Release History

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Release: 5.4.0

Date: 2023-05-02
Feature: UKRI and Horizon results enhancements

This release includes two minor changes which enhances some results:

  1. When selecting UKRI as your funder, JCT will now account for the Transformative Journal status of your selected journal by incorporating both cOAlition S and Jisc lists of recognised journals
  2. When selecting UKRI or Horizon Europe as your funder, JCT will now respect the special self-archiving conditions for determining routes to compliance

Release: 5.2.0

Date: 2022-11-08
Feature: Price and Service Data inclusion in results

When you search for compliance of a journal, you will also see whether this journal has provided price data to the Journal Comparison Service for the last year or any year previous to that. This information is available in both the API and the User Interface.

Release: 5.1.0

Date: 2022-10-31
Feature: Open Access Exceptions Registry integration

There are a small number of journals which publish research articles as fully OA, but which do not meet the criteria for inclusion into the DOAJ.

This release introduces an additional datasource and an update to the JCT algorithm to determine the OA status of a journal to reflect that those journals are compliant.

Journals which fit into this category will now appear as Fully Open Access, and where caveats to that status apply these will be presented to the user in their results.

Release: 5.0.0

Date: 2022-10-10
Feature: French language version and Horizon Europe specific guidance

This release introduces two major changes to the results presentation for the Journal Checker Tool:

  1. A French language translation is provided. The primary interface and results cards are now all available in French, accessed via a language selector on the front page.
  2. Horizon Europe specific guidance is provided. Whenever you select Horizon Europe as your funder you will be presented with custom guidance which complies with and details their OA policy.

Release: 4.1.0

Date: 2022-05-10
Feature: Enhanced Journal and Institution Autosuggest

This release introduces new capabilities for the Journal and Institution autosuggests. The previous version used a simple search algorithm over the data sourced from a number of external datasources. This new version is still sourced from those same external datasources, but that data has now been heavily processed and normalised in the JCT to provide an optimised search experience. Searches over that data are now designed to prioritise results in a more useful manner, and we are in a better position to further enhance the data and the search experience going forward.

This change only affects the autosuggest boxes on the front page of the JCT application. Compliance calculations and the API are unaffected.

Release: 4.0.0

Date: 2022-03-30
Feature: Funder-specific results for UKRI

This release introduces funder-specific results for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), as well as the supporting technical infrastructure and improvements to end user experience to enable those results. These are:

  • The addition of a compliance route for Hybrid journals
  • Extension of our support for OA.Works data to detect funder-specific/Plan S specific self-archiving policies
  • Integration of the new ROR data dumps as our primary institution list
  • Introduction of “cards” which allow the funder to specify custom information for end users according to their own individual policies
  • Extension of the JCT API to include “card” information for consumers
  • Addition of funder language packs as a supplementary API for consumers

Consumers of the API should note that the changes are additive, so should be backwards compatible for any existing integrations. Nonetheless, care is required to ensure that results are interpreted correctly for a given funder. Please see the API documentation for more details.

Release: 3.4.0

Date: 2022-03-06
Feature: Modification to Self-Archiving route processing order

The release changes how the Self-Archiving route is calculated. The check for whether the journal has been listed in the cOAlition S datasource of journals known to permit Self-Archiving, has been moved to occur before any check to OA.Works. This has a number of impacts:

  • Self-Archiving route checks are now faster for journals which have indicated to cOAlition S that they will allow Self-Archiving, as no call to the external OA.Works API is required
  • Journals on the cOAlition S list previously only appeared as Plan S compliant if the selected funder supported Rights Retention. This change modifies that so that any journal which has indicated they support Self-Archiving will appear as compliant, irrespective of the Rights Retention policy of the funder.

Release: 3.1.0

Date: 2021-12-07
Feature: Introduction of funder-customisable front-end

This release introduced a funder configuration and funder language pack that can be used to tailor the JCT frontend to the needs of individual funders. At this point, there is only one configuration and one language pack in use by all the funders. With this release, we introduce the possibility down-the-line to change this so that results from JCT are custom to the selected funder.

Release: 2.3.2

Date: 2021-10-04
Feature: UI and Text

This release introduces changes to the UI and the text displayed in the Explain the Results sections of the results screens, in order to clarify the JCT results in certain cases. Specifically, this release clarifies whether or not the funder has implemented the Rights Retention Strategy.

Release: 2.1.0

Date: 2021-04-28
Feature: API Codes

The release contains the following changes:

  • Replacement of text logs with log codes within the API
  • Improvements to the stability of the DOAJ data import
  • Improvements to how errors in TA records are reported to the Helpdesk
  • Use of a language file to present log codes and other “Explain this result” text to the user
  • Integration of Google Analytics
  • Removal of external Javascript library dependencies
  • Updated API documentation and “How it works” documentation

Release: 2.0.0

Date: 2021-01-18
Feature: Embeddable Widget

This release delivers an “embeddable widget” which allows third-parties to easily embed the Journal Checker Tool into their own websites. (Documentation on the embeddable widget).

Release: 1.0.1

Date: 2020-12-14
Feature: Public Beta Feedback

This release incorporates improvements based on feedback from users.

Release: 1.0.0

Date: 2020-11-18
Feature: Public Beta

This is the first public release of the Journal Checker Tool, released as a “beta” version inviting feedback.

The information provided by the Journal Checker Tool represents cOAlition S’s current understanding in relation to the policies of the journals contained within it. We will endeavour to keep it up to date and accurate, but we do not accept any liability in relation to any errors or omissions.