be burdened by technical aspects related to network and server infrastructure. This advantage is especially felt by newly published journals that want to give full attention to developing their journal content.
On the other hand, we also serve several clients who decide to use our “OJS Specialist Support Package”. They run OJS independently without using the hosting services we offer. This decision is often influenced by their university or institution’s policies requiring the use of their internal hosting resources.
The “OJS Specialist Support Package” we offer is specifically designed to support these clients. We provide reliable technical support services as well as OJS system updates so that they can run their journals smoothly without having to worry about complex technical aspects.
Conclusion
OJT Hosting is a hosting solution specifically designed to support repository platforms such as Open Monograph Press, Open Journal System, Dspace, and EPrint.
The main difference between OJT Hosting and other hosting providers lies in the dedication of the support team and technical staff who are very experienced in managing multiple repositories. OJT Hosting server infrastructure has been prepared specifically for users of OJS, OMP, Eprints, and other repositories, with superior security, caching, and technical support features.
The OJT Hosting development and support team consists of OJS specialists, OJS developers, and OJS server specialists, who are ready to solve various problems and user needs with high-quality technical support.
OJT Hosting also offers several advantages, including free installation and migration, automatic email notifications, free SSL, server panels, daily automatic backups, and priority support. This makes it a suitable hosting solution for librarians, researchers, and organizations that want to focus on developing and managing digital repositories without worrying about technical issues.
Overall, OJT Hosting is a smart choice for those who want hosting that is specifically optimized for the repository platform and has strong technical support for its use.
