What is the challenge?
OJS, OMP, and OPS include country lists that are presented in the user form, registration form, author form, and elsewhere. Users frequently point out that this list can be controversial or unsatisfactory. For example, Taiwan is listed as “Taiwan, Province of China”.
Why is this the case?
OJS, OMP, and OPS rely on a third-party library called sokil/php-isocodes
that provides country, currency, and language lists. This package in turn draws on other third-party resources like Python’s pycountry and Debian’s iso-codes.
Eventually these tools derive their information from ISO lists, notably ISO 3166-1 for countries. Some entries in this list are disputed.
How can I change the country lists?
PKP has opted to adhere to these standards and tools in order to maximize interoperability, but also to provide tools and options for folks who need to change the lists in the spirit of Open Source.
Depending on your version of OJS, OMP, or OPS, there are several options available:
- You can edit the contents of the
sokil/php-isocodes
library that is included with PKP software. The country lists are maintained inlib/pkp/lib/vendor/sokil/php-isocodes/databases/iso_3166-1.json
for English andsokil/php-isocodes/messages/xx/LC_MESSAGES/3166-1.mo
/.po
(wherexx
is the language code) for other languages. The.mo
and.po
files are Gettext files. There’s information on updating/rebuilding the database here. - There is a plugin permitting editing of the country list via the user interface. See customCountryList for details. Ensure that this plugin is compatible with your version of OJS, OMP, or OPS before installing it, and review the installation instructions.
PKP supports decolonization of software and scholarly communication, and recognizes that there is a tension between decolonization and unifying standards (which often have colonial aspects). Users who customize the country list, particularly adding new entries or modifying the country codes, should be aware that there are possible negative downstream effects as the publication metadata gets sent to third party systems.