This timeline brings together PKP’s story, highlighting the importance of community and sustainability in advancing open research, access, advocacy, and infrastructure for scholarly publishing toward the global public good. Please click on the hyperlinks in the timeline to access the stories behind PKP.
| 1998 |  John Willinsky initiates the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) with the support of University of British Columbia Pacific Press Professorship. Read more. |
| 2000 | PKP releases its first open source software package Open Conference Systems (OCS), which it supports until 2014. |
| 2002 | Open Journals Systems (OJS) launched at Memorial University as an open source publishing platform. PKP releases its open source indexing package Open Harvester Systems. Peter Suber designates OJS release a “Landmark Event” on Open Access Movement Timeline. |
| 2004 | Pippa Smart of INASP invites PKP to set up OJS for its African Journals Online (AJOL) initiative in Grahamstown, South Africa. |
| 2005 | SFU Dean of Libraries Lynn Copeland initiates PKP partnership with Simon Fraser University Library and the Canadian Institute for Studies in Publishing, led by Rowly Lorimer. Alec Smecher joins PKP as lead developer. PKP releases OJS 2.0. |
| 2006 | Mellon Foundation selects PKP for Technology Collaboration Award. PKP Publishing Services launched to fund open source software development. |
| 2007 | PKP joins the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Synergies project (2007 – 2011). First International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference held at SFU. PKP releases OCS 2.0. John Willinsky moves PKP research initiatives to Stanford on assuming Khosla Family Professorship, while SFU Associate Librarian Brian Owen takes on PKP Managing Director role. |
| 2009 | Second International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference is held at SFU. |
| 2010 | SFU Dean of Libraries Charles Eckman strengthens PKP’s association with libraries. |
| 2011 | Third International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference is held at Freie Universität Berlin. |
| 2012 | PKP Development Partnerships and community sustainer program is established. PKP Advisory, Technical, and Members Committees is established. |
| 2013 | PKP releases Open Monograph Press (OMP) 1.0 to support publishing of scholarly books. Fourth International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference is held at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. PKP School launches to provide free, online courses in scholarly publishing. |
| 2014 | PKP is identified as a High-Impact Open Access Organization for Infrastructure by Accelerating Science Awards Program, sponsored by Google, PLOS, and Wellcome Foundation. Juan Pablo Alperin is appointed Assistant Professor in SFU Publishing Program. |
| 2015 | PKP launches MacArthur-funded Open Access Scholarly Publishing Cooperative Study. Fifth International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference held at SFU. |
| 2016 | PKP Preservation Network launched for journals using OJS. OJS Version 3.0 launched. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council presents 2016 Connection Award to John Willinsky for PKP. |
| 2017 | Sixth International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference held at Université de Montréal. Abel Packer and colleagues at SciELO announce preprint server development plan. OJS Version 3.1 is released. Érudit joins with PKP to form Coalition Publica, a CFI-funded initiative to serve Canadian scholarly communication and advance open access. |
| 2018 | PKP and SciELO announce partnership to develop open source preprint server system. Canadian Social Knowledge Institute presents Juan Pablo Alperin with its inaugural Open Scholarship Award. Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) names PKP a funding awardee. SFU Associate Librarian Brian Owen retires from SFU after serving 13 years as PKP Managing Director, with Kevin Stranack then stepping into the role. |
| 2019 | Seventh International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference is held at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Coko Foundation awards PKP its Open Publishing Lifetime Contribution Award. James MacGregor steps in as interim PKP Managing Director, while Amanda Stevens assumes the leadership of PKP Publishing Services. |
| 2020 | PKP forms Equity and Inclusion Team and Decolonization Working Group to improve processes and organization. PKP releases Open Preprint Systems (OPS), built in close consultation with SciELO. OJS Version 3.2 is released. |
| 2021 | OJS beacon data indicates that in 2020 over 25,000 journals were using OJS. PKP’s Equity and Inclusion Team releases a Community Code of Conduct to guide and set expectations for PKP community behavior. OA Diamond Journals Study finds 60% of diamond open access journals use OJS (a diamond open access journal is one without author or reader fees). SciELO and PKP announce renewed partnership. OJS becomes a Certified Service Provider with ORCID. |
| 2022 | SciELO Preprints completes two years of operation contributing to open science. SFU Dean of Libraries, Gwen Bird, initiates PKP’s move to the University’s Core Facilities Program, under the Office of Vice President, Research and International (VPRI). SFU appoints Kevin Stranack as PKP Core Facility’s Operations Director; Juan Pablo Alperin and John Willinsky appointed as Co-Scientific Directors. CFI renews Coalition Publica support for 2023 – 2029. OJS beacon data indicates that as of 2021, over 30,000 journals are using OJS world-wide. |
| 2023 | PKP celebrates 25 years of open source and open access along with SciELO and Érudit. SSHRC / CRSH renews support of Coalition Publica for the development of open access. ORCID names PKP as an awardee of its Global Participation Fund to support Indonesian scholarly publishing communities and build ORCID Communities of Practice. CRKN-RCDR renews partnership with PKP to advance research and scholarship. PKP becomes a Registered Service Provider with DataCite. OJS and OPS recertifies as Service Providers under ORCID’s revised criteria. PKP reaffirms its commitment to scholarly independence. PKP joins Open Book Futures (OBF) for open access books. Stanford University Press and PKP to collaborate on open access journal publishing. OJS beacon data indicates that as of 2022, over 44,000 journals are using OJS world-wide. |
| 2024 | OJS beacon data indicates that as of 2023, over 50,000 journals are using OJS world-wide. OJS Version 3.3 Long-Term Support (LTS) (what’s new) and 3.4 (what’s new) are released. OPS Version 3.3 Long-Term Support (LTS) and 3.4 are released. OMP Version 3.3 Long-Term Support (LTS) and 3.4 are released. PKP announces new Development Partnership with Sachsenkonsortium. Archipelago, PKP’s Community Newsletter, is launched. The PKP Membership structure is updated. PKP reaffirms that by design, it is not, and will never be, for sale. PKP signs on to the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure (POSI). The Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information gains PKP’s support. OJS is shortlisted for the ALPSP Impact Award. The Publication Facts Label (PKP and Stanford University) for journal integrity open trials. OJS is selected to underpin Open Research Europe publishing platform. PKP joins the Open Book Collective (OBC) as a Service Provider Member. |