Did you miss the University of Alberta Library #Editorial Lunch and Learn featuring multilingual publishing with #OpenJournalSytems?
Start with this thread!
Why #MultilingualPublishing? When English is viewed as the standard for #ScholarlyPublishing, a lot of research is missed or minimalized.
Language-inclusivity improves #metadata, #indexing & #discoverability.
Consider using #OJS settings as part of an alternative publishing model 🧵 ⤵️
PKP's Documentation and Multilingualism Specialist, Emma Uhl, encourages you to think carefully about how you want to use and set up languages.
Key conversations:
(1) publishing in several languages without translations,
(2) publishing with translations,
(3) publishing with translated metadata, and
(4) site interface in multiple languages.
Site admins can access languages in the site settings, with options for primary locale (choose 1, stick to it to avoid problems with journal data), UI, forms, and submissions.
Not all languages are completely translated, so please consider checking the completeness of the software translation (PKP is working on it!).
Enabling the Default Translation Plugin (available in the plugin gallery) turns untranslated text into English instead of string IDs, which can at least be translated or understood.
Too many string IDs in test-drive can indicate the translation is not where you need it to be.
It's not perfect but it's a start. We're hoping this will open some conversations. We’re working on it & open to suggestions!
You can enable UI in as many languages as you like.
Users will then be able to change languages at will.
You can also enable the Language Toggle Block (plugin gallery), & set it up in website appearance settings (sidebar) for a permanent language menu on every page.
When enabled, any fillable forms in the system (except submission metadata) will be available in that language.
Fillable forms include journal descriptions, author submission checklists and guidelines, copyright notices, etc.
Combine this with UI & achieve a fully-translated journal interface!
You can enable the Submissions option in as many languages as you'd like.
Authors can then specify submission language; authors, editors & journal managers can also enter metadata in the selected language for submissions.
Optional metadata can be added for any languages with Submissions enabled.
There is no indexing provider consensus on multilingualism, what it should look like, or how it should be done.
OJS UI here is also a work in progress.
These basic tips will help you optimize at this time.
We have written a guide in French and English in our context, in collaboration, available on the erudit.org site:
https://www.erudit.org/public/guides/ojs-metadata.pdf
https://www.erudit.org/public/guides/ojs-metadonnees.pdf
More about how to implement these steps will be available in the recording (to be released).
Emma closed by stressing that multilingual publishing is alternative publishing in its own right, not just a setting.
We all have work to do, and there are many conversations and collaborations to be had.
“Those adopting multilingualism need to participate in the conversation to communicate their unique publishing needs to software developers, indexing / metadata services, & other players in the space.”
Here are more resources to help you along the way in your multilingualism in OJS journey.
https://docs.pkp.sfu.ca/multiling-guide/en/
https://docs.pkp.sfu.ca/metadata-practices/en/
The event was recorded and will be posted on UAL’s YouTube so you can get all the details.
PKP is prioritizing multilingualism. Please reach out so we can include your use cases or ideas in our prioritization process:
Email Emma directly: emma@publicknowledgeproject.org
Public Knowledge Project