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Moving or rebuilding a journal

Journal Migration Done Properly: Move Your Journal, Take It Back, or Rebuild It

We move the content, keep every DOI resolving, and hand you a journal you own outright. Free migration in from Scholastica, another OJS host, or a commercial publisher with any annual hosting plan.

$0Migration with annual hosting
From $3,499Journal transfer projects
Open-source OJSYour domain, your organisation’s DOI registration arrangement
Leave any timeWith everything

Prices in USD. Nothing above $2,000 is sold by self-checkout — it comes back as a written proposal.

Is this you?

Two situations, one set of tools

Some journals need to move or be taken back. Some are where they belong but have stopped working.

“Our OJS is several versions behind and nobody on staff dares to run the upgrade.”

→ start with OJS Upgrade & Security Fix — $899

“A commercial publisher hosts our journal. We want the title, the archive and the DOIs back on our own domain.”

→ start with Move Your Journal, or Take It Back — from $3,499

“We pay Scholastica every year for a journal we could run ourselves, but we cannot lose the back issues in the move.”

→ start with Move Your Journal & Back Issues — free with annual hosting

“Submissions have piled up for over a year, the board has gone quiet, and there are no written policies.”

→ start with Revive & Modernize Your Journal — from $7,999
Services & prices

Journal transfer and migration services

Fixed prices below $2,000 go straight to checkout. Larger projects come back as a proposal.

Switching hosts? Migration in from Scholastica, another OJS host, or a commercial publisher is free with any annual hosting plan. The $1,200 price applies only if you migrate without hosting.
Journal Packages

Move Your Journal, or Take It Back

Removes: not knowing whether you can move the title, or what it involves.

  • Rights and title review: who holds the name, ISSN, DOIs and archive
  • Transfer plan with ISSN and DOI continuity
  • Archive recovery from the current publisher or vendor
  • Technical migration executed (legal transfer stays with your counsel)
from$3,499project
Journal Packages

Revive & Modernize Your Journal

Removes: a journal that is alive on paper but no longer functioning.

  • Journal Health Check, then platform rescue or migration
  • Backlog clearance and policy rewrite
  • Board reset and integrity-screening baseline
  • Six-month turnaround plan
from$7,999project
Platform (OJS)

Bring Your Hosted Journal In-House

Removes: depending on a vendor when your institution runs its own servers.

  • Export from the current host, import into OJS on your own servers
  • Users, roles and workflow settings carried over
  • DNS cutover and redirects from the old address
  • Handover notes written for your IT team
$1,500project
Platform (OJS)

OJS Upgrade & Security Fix

Removes: running an unsupported OJS release with known vulnerabilities.

  • Upgrade to the current stable OJS release
  • PHP, database and plugin compatibility fixes
  • Security patches applied, install hardened
  • Full backup before, verification after
$899project
Production

Backlog Clearance Project

Removes: a queue of stalled submissions nobody is processing.

  • Triage of every open submission
  • Reviewer chasing; decision letters drafted for editors to sign
  • Copyediting, typesetting and publication of accepted papers
  • Clean queue handed back with a status list
from$2,500project
Indexing Services

Journal Health Check

Removes: guessing what is broken before you commit to a rebuild.

  • Written audit of platform, policies, metadata and workflow
  • Prioritized fix list with costs
  • Eligibility read against DOAJ and Scopus criteria (the database decides)
  • One journal, delivered in 3–4 weeks
$799one journal, 3–4 weeks
Fund, Own & Manage

Licensing, Copyright & Author Agreements

Removes: unclear rights when content changes owner or platform.

  • License statement with Creative Commons options
  • Author agreement template for new submissions
  • Copyright and reuse policy pages ready to publish
  • Rights note on migrated back issues
$699project
How it works

From inventory to a modernized journal

Every transfer follows four steps. Smaller projects skip the ones they do not need.

1

Inventory and rights check

Week 1. We list what exists: issues, files, DOIs, ISSNs, user accounts and the domain. We confirm who holds the rights to each part and flag anything your counsel must settle first.

2

Migration plan with DOI and ISSN continuity

A written plan: what moves, in what order, how each DOI is updated at Crossref, and how the ISSN record and indexing listings are informed. Nothing moves until you sign it off.

3

Move content, set redirects, verify

We import back issues into OJS, update DOI records, map every old URL to its new address, and check each issue against the inventory. The old site stays live until the verification report passes.

4

Modernize: upgrade, policies, backlog

With the content safe, we bring OJS to the current release, rewrite missing policies, clear the queue and, where needed, reset the board.

Who decides what

Your editors decide. We run the process.

Editorial independence

The journal’s own editors keep final authority over reviewer selection, editorial assessment and acceptance. NeucitePress runs the process and the infrastructure — never the decision.

Platform independence

Open-source software (OJS), your own domain, a client-controlled DOI registration arrangement (subject to Crossref membership or sponsorship), and full data export on request. You can leave at any time with everything.

No indexing guarantees

Inclusion in DOAJ, Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE or any other database is decided solely by that database. We prepare, document and apply — we do not promise outcomes.

The title stays yours

A journal’s name, ISSN and DOI prefix change hands only under agreements your institution’s counsel signs. We prepare the inventory and execute the migration. We never hold the title.

FAQ

Questions editors ask before a journal migration

The same work: back-issue migration into OJS, metadata and DOI migration, redirects and a verification report. With any NeucitePress annual hosting plan it is included at no charge. Moving content to an OJS instance we do not host is a stand-alone project at $1,200. Very large archives may need a proposal.
A migration between OJS hosts takes weeks once we have export access. A transfer out of a commercial publisher depends on how quickly the publisher releases the archive and on your counsel’s timeline. You get a dated plan in step 2, updated if the source is slow.
Legal work. Contract termination, title assignment and negotiation with the outgoing publisher stay with your counsel; we supply the rights inventory they need. Crossref membership fees, ISSN changes and domain registration are paid by the journal owner, not bundled into our price.
Yes. We migrate from Scholastica, commercial publisher platforms, WordPress sites and other hosted systems into OJS. We need an export of articles, metadata and files, or access to the live site. We migrate into OJS only: it is open source, runs on your own domain, and you can export everything and leave whenever you choose.
You do. The DOI prefix is registered to the journal owner at Crossref, the domain is yours, and the OJS database and files can be exported in full on request. If the title currently belongs to a publisher, ownership changes only through the agreement your institution signs; our transfer plan documents what has to move.

Tell us where the journal is today

Send the URL and one line on what you want to change. We reply with the next step: a $799 Health Check or a transfer proposal.

Nothing above $2,000 is sold by self-checkout — those requests come back as a written proposal within 3 business days.
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