Journal of Open Source Software

What Journal of Open Source Software does

The Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS) is a diamond open-access academic journal that publishes peer-reviewed papers describing research software packages. Founded in May 2016 by Arfon Smith, JOSS serves academic researchers and research software engineers who lack venues for receiving scholarly credit for software contributions. The journal operates through a GitHub-based workflow: authors submit software papers via pull requests, and a community of 100+ volunteer editors and reviewers conducts open peer review through GitHub issues in the openjournals/joss-reviews repository. Authentication is handled via ORCID, and all published papers carry DOIs and are made freely accessible under CC BY 4.0 licensing. As of the available data, JOSS has published over 3,633 papers, sustains a publication rate of 40-45 papers per month, and has handled 5,000+ submissions since launch.

JOSS is part of Open Journals, a NumFOCUS-sponsored project, and is an affiliate of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) and a POSI (Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure) adopter. The journal charges no article processing charges and generates no commercial revenue; operating costs are stated as "a few dollars per paper" and are sustained by volunteer labor and occasional modest grant support. The 13-person core team is supplemented by 100+ volunteer editors, with the founding Editor-in-Chief Arfon Smith stepping down in 2026 after a decade of leadership. In January 2026, JOSS updated its submission scope requirements to address generative AI, shifting evaluation criteria toward research impact and intellectual contribution rather than effort proxies.

Name

Journal of Open Source Software

Legal name

Journal of Open Source Software

Website

https://joss.theoj.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS) is a diamond open-access academic journal that peer-reviews and publishes research software packages via GitHub workflows, serving academic researchers and research software engineers worldwide with zero article processing charges.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Open Access Scholarly Publishing

NAICS

Book Publishers (51313)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Open Access Scholarly Journals & Monographs (EDAGAFAJ)

Keywords

• Open access publishing
• Research software journal
• Peer review platform
• Scholarly publishing
• Academic journal services

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Diamond Open Access (No APCs): JOSS operates as a diamond open access journal with zero article processing charges. Operating costs of a few dollars per paper are sustained by volunteer labor and occasional modest grant support rather than APCs.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

JOSS is a diamond open access academic journal that publishes peer-reviewed papers describing research software packages. Authors submit their software via GitHub pull requests, peer review is conducted openly in GitHub issues by volunteer editors and reviewers, and published papers are citable scholarly outputs with no article processing charges to authors and no subscription fees for readers.

Product overview

JOSS operates as a single unified open access journal platform for publishing research software. The core offering is the JOSS publication platform (https://joss.theoj.org/) where researchers submit software papers for peer review through a GitHub-based workflow. The journal also hosts the JOSSCast podcast series interviewing published authors, and maintains documentation via Read the Docs. JOSS provides zero-cost publishing (diamond open access) sustained by volunteer labor and NumFOCUS support.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS) Platform Diamond open access academic journal that publishes peer-reviewed papers describing open source research software packages, with no article processing charges for authors and free access for readers. Authors submit software papers via GitHub pull requests and reviews are conducted openly on GitHub.
• JOSS Papers Submission Portal Web-based portal integrated with GitHub for software-paper submissions and ORCID for authentication, enabling authors to start and track peer review of their research software papers.
• JOSSCast Podcast Podcast series titled 'Open Source for Researchers' that interviews authors of JOSS-published software papers, distributed via YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and RSS.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 3,600 research software papers published
• +1 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Open Source Initiative (OSI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJOSS is an affiliate of the Open Source Initiative, demonstrating commitment to open source principles and values.
• NumFOCUScoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJOSS is part of Open Journals, which is a NumFOCUS-sponsored project. NumFOCUS provides organizational support and sustainability.
• Open JournalscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOpen Journals is the parent organization for JOSS and other open access journals, providing infrastructure and governance.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Others

• Zenodo: An open repository used by researchers to archive software releases with DOIs, often cited alongside or as an alternative to JOSS for software citation. Functions as adjacent scholarly infrastructure rather than a direct journal competitor.
• arXiv: The dominant open access preprint server frequently used by the same research-software author community. Not a publishing competitor per se, but a closely adjacent open scholarly infrastructure venue that intersects with JOSS's submission pipeline.

Broad incumbents

• PeerJ: An open access publisher spanning life and computer sciences, including PeerJ Computer Science. Operates as a broader open access incumbent with overlapping software-publication capabilities but a wider portfolio of journals.
• PLOS Computational Biology: A well-established open access computational science journal that frequently publishes software/methodology papers. Operates as a broad incumbent with paid editorial infrastructure rather than volunteer-driven.
• eLife: A nonprofit open access publisher with consultative peer review covering life and computational sciences. Comparable as a mission-aligned diamond-style OA peer, but with significantly larger institutional backing and paid staff.
• Open Library of Humanities: A diamond OA, library-funded publisher of humanities journals. Operates the same nonprofit, no-APC publishing model at scale in a different discipline, making it a structural analog for JOSS's funding approach.

Direct peers

• F1000Research: An open access publishing platform with open peer review and software/data articles, addressing the same need for rapid, transparent scholarly publication of research outputs including software.
• SoftwareX: An Elsevier-published journal specifically dedicated to research software, the closest commercial analog to JOSS in scope and target audience. Differs in being APC-based and integrated into Elsevier's broader paid ecosystem.
• Journal of Open Research Software: An open access journal for research software closely mirroring JOSS's mission, with overlapping author community and similar diamond OA positioning. Among the most direct substitutes for researchers choosing where to publish software papers.
• Journal of Open Source Education: A sibling journal under the same Open Journals / NumFOCUS umbrella, applying the same GitHub-based, diamond OA review model to open source educational software — directly comparable infrastructure and workflow.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/JOSS_TheOJ
• GitHubgithub.com/openjournals/joss
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@JOSSCast
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/journal-of-open-source-software

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Journal of Open Source Software