Tuwhera News - July 2026

ICT has started upgrading a number of journal sites to OJS 3.4, a recent and more stable version of the journal software.

We have identified a security concern with the earlier versions so are keen to get all journals updated in a timely manner.

All journals hosted on OJS 3.3 have been updated or are in the process of being so.

The process of upgrading the OJS 3.1 journals is more complex and takes more time. OJS 3.1 journals still needing to be upgraded are….

  • Ata
  • Te Wharenga
  • Book of Future Research series
  • Te Kaharoa
  • Decolonization of Criminology
  • Ethnographic Edge
  • Hospitality Insights
  • Link Conference Proceedings
  • Link Praxis
  • New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations
  • Pacific Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning
  • Psychotherapy and Politics International

When we upgrade your journal to OJS 3.4 you can choose between default or classic themes.

Check out the April 2026 newsletter for more information about themes and about 3.4 in general.

Planning is well underway for the big event marking a decade of Tuwhera’s impact. Celebrations will take place late afternoon and into the evening on 22 October 2026.  Invitations to the event will be sent out soon so keep an eye out.

To find out more or to contribute to the event, please contact Luqman Hayes

Being indexed on the Directory of Open Access Journals is very important for discoverability and credibility. Most journals already meet the criteria and just need a little tidying up.

Why are we pushing DOAJ?

  • Protection Against Predatory Publishers: one of our journals has been cloned by a third party trying to use the name of a journal to their advantage. Fortunately, the real Tuwhera journal is indexed on DOAJ and this can be used by authors to verify the correct journal (not the spam journal).
  • Quality Assurance: many authors will use DOAJ as a mark of quality assurance.
  • Increased Visibility and Impact: journals indexed in DOAJ often see their website traffic increase significantly because the platform's metadata is easily integrated into global university library portals and major search engines. For example, your journal and articles will appear on AUT Library search.

Talk to us about being indexed on DOAJ!

If you’re thinking about getting indexed on Scopus, bear in mind that the process can be lengthy. Once your journal is indexed, it will need to consistently meet Scopus’ indexing standards, or be dropped from the list. If you are interested, please read the information here and let the Tuwhera team know.

We can support you in preparing your journal!

It’s very important that journals have an AI policy to preserve accountability and ensure transparency around scientific content. Clear policies and rules help manage how authors and reviewers use AI technologies and help maintain the ethical standards of a journal. We recommend looking at the policies of other journals for ideas. Some Tuwhera examples include:

Many indexing sites scrape metadata and content from PDFs as well as the information from the journal information page. If there is a mismatch between the information on the PDF and the information on the website there can be issues for sites like Google Scholar.

Hints from us:

  • The author name order should match that on the journal website and PDF.
  • Double check that the title is the same.
  • Include the author’s affiliation on both the PDF and website.
  • If you need to republish an article the dates won’t match – talk to us about fixing this.
  • Include references on the website and to the PDF file.

As part of the Library Research Services Team, we’ve had a big demand for workshops on research impact and profiles. As editors, you can help boost your authors’ research profiles.

  • Require authors to add their ORCiD when submitting articles.
  • Set up ORCiD linking so that on publication, the record goes straight to the author’s ORCiD profile (only on OJS 3.4).
  • Require peer reviewers to add their ORCiD ID. Using ORCiD linking we can add peer review activity to their ORCiD profile.
  • Always add author affiliations in full – such as Auckland University of Technology not AUT.
  • Use social media to promote articles – this can boost an author’s Altmetrics profile. (Altmetrics is available through AUT Library).
  • Reference linking. Add references to the online submission form. It makes cited material much more discoverable and better discoverability leads to increased citations.

The Journal of New Zealand Project Management (JNZPM) is a peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly publication dedicated to advancing the discipline of project management through high-quality empirical research. JNZPM’s core focus is on software engineering and IT project management, including agile methods, digital project delivery, AI integration, and complex systems development.

Tua Ira: Journal of Queer Studies Aotearoa is a peer-reviewed, open-access, interdisciplinary journal of Queer, Rainbow, Takatāpui and Allied Studies published by the Rainbow Plus Takatāpui Research Group at AUT. The journal centres Takatāpui, LGBTQIA+, MVPFAFF+, and Queer lives, histories, cultures, and futures in Aotearoa and beyond.

Due to the fantastic work Thais has displayed with her technical work on the journals – she has been stolen by the Library’s Digital Initiatives team until March 2027. This team takes care of the library management system, library search and the library website. Fortunately, Thais will continue to support us in upgrading the journals (and the display side of the journal websites) however please contact me regarding any issues or training support. We have a very experienced librarian joining the team in the interim – announcements will be made soon.

Recently the Tuwhera team used the policy database Overton to find information on Tuwhera’s impact, and we thought journal editors would be interested in this information too. Pacific Journalism Review, established in 1994, has 90 citations in 84 policy documents – the most recent being in May, although the journal was retired in 2024!

The most recent citation was from Teachers’ Work – An EU Policy publication on apprenticeships. Link praxis was recently cited in an NZ Climate Change Commission report and Psychotherapy and Politics International in a report on disability rates in Ireland.

How to use Overton?

Go to AUT Library (or your own library for non-AUT editors) and select databases along the left-hand side.

Select find by title – type ‘Overton’

Go to ‘Explore the data’ – ‘Journals’

AUT has a brand-new repository collection “AUT Open Datasets.” Open Datasets provides secure, sovereign, long-term access to datasets generated by AUT researchers and can make research data openly available as well.

These mean it’s now possible for AUT authors to link their open access article with an open access data set!

Many journals encourage (or require) open data sharing to improve scientific reproducibility, transparency.

Earth and Space Science journal requires all articles to link to open access data - for example this recent article.

Plos One links to accessible research data – see an example here.

If you’d like to offer authors the chance to connect their article to their research data let - the Tuwhera team know!