End-of-life and support cadence for OJS 3.4

[Michelle_Macinsky]

We’re currently running OJS 3.4.9 and planning our next upgrade, and we’re looking for clarity on STS support. Knowing that 3.5 will soon be designated LTS and the next STS version (3.6) is expected later this year, is there a known end-of-life timeline for 3.4?

From what I’ve read, LTS releases have about one year to upgrade once a new LTS is designated, but I couldn’t find the typical support cadence for STS releases (like 3.4). Apologies if I missed this in the documentation.

[asmecher]

Hi @Michelle_Macinsky,

We’re working (with the Technical Committee) on a clearer bit of documentation around this. But in the meantime: When we designate a new branch as LTS (as we expect to do with 3.5 in Q1 2026), it begins a one-year countdown to the end-of-life designation for older branches. That means both 3.3 LTS and 3.4. When those are end-of-lifed it means we will stop releasing new packages for those branches, not that they will suddenly stop working.

The purpose of the year-long window is to give folks time to test and schedule an upgrade, and take care of any other concerns like training.

Thanks,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team