A journal publishing platform is the software in which a scientific publisher receives papers, runs peer review and publishes its journals online. It has two halves. The first half is a submission and peer review system, which authors, editors and reviewers use before a paper is accepted. The second half is the journal's website, where readers find, read and download the published papers.
Here is how the first half works. An author uploads the paper, its figures and a cover letter. She fills in a form with the name and email address of every author. The system gives the paper a manuscript number. It sends a copy to research integrity screening before any person reads it. Then the paper appears in the editor's list of new papers.
Take, for example, the editor of a chemical engineering journal, who is a professor at an institute in Pune. A new paper on cleaning the wastewater of dye factories arrives. The system suggests 12 possible reviewers. It finds them by matching the paper's keywords with the papers that each reviewer has published. It leaves out anyone who works at the author's own institute, or who has recently written a paper with the author, because that person could be biased. This is called a conflict of interest. The editor invites three reviewers, and two accept. The system sends them reminders until their reports arrive, about 25 days later. Both reviewers ask for changes. The author uploads a revised paper, and the editor accepts it. The system then sends the accepted paper to typesetting and production.
The platform also controls who sees whose name. In single-blind review, the reviewers know who the authors are, but the authors do not know the reviewers. In double-blind review, neither side knows the other. Most journals use one of these two.
The second half is the journal itself. Each published paper gets a DOI, a digital object identifier. A DOI is a permanent code that always leads to the paper, even if the publisher's website changes. The platform sends each paper's title, authors and references to citation databases. It also decides who may read each paper. Under a subscription, a university library has paid, so the platform lets in readers from that university's network. Under open access, anyone may read the paper, because the author or the funder has already paid a fee for it.
Some publishers also publish science as video. A recorded experiment is peer-reviewed like a paper, and teachers can use it in digital courseware.
How is a journal platform different from a learning management system? An LMS holds a course for the students of one institution. A journal platform holds the research record, open to readers everywhere, and each published paper stays at the same address permanently.