Category Archives: oa.discoverability

USRN Discovery Pilot Project – SPARC

Posted on by
Reply

“An interoperable and well-functioning network of repositories is an essential component of US national research infrastructure and will play a crucial role in creating a more open and equitable global scholarly communications system. With the advent of the recent OSTP Memorandum requiring Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research, there is a need to help repositories identify tools and practices to ensure that they can become an effective compliance option for this policy.

In November 2023, the US Repository Network (USRN) launched a pilot project aimed at improving the discoverability of articles in repositories. This pilot project involves the use of services from CORE, a not-for-profit aggregator based at Open University in the UK, to evaluate and improve local repository practices. Additional technical support will be provided by Antleaf Ltd.

As part of the project, CORE will aggregate the metadata and full text of articles from a subset of US repositories, allowing them to be findable through a centralized discovery service with prominent links back to the original full text of the repository. At the same time, the project will assess current practices related to metadata quality, the tracking of Open Access deposits, the use of PIDs, technical support for OAI-PMH, and the adoption of more recent protocols, such as FAIR Signposting. At the level of the centralized aggregation, CORE will enrich the existing US metadata with information from its larger international aggregation. A Dashboard service for participating institutions will be provided, enabling them to assess, validate and monitor their practices.

The one-year project involves 20 repositories representing a variety of institutions, software types and repository models and will result in concrete recommendations and best practice guidelines for machine and human discoverability of research articles in US repositories.”

Proceedings of the Workshop Exploring National Infrastructure for Public Access Usage and Impact Reporting

Posted on by
Reply

“Invited international experts and leading scholarly cyberinfrastructure representatives joined workshop organizers Christina Drummond and Charles Watkinson for an eight-hour facilitated workshop on April 2, 2023. Together they aimed to: ? identify the challenges preventing cross-platform public and open scholarship impact analytics at scale, ? explore open infrastructure opportunities to improve the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reuse i.e. “FAIRness” of usage data, and ? identify what’s needed to scaffold America’s national infrastructure for scholarly output impact reporting in light of a) the August 2022 Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) “Nelson Memo” regarding “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research,” and b) the European Open Science Cloud Core and Interoperability Framework. Participants were encouraged to consider the challenges related to impact reporting and storytelling for research outputs ranging from data, articles, and books to simulations, 3D models, and other multimedia. The workshop objectives shared in advance of the meeting with participants were: ? identify what’s needed to scaffold America’s national infrastructure for scholarly output impact reporting, ? develop recommendations for national infrastructure and investment, and ? prioritize and begin to map out what activities we need to undertake next to support these recommendations. 1…”

Current State and Future Directions for Open Repositories in Europe

Posted on by
Reply

“In January 2023, OpenAIRE, LIBER, SPARC Europe, and COAR launched a joint strategy aimed at strengthening the European repository network. As a first step, a survey of the European repository landscape was undertaken in February-March 2023. The survey found that, collectively, European repositories acquire, preserve and provide open access to tens or possibly hundreds of millions of valuable research outputs and represent critical, not-for-profit infrastructure in the European open science landscape. They are used for sharing articles that may be pay-walled in published journals, but also for providing access to a large variety of other types of research outputs including research data, theses/dissertations, conference papers, preprints, code, and so on. 

However, in order to ensure the European repository network is fit for purpose and able to support the evolving needs of the research community, the survey also identified three areas in particular that could be strengthened: maintaining up-to-date, highly functioning software platforms; applying consistent and comprehensive good practices in terms of metadata, preservation, and usage statistics; and gaining appropriate visibility in the scholarly ecosystem.

Despite the challenges, the current climate offers exciting opportunities for repositories. Many funders are actively promoting the repository route for articles because of their role in supporting equitable access to content (i.e. no fees to access or deposit). The value proposition for open science is growing and repositories are increasingly recognised as the main mechanism for collecting and providing access to a wide range of other research outputs. Add to this, the nascent, but growing, interest in the publish-review-curate model in which repositories have a central function, and it seems they are well placed to expand their current role in the ecosystem. 

The survey provides essential data that will help shape a joint strategy to enhance and strengthen European repositories that will be developed over the next several months.”

Findability and Accessibility of Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repositories of Newly Established Central Universities in India

Posted on by
Reply

Abstract:  As professionals and academicians, we are all aware of ETDs (Electronic Theses and Dissertations) ‘ impact on the discourse, communication, and dissemination of research in our respective fields. ETDs are more widely used and advantageous than their conventional equivalents. ETDs, which are academic works that students submit as a requirement for their degree programs, provide various advantages made possible by technological improvements. One significant benefit is the simplicity with which digital research materials may be accessed and distributed, making knowledge easy to share and retrieve. This paper discusses the ETDs’ importance, aim, and initiatives in India. In addition, it discusses the Central universities and their role and contribution to ETDs. The study’s primary objective is to evaluate the ETDs platform aspect of newly established central universities in India. ETDs offer several advantages over their traditional counterparts. They provide easy and convenient access to research work, and their accessibility enhances the visibility and usability of the research. We will try to evaluate the Findability and Accessibility of ETDs that are really easily discoverable and accessible.

In this study, a webometric method is utilized for the evaluation of the websites of ETDs. Webometrics is the quantitative study of developing and using web-based information resources, structures, and technologies. As is common knowledge, a website serves as a digital representation of the ETDs themselves, reflecting the discoverability and accessibility of the ETDs’ content. Using webometrics tools Google PageSpeed Insights, we assess the discoverability and accessibility of the websites of ETDs. We also used a manual approach for findability and accessibility; a simple Google search for findability and for accessibility, we check whether ETDs provide contents openly, full-text availability, and how many platforms a university uses for content dissemination. The present work is limited to newly established central universities. The data were acquired and analyzed using the methods as mentioned above and instruments.

This study’s findings shed light on the applicability of webometrics in assessing the ETDs’findability and accessibility. It also sheds light on the significance of other parameters affecting discoverability and accessibility in ETDs. The study attempts to justify using a webometric approach to evaluate the platform aspect of ETDs. By focusing on discoverability, and accessibility, we provide a comprehensive website-evaluation approach to ETDs, which will aid in assessing the quality, influence, and standing of ETDs. This method will apply to other ETDs Platforms, and similar methods can also be developed in the future.

Practices for enhancing research visibility, citations and impact: review of literature | Emerald Insight

Posted on by
Reply

“Institutional and subject repositories are excellent locations to make research outputs publicly accessible. Researchers can share their research with the public through a variety of alternative dissemination mechanisms, including Research Gate, Academia.edu and others. One of the best effective techniques to boost a research paper’s visibility and number of citations is through open-access (OA) publication, because it makes the study publicly accessible from the very beginning. Researchers can boost their visibility, preserve their work and make it available for use in the future by making all of their outputs publicly accessible. Ogunleye (2019) made a study on “Some determinants of visibility boost for research publications among early career educational researchers in southwest, Nigeria”. In this study, he described that the early career of educational researchers in Southwest Nigeria looked into some determinants (shared reference databases, research profiles, publishing in OA, self-archiving, publication metadata, researcher profiles and social media platforms) for boosting visibility of the publication. A structured questionnaire on factors determining publication boost (r = 0.81) was utilised to collect data, and multiple regression analysis and the Pearson’s correlation approach were employed to evaluate the data. A significant positive correlation between each of the following was discovered in the results: joint reference databases (r = 0.17), Publication metadata (r = 0.23), result profiles (r = 0.44), open-access publishing (r = 0.27), self-archiving (r = 0.52), social media networks (r = 0.43) and accessibility of published work are all positively correlated with each other. The six variables had a positive correlation with the publication visibility (R = 0.60), and they were responsible for 32.9% of the gains invisibility of early career researchers’ publications. Norman (2012) conducted a research on “Maximizing Journal Article Citation Online: Readers, Robots, and Research Visibility”. Then he explained that online academic publications with peer review provide numerous advantages for researchers. They can enhance an article’s popularity and publicity, connect someone’s research to the relevant web of existing literature rapidly and add other scholars’ attention who will use it, increasing the likelihood of it being used. Also provided five basic areas to make the literature more popular which are choosing a search engine-friendly title, writing of abstracts and introductions, making the article easy to find, using of media and links, dissemination of articles after publication and emphasised on increasing a piece of content’s prospects of future downloads, citations and visibility.”

US Repository Network launches pilot to enhance discoverability of Open Access content in repositories

Posted on by
Reply

“In November, the US Repository Network (USRN) will launch a pilot project aimed at improving the discoverability of articles in repositories. This pilot project involves the use of services from CORE, a not-for-profit aggregator based at Open University in the UK, to evaluate and improve local repository practices. Additional technical support will be provided by Antleaf Ltd.

As part of the project, CORE will aggregate the metadata and full text of articles from a subset of US repositories, allowing them to be findable through a centralized discovery service with prominent links back to the original full text of the repository. At the same time, the project will assess current practices related to metadata quality, the tracking of Open Access deposits, the use of PIDs, technical support for OAI-PMH, and the adoption of more recent protocols, such as FAIR Signposting. At the level of the centralized aggregation, CORE will enrich the existing US metadata with information from its larger international aggregation. A Dashboard service for participating institutions will be provided, enabling them to assess, validate and monitor their practices.

The one-year project involves 18 repositories representing a variety of institutions, software types and repository models and will result in concrete recommendations and best practice guidelines for machine and human discoverability of research articles in US repositories.”

US Repository Network launches pilot to enhance discoverability of content in repositories

Posted on by
Reply

“COAR has been working with the US Repository Network (USRN) to connect and strengthen the position of repositories in the US.  With the advent of the recent OSTP Memorandum requiring Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research – which directs government research funders and agencies to adopt policies that require adopt immediate public access to articles – the need has become more urgent, especially in terms of effectively tracking research outputs.

The USRN is launching a pilot project aimed at improving the discoverability of articles in repositories. This pilot project involves the use of services from CORE (a not-for-profit aggregator based at Open University in the UK) to evaluate and improve local repository practices. Additional technical support will be provided by Antleaf Ltd.

The one-year project involves 18 repositories representing a variety of institutions, software types and repository models and will result in concrete recommendations and best practice guidelines for machine and human discoverability of research articles in US repositories.  The project will also lead to greater international interoperability of US research outputs.”

Open-Access-Metadaten: mehr Transparenz durch PIDs!  – TIB-Blog

Posted on by
Reply

Wie können offene Metadaten zu einer inklusiveren Open-Access-Kultur beitragen? Welche Voraussetzungen müssen geschaffen werden, damit von kommerziellen Verlagen unabhängige Zeitschriften in diesem Bereich konkurrenzfähig bleiben oder werden, um für Autor:innen attraktiv zu sein?

SoFAIR: The Open University to coordinate new international project to facilitate the reproducibility of research studies – CORE

Posted on by
Reply

“We are pleased to announce that the Open University has just been awarded a new research grant in the international CHISTERA Open Research Data & Software Call which aims to enhance the discoverability and reusability of open research software.

Open research software and data are pivotal for scientific innovation and transparency, but are often not cited as first-class bibliographic records. Much of these software mentions therefore remain concealed within the text of research papers, hampering their discoverability, attribution, and reuse. This, in turn, makes it harder to reproduce research studies. The SoFAIR project (from Making Software FAIR) aims to address this critical issue by enhancing the management of the research software lifecycle and ensuring research software and data adheres to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles. The project will build on the existing capabilities of the open scholarly infrastructures operated by the project partners. SoFAIR is a €499k international project coordinated by (1) The Open University in partnership with (2) INRIA, France; (3) Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic; (4) the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), Poland; and (5) The European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), United Kingdom. SoFAIR is funded under the 2022 CHIST-ERA Open and Reusable Research Data and Software (ORD) call.”

Borealis: The Canadian Dataverse Repository

Posted on by
Reply

“Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository, is a bilingual, multidisciplinary, secure, Canadian research data repository, supported by academic libraries and research institutions across Canada. Borealis supports open discovery, management, sharing, and preservation of Canadian research data….”

Digitization and the Market for Physical Works: Evidence from the Google Books Project – American Economic Association

Posted on by
Reply

Abstract:  The free digital distribution of creative works could cannibalize demand for physical versions, but it could also boost physical sales by enabling consumers to discover the original work. We study the impact of the Google Books digitization project on the market for physical books. We find that digitization significantly boosts the demand for physical versions and provide evidence for the discovery channel. Moreover, digitization allows independent publishers to introduce new editions for existing books, further increasing sales. Our results highlight the potential of free digital distribution to strengthen the demand for and supply of physical products.

 

Libraries and open access discovery

Posted on by
Reply

“The Open Access Discovery project is investigating how Dutch libraries integrate OA publications into their users’ discovery workflows. We hope the research will provide valuable evidence for libraries wanting to make their own discovery practices surrounding OA publications more effective. We interviewed library staff at seven universities and universities of applied sciences. We asked them about:

Exposing metadata for OA publications produced at their institution
Selecting and adding OA publications to their library collections
Helping their campus community discover OA publications
Collaborating with others to improve OA discoverability

The interviews were followed with a survey of their user communities. Users were asked about their experience searching for scholarly peer-reviewed publications, the barriers they encountered during access, and their experience with open access. Our data analysis is well underway, and we’re excited to begin sharing our findings….”

ResearchGate Newsroom | ResearchGate and Taylor & Francis partner to help researchers discover journals and access articles more easily

Posted on by
Reply

“ResearchGate, the professional network for researchers, and Taylor & Francis, a world-renowned academic publisher, today announced a new partnership, with 200 Taylor & Francis journals now available for researchers to discover on ResearchGate. 

All 200 titles will benefit from enhanced visibility and engagement through ResearchGate’s innovative Journal Home offering. Each journal will have a dedicated profile, accessible throughout the ResearchGate platform, and will be prominently represented on associated article pages and relevant touch points across the network.

Researchers will also be able read more than 60,000 version-of-record open access articles directly on the ResearchGate platform. Additional articles from 80 fully open access Taylor & Francis journals will continue to be added to this number as they are published in the future….”

Breathing new life into obsolete journals: a collaborative digitisation/open access project | UCL Copyright Queries

Posted on by
Reply

“Working collaboratively with colleagues in LCCOS and the wider Egyptology community has enabled us to make ‘Wepwawet: Research Papers in Egyptology’ available as open access through UCL Discovery, UCL’s open access repository.

Each year, thousands of academic journals publish innovative and exciting research. Some of these journals endure for decades; others rapidly become obsolete. They languish on library shelves, their contents forgotten.  The journal ‘Wepwawet: Research Papers in Egyptology’ (volumes 1-3, 1985-1987), produced and edited by PhD students from the former UCL Department of Egyptology, was one of these publications….

Making a digital copy of the journal open access supports its preservation, makes it discoverable and ensures that scholars – including native Egyptian scholars seeking to interpret their own past – can access, read and cite this research. A Creative Commons licence (CC BY) makes it possible for others to share and build upon this work, while attributing the original creators.”

Good practice with OER

Posted on by
Reply

“The LIBER Educational Resources working group wants to identify library discovery systems which make Open Educational Resources visible in an effective way. We are looking for examples of good practice and would like to hear your experiences.

 
In this survey we make a distinction between Open Access (OA) material and Open Educational Resources (OER). OER is defined by UNESCO as “learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open licence, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others.” (UNESCO Recommendation on OER, 2019). Not all Open Access material can be modified, adapted and then redistributed. Unlike traditionally copyrighted material, OER are available for “open” use, which means users can edit, modify, customise, and

share them. For the purposes of this survey anything with a NoDerivatives (ND) licence is not OER….”