Journal of Open Source Software

Journal of Open Source Software
Title	Journal of Open Source Software
Discipline	Software, Research Software, Open Source
Abbreviation	JOSS
Publisher	The Open Journals
Country	United States
History	2016–present
Frequency	Continuous
License	Various open licenses

Journal of Open Source Software The Journal of Open Source Software is a peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly venue for research software, peer commentary, and software papers. It aims to recognize software development as a scholarly activity alongside traditional outputs, engaging contributors from communities such as Python (programming language), R (programming language), Julia (programming language), GitHub, and organizations like NumPy, SciPy, Software Carpentry, Apache Software Foundation. The journal interfaces with infrastructure and initiatives including Zenodo, Figshare, Docker (software), Jupyter Notebook, and GitLab, and connects to scholars affiliated with institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Oxford, and ETH Zurich.

History

The journal was founded in 2016 amid conversations involving communities represented by The Carpentries, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, Open Knowledge Foundation, and researchers linked to projects at Princeton University, University of Chicago, University of Toronto, University of Washington. Early advocacy and technical prototypes drew on practices from arXiv, bioRxiv, PeerJ, and PLOS (company), while governance and scholarly recognition engaged stakeholders from National Science Foundation, Digital Science, Wellcome Trust, and European Research Council. Founders and early editors collaborated with contributors experienced in platforms such as GitHub, Travis CI, CircleCI, and citation services like CrossRef and ORCID.

Scope and editorial model

The journal accepts short, citable software papers describing research-oriented software across domains tied to projects including TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn, pandas (software), Matplotlib, Bioconductor, QGIS, GDAL, OpenFOAM, Blender (software), and scientific communities such as CERN, NASA, European Space Agency, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Its editorial model emphasizes lightweight metadata, visible repositories, and reproducible artifacts, resonating with standards from OpenAIRE, DataCite, FAIR principles, and initiatives at Wellcome Trust. Editors and reviewers often hail from academic units like Stanford University, Imperial College London, University of Cambridge, and industry labs such as Google Research, Microsoft Research, IBM Research.

Submission and review process

Submissions typically consist of a short manuscript and a link to a public repository on platforms such as GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket with archival deposit options via Zenodo or Figshare. The review process uses open peer review workflows influenced by PeerJ, eLife, and F1000Research and integrates continuous integration tools like Travis CI and GitHub Actions to verify builds and tests. Reviewers are drawn from communities including NumFOCUS, RStudio PBC, OpenSSL, Mozilla, and research labs at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Publication and access

Articles are published with DOIs registered through CrossRef and may be archived with services such as CLOCKSS and Portico. The model supports open licenses familiar to contributors from Creative Commons, MIT License, GNU General Public License, and permits citation via reference managers like Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote. Published works integrate with platforms and projects including JupyterHub, Binder (service), Read the Docs, and repositories maintained by organizations such as OpenAI, Hugging Face, and Kaggle.

Indexing and impact

The journal is indexed or discoverable through aggregators and indexes associated with CrossRef, Google Scholar, Scopus, and initiatives at Directory of Open Access Journals. Its impact on recognition of software as scholarly output intersects with policies from funders like Wellcome Trust, National Institutes of Health, European Research Council, and university promotion criteria at institutions including Yale University, Princeton University, and University of Melbourne. Citation and altmetric signals interact with services such as Altmetric, Dimensions (metrics), and Plum Analytics.

Community and outreach

Community engagement involves partnerships with Software Carpentry, Data Carpentry, NumFOCUS, The Turing Institute, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and conferences such as SciPy (conference), PyCon, RStudio Conference, JupyterCon, Europe PLoS Conference. Outreach efforts include collaborations with training and policy groups at UNESCO, OECD, and advocacy organizations like Open Source Initiative and Linux Foundation.

Notable articles and projects

Published papers describe influential projects and libraries connected to ecosystems including NumPy, SciPy, pandas (software), scikit-learn, MDAnalysis, Astropy, Bioconductor, Django (web framework), Flask (web framework), GDAL, QGIS, OpenCV, GROMACS, LAMMPS, OpenMM, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Keras, HDF5, NetCDF, MPI (Message Passing Interface) frameworks, and domain-specific tools used at CERN, European Southern Observatory, Max Planck Society laboratories.

Governance and funding

Governance involves an editorial board and advisory structures with ties to organizations like NumFOCUS, Open Source Initiative, Mozilla Foundation, Wellcome Trust, National Science Foundation, and academic institutions including University of Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. Funding and operational support have come from grants and sponsorships involving Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and institutional in-kind contributions from universities and research institutes.

Category:Academic journals