Publishing Platform Hosting & Annual Support Plans

Managed Hosting and Annual Support Plans

Independent OJS, OMP, and OPS Technical Support Center provides managed hosting and annual technical support plans for scholarly journals, universities, research centers, academic publishers, journal portals, and editorial teams that need stable and reliable support for OJS, OMP, and OPS platforms.

These plans are designed for journals and institutions that do not want to manage servers, updates, backups, email configuration, security, plugins, and technical maintenance internally. Instead of handling every technical issue separately, annual support provides a clearer support model that helps reduce risk and organize technical follow-up.

Support is available in multiple languages, with Arabic and English as core support languages. Additional language support may be available depending on project scope and available resources.

Who Needs Managed Support?

Managed hosting and annual support plans are suitable for:

• Journals without an internal technical specialist familiar with OJS
• New journals that need stable hosting and organized technical support
• Active journals that publish regularly and need periodic technical follow-up
• Universities managing one or more scholarly journals
• Research centers operating scholarly publishing platforms
• Academic publishers that need hosting and continuous technical maintenance
• Institutions planning to operate OJS, OMP, OPS, or more than one publishing platform

Managed Hosting and Annual Support Plans

All annual plans are subject to a defined scope of work. The quote may include limits on the number of journals, support hours, storage, backup frequency, expected response time, included services, and excluded services.

Starter Managed Hosting

The Starter plan is suitable for small journals or one publishing platform that needs reliable hosting and essential technical maintenance without advanced customization or heavy support.

• Hosting for one OJS journal or one supported publishing platform according to the agreed scope
• SSL setup when technical requirements are available
• Basic scheduled backups according to the plan policy
• SMTP or basic email setup when provider details are available
• Basic platform stability and availability checks
• Limited technical support through email or the agreed support channel
• Minor updates or limited technical corrections when technically suitable and within scope

Recommended for: small journals, new journals, or single publishing platforms that need basic technical stability and an affordable support model.

Professional Managed Hosting

The Professional plan is suitable for active journals that need more regular support, common plugin setup, limited technical improvements, and publication-readiness support.

• Everything included in the Starter plan
• Support for installing or configuring common OJS plugins when compatible
• Limited theme and interface adjustments within scope
• Technical support for DOI and Crossref settings from the platform side
• Limited metadata and indexing-readiness technical review
• Backup review and restore guidance
• Limited annual support hours for small fixes or improvements
• Basic training or guidance for journal managers when agreed

Recommended for: active journals that publish regularly and need technical support beyond basic hosting.

Institutional Managed Hosting

The Institutional plan is suitable for universities, colleges, research centers, and academic publishers managing more than one journal or needing a structured technical support model.

• Support for multiple journals according to the agreed scope
• Managed hosting or technical maintenance support according to the agreement
• Priority support compared with ordinary one-time requests
• Testing environment or staging copy when technically possible
• Periodic technical review
• Review of security and backup practices
• Training session for journal managers or editorial teams when agreed
• Technical notes or periodic support summary when needed

Recommended for: universities, deanships of scientific research, research centers, and publishers that need a more organized support model.

Custom Enterprise Plan

The Custom Enterprise plan is designed for institutions with advanced needs, multiple platforms, complex workflows, large databases, or special requirements for branding or technical support.

• Support for multi-journal OJS portals
• Combined support for OJS, OMP, and OPS
• Custom hosting and maintenance scope
• Institutional branding and theme support
• Advanced workflow setup
• Plugin and integration planning
• Training for different user groups
• Scheduled technical reports and review meetings when agreed
• Custom response arrangements according to institutional needs

Recommended for: universities, publishers, journal portals, and institutions that need a long-term technical partner.

What Managed Support May Include

• Managed hosting according to the selected plan
• Technical maintenance within plan limits
• Backup organization and basic restore support
• Platform monitoring and basic stability checks
• Plugin review and setup support when compatible
• Email and notification support
• Recommendations related to security and permissions
• Support for multilingual publishing needs when included in scope
• Upgrade recommendations when technically suitable

What Is Not Automatically Included?

Some services require a separate quote when they are outside the selected plan or require significant technical work.

• Major upgrades or upgrades from legacy versions
• Migration to new hosting or migration of multi-journal portals
• Recovery of severely damaged databases or missing files
• Failed-upgrade or incomplete-migration recovery
• Malware cleanup or major security incident response
• Custom plugin development
• Full custom theme development
• Large-scale migration of many journals or files
• Server problems caused by hosting provider limits or external outages
• Third-party fees such as domains, hosting licenses, DOI/Crossref fees, paid plugins, or payment gateways

Upgrades Under Annual Plans

Some plans may include minor updates or limited technical reviews when they are technically suitable, safe, and within scope. Major upgrades, legacy-version upgrades, or upgrades involving significant plugin, theme, or database conflicts require a readiness check and a separate quote.

No sensitive upgrade is performed before reviewing backups, current version, hosting environment, PHP compatibility, plugins, theme, and database condition.

How Annual Support Works

1. Initial review: We review the platform, hosting environment, current version, plugins, and support needs.
2. Plan recommendation: We recommend the suitable plan or prepare a custom quote.
3. Scope agreement: Services, support limits, response expectations, and payment terms are agreed.
4. Setup and onboarding: Access methods, backups, platform condition, and communication channels are reviewed.
5. Ongoing support: Support is provided according to the selected plan and agreed scope.
6. Renewal or adjustment: The plan can be reviewed at renewal if journal count, file volume, or support needs change.

Information Needed Before Quotation

• Platform type: OJS, OMP, or OPS
• Number of journals or platforms requiring support
• Current platform version, if known
• Website or platform URL
• Database size and files directory size, if available
• Current hosting environment or hosting provider
• Whether you need new hosting or support for an already hosted platform
• Current technical issues, if any
• Email, backup, upgrade, training, or multilingual support needs

Important Service Notes

Managed support helps reduce technical risk and organize support, but it does not guarantee that hosting will never go down, that restore will succeed in every case, that every upgrade will succeed in every environment, or that indexing, publication, editorial approval, or any third-party decision will be achieved.

Service quality depends on platform condition, hosting environment, available access, backup quality, plugin compatibility, database condition, and the agreed scope of work.

The center is an independent technical support provider. It is not PKP and does not officially represent the Public Knowledge Project unless explicitly stated.

All plans and prices are subject to review before work begins. Payment is handled according to the Payment, Phases & Refund Policy.