Creating a Multidisciplinary Institutional Repository Using

EPrints Software

JISC Conference, Birmingham, UK12th April 2005

http://software.eprints.orghttp://tardis.eprints.org

http://eprints.soton.ac.uk

Dr Jessie Hey and Dr Leslie CarrSouthampton University Library and School of Electronics and Computer Science

University of Southampton

Historical Context:Subversive Proposal (1994) &Open Archiving Initiative (1999)

• In an ideal world of scholarly communication – all research is freely available through research archives (personal and subject)

• But journals become more and more expensive (serials crisis)

• The work of researchers in our institution (even our ownresearch) is often unavailable

• June 27th 1994 Stevan Harnad’s ‘Subversive Proposal’ leading to the open access vision for scholarly material

– Harnad, S. and Hey, J. M. N. (1995) Esoteric Knowledge: the Scholar and Scholarly Publishing on the Net. In Proceedings of Networking and the Future of Libraries 2: Managing the Intellectual Record, Proceedings of an International Conference, Bath, 19-21 April 1995,  110-16. Dempsey, L., Law, D. and Mowlat, I., Eds.

• October 1999, Open Archiving Initiative (Santa Fe) between research archive maintainers – led to OAI-PMH metadata interoperability

What is EPrints?

• It is a repository– a Web-based database

• that allows individuals• to deposit important digital items

• with appropriate metadata• for

– dissemination– curation– reporting

• used to run 160 repositories worldwide

EPrints Motivation:Open Access

• Ensuring that the output of research is available to researchers across the world

– by providing dissemination channels which are independent of journal subscriptions

• Repositories are a major type of Open Access channel

• See JISC briefing paper on Open Access April 2005 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=pub_openaccess

Repository Types

• Institutions• Departments• Disciplines• Long term projects• Conferences• Journals

An Institutional Research Repository for Southampton

• Institutional Repository for Research set up (e-Prints Soton) http://eprints.soton.ac.uk with TARDis project to investigate issues for new concept (within JISC funded FAIR programme)

Southampton University Research e-Prints - working closely with individual ‘schools’ – found that depends so much on publication culture and working practices

• TARDis project: Feeding back into EPrints software good citation and information management practice experimenting with best balance of assisted deposit

• has capacity for adding full text (e-Prints) if available– electronic copies of any research output e.g. journal articles, book

chapters, conference papers even multimedia

• TARDis: Targeting Academic Research for Deposit and Disclosure• FAIR: Focus on Access to Institutional Resources

Reporting on University practices and needs

Grounding in reality:

Hey, Jessie M.N. (2004) An environmental assessment of research publication activity and related factors impacting the development of an Institutional e-Print Repository at the University of Southampton. Southampton, UK, University of Southampton, 19pp. (TARDis Project Report, D 3.1.2) http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/archive/00006218/

See also TARDis article in Ariadne http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/8986/

e-Prints Soton evolution: aiming for full moon at midnight

•Target – academic research•Creation of e-Prints Soton•Initial Advocacy•Environmental audit•Software redesign for IR•Mediation offered•Project cluster collaboration

Institutional ResearchRepository

Full text only

Institutional Research Repository with full text

where possible

Institutional Research Repository

with RAE management

Full Texte-Print Research Archives

•Pilot and Feedback:One record – many outputsSaving academics’ time•Policy and strategy change•Redirection to Southampton University Publications Database•Targeted Advocacy

Open Access VisionEPrints Software

JISC FAIR Programme

Research Policy CommitteesUniversity, Faculty and Schools

Pilot Schools

Research ReportingRequirements:

University, National, International

•Demonstrate potential of IR as RAE tool

•Import existing metadata•Collaborate with researchers

to encourage proactive input•Address authentication and

branding issues•Develop extra functionality

•Moving towards sustainableopen access institutionalrepository

•Proactive open accessculture

•Integrated research discovery

– enriched resources:multimedia, datasets

Open Access Paradigm ShiftOther Institutional Repositories

e-Research •Target – academic research•Creation of e-Prints Soton•Initial Advocacy•Environmental audit•Software redesign for IR•Mediation offered•Project cluster collaboration

Institutional ResearchRepository

Full text only

Institutional Research Repository with full text

where possible

Institutional Research Repository

with RAE management

Full Texte-Print Research Archives

•Pilot and Feedback:One record – many outputsSaving academics’ time•Policy and strategy change•Redirection to Southampton University Publications Database•Targeted Advocacy

Open Access VisionEPrints Software

JISC FAIR Programme

Research Policy CommitteesUniversity, Faculty and Schools

Pilot Schools

Research ReportingRequirements:

University, National, International

•Demonstrate potential of IR as RAE tool

•Import existing metadata•Collaborate with researchers

to encourage proactive input•Address authentication and

branding issues•Develop extra functionality

•Moving towards sustainableopen access institutionalrepository

•Proactive open accessculture

•Integrated research discovery

– enriched resources:multimedia, datasets

Open Access Paradigm ShiftOther Institutional Repositories

e-Research

3

4 1

2

Add your metadata and full text if available and allowed: appropriate for Humanities too

Achieving a slower but more sustainable model – the TARDis road

• To achieve the original vision we are moving around the clock face

• Collaborating with academics to provide tailored valued services for different disciplines (needing extra functionality)

• Aided by a fast moving shared international movement

All rising to great place is by a winding stairFrancis Bacon

Southampton Press Release 15 Dec 2004

'We see our Institutional Repository as a key tool for the stewardship of the University's digital research assets,' said Professor Paul Curran, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University. 'It will provide greater access to our research, as well as offering a valuable mechanism for reporting and recording it.’

Southampton’s Institutional Repository is for all research

TARDis clarified deposit types – minimised ambiguity

Offering assisted deposit;Offering help with fields

Share the glory (interdisciplinary papers) and sell your book too

Piloting adding a link to your web page – auto update

Adding more functionality with ‘Latest feeds’ – by web site and screen at entrance

Screen in foyer – is my paper there?

Hot off the screen

What can you do once you have the Institutional

Repository? e.g. News release on new research

e-Print promoted via the link: his other work gets read too!

RAE management potential

Simpson, Pauline and Hey, Jessie (2005) Forward in time: TARDis and the RAE. JISC Inform, No. 8, p.16.

http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/14522/

Simpson, Pauline and Hey, Jessie (2005) Forward in time: TARDis and the RAE. JISC Inform, No. 8, p.16. http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/14522/

Select your Research Assessment Exercise choices

Add measures of esteem

Data available to Head of School

Showing benefit of high profile of e-Prints Soton – Google and Google Scholar ………..

Currently 20+ UK IRs starting but set to increase

Guardian March 14, 2005:Scottish universities sign open

access dealThe declaration commits each of its

16 university signatories to setting up online libraries of research findings and doctorate papers which all academics can access

Part of a national and international development of IRs

• The JISC vision reflecting the individual repositories (JISC Inform no. 8)

Creating a multidisciplinary institutional repository using EPrints software

Thank you,

Jessie Hey (jmnh@ecs.soton.ac.uk)TARDis Project leading to Southampton University Research e-Prints http://eprints.soton.ac.uk And thanks especially to Natasha Lucas (metadata administrator) and

Pauline Simpson (Project Manager TARDis)

Leslie Carr (lac@ecs.soton.ac.uk)EPrints softwarehttp://software.eprints.org And thanks to Chris Gutteridge (programmer) and Tim Brody (IR

Partner)