OJS upgrade & migration

OJS Upgrade & Migration Service

Move your journal to a current, supported OJS release without losing articles, users, reviews or statistics. Full backups, a staging rehearsal and a tested go-live plan come as standard.

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  • Staging rehearsal
  • Rollback plan
  • Plugin & theme checks

Upgrade & migration

Custom quote

Priced after a free audit of your current installation.

  • Version, plugin & theme audit
  • Full backup before any change
  • Upgrade rehearsed on staging
  • Post-upgrade testing & fixes
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Why upgrade

Old OJS versions are a security and reputation risk

Many journals still run OJS releases that no longer receive security fixes, on servers that cannot be updated without breaking them. That creates real risks: spam registrations, defaced pages, lost submissions, and email or DOI deposits that quietly stop working. Older releases also miss years of improvements to the editorial workflow, accessibility, DOI handling and the reader experience.

Upgrading OJS is not difficult when it is planned — but it is unforgiving when it is not. Customised themes, unsupported plugins, very old database structures and modern PHP requirements all need attention. We audit your installation, rehearse the full upgrade on a staging copy, fix what breaks there, and only then upgrade the live journal during a quiet window.

We upgrade from

  • OJS 2.x to OJS 3.x
  • OJS 3.0 / 3.1 / 3.2 to a current release
  • OJS 3.3 to 3.4 or 3.5
  • Custom or WordPress journal sites to OJS
  • Old hosting to a modern server

Our checklist

How we upgrade safely

Before

  • Record current version, PHP & database
  • List plugins, theme & customisations
  • Check upgrade path supported by PKP
  • Full backup of files & database
  • Agree a timeline & communication plan

Rehearsal on staging

  • Restore a copy on a staging server
  • Run the upgrade step by step
  • Update or replace incompatible plugins
  • Adapt the theme or move to a child theme
  • Test submissions, reviews & publishing

Go-live & after

  • Upgrade live site in a quiet window
  • Verify articles, PDFs, users & statistics
  • Check email, DOIs & OAI-PMH
  • Monitor errors for the first weeks
  • Hand over notes & updated credentials

Migrations

Other migrations we handle

Server & hosting moves

Move OJS between hosts or to our managed OJS hosting with minimal downtime.

Managed OJS hosting

Back-issue import

Bring past issues into OJS from PDFs and spreadsheets, with complete metadata for each article.

Platform to OJS

Move journals from custom PHP sites, WordPress or static pages into a proper OJS workflow.

Domain changes

Change journal domain or path with redirects so old links and DOIs keep working.

Theme modernisation

Replace an outdated custom theme with a maintainable, mobile-friendly design.

Theme customization

Multilingual journals

Configure additional interface and submission languages during the move.

Process

Upgrade timeline

Most single-journal upgrades are completed within one to two weeks of the audit.

01

Free audit

We review your journal and recommend the upgrade path.

02

Proposal

Fixed price, timeline and any risks explained in writing.

03

Staging

Full rehearsal on a copy while your journal stays online.

04

Go-live

Upgrade of the live journal in an agreed window.

05

Aftercare

Monitoring and fixes, plus an optional hosting or AMC plan.

FAQ

OJS upgrade FAQ

Only briefly. The full upgrade is rehearsed on a staging copy first, so the live switch-over usually takes a short maintenance window that we schedule at a quiet time.

No. We take complete backups and verify articles, galleys, users, reviews and statistics after the upgrade. If anything unexpected happens, we can roll back.

Yes. DOIs point to your article URLs, which we preserve. If URLs must change, we add redirects so every existing DOI continues to resolve.

We first test it on staging. If it is not compatible with the new version, we rebuild the design as a maintainable child theme so future upgrades are easier.

It depends on the starting version, plugins, theme and data size. Request a free audit and you will receive a fixed price before any work starts.

Related OJS services

Running an old OJS version?

Send us your journal URL. We will check the version and share a safe upgrade plan with a fixed price.

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