[OJS] Schema.org implementation

Software Support
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Hi, I am currently implementing schema.org (I am using microdata) in OJS 2.4.8.

Are there already experiences and implementations of schema.org and OJS?
Schema.org support will be included in OJS 3.0?

ps: and I would love some thoughts on pros and cons of having Schema.org at the expense of XHTML validation!

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Hi @piero_tasso,

The subject of schema.org has come up briefly a few times – see e.g. [UI] Frontend issues · Issue #639 · pkp/pkp-lib · GitHub – but I’m not aware of anything yet implemented.

We’ve moved away from XHTML for OJS 3.0 and broadly speaking it’s safe to say that XHTML didn’t see the acceptance its proponents hoped for. I think sacrificing XHTML validation is OK at this point.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

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Thanks @asmecher, I would love to help with schema.org implementation - if I am able. :slight_smile: (unfortunately I am not able to set up a test environment with OJS 3.0 at this time)

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Hi @piero_tasso,

If you’d like to tinker with OJS 3.0, the quickest way is probably to use the Vagrant configuration – see GitHub - pkp/vagrant: Vagrant environments for PKP software.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

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If someone added a plugin for that, I would appreciate…

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I’m really have doubts if academic journals need to be very worried about this…

On one hand, schema is mainly for SEO it’s not the focus of journals (we have repositories/harvesters and specific searchers) and we are now offering our data in a rich set of structured formats (OAI, COinS, DOAJ, CrossRef, etc.) so I don’t think PKP need to be been running to every tech somebody points.

But in the other hand, I like the idea of adding “generic” semantics to OJS. It will make the tool even more reachable (open), visible and who is against a good SEO?

Yes, Google is a black box and there are no studies about real impact in Scholar, but the implementation as JSON-LD is less obtrusive than microdata (and today is google’s recommendation) and technically looks feasible so I think is a good idea adding this as a plugin you can enable.

I can’t work on this now, but I think a modification of COinS plugin will do the job:

I suggest starting by this type, and extending to other objects in future:
https://schema.org/ScholarlyArticle

Cheers,
m.

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Sorry for asking this 6 years later.
Do we know if this has been implemented in some version?
Given the fact that nowadays many researchers are using AI engines to look for sources to improve the knowledge base of their works, maybe it isn’t such a bad idea any more to adapt to schema.org so that not only SEO but AEO results are improved in our journals.
Don’t you think?

I’ll be glad to receive any answers to this question.

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Hi Carlos,

Nothing to sorry about.

My colleagues will correct me, but I don’t think much progress has been made in this area.
I made a search in gitHub and I can’t see any useful reference to schema.org.

If I recall well, some years ago fellows from an university of Valencia made an experiment related with this (embedding tags in their theme) and got some SEO improvements… but as far as I know, nothing from PKP.

By the way, I will deny having said this, but seeing that 80% of the traffic to our journals comes from Google, I reserve the right to change my mind and acknowledge (six years late) that SEO was more relevant than I thought… although perhaps it is too late now, as with the advent of AI, search engines seem to be becoming less and less important. :stuck_out_tongue: