EIFL webinar on embedding repositories

Event Date: 16 Dec 2014

Online

Embedding a repository implies that it is no longer a separate data silo, cut off from the mainstream of the institution’s overall research management processes.

Do you want to know more about embedding repositories into institutional processes, systems and culture to improve access to the institution’s research outputs and links between research output and overall expertise and personal skills? Then join EIFL webinar to learn more about the main strategies for embedding repositories and to discuss advantages, barriers and good practice approaches.

Moreover, by promoting institutional repository interoperability with other systems both at internal and external level, new ways can be found for advancing into a more comprehensive open access implementation. The second part of the webinar will explore how this is presently being done in different countries and for different purposes.

William Nixon of Enlighten – the University of Glasgow’s institutional repository, will present a good practice approach of using a repository as a research publications database. In this embedding scenario, the repository also becomes the central publications database, holding both metadata records and full text/other outputs. It is linked with other elements of the research management infrastructure; as far as metadata is concerned, the most important elements are likely to be project and funding data and staff and research student identity information.

Pablo de Castro, a euroCRIS Board member, will explore why and how the interoperability of institutional repositories and Current Research Information Systems (CRIS) should be implemented in order to provide rich contextual information (project, funding, people & organisations) to the otherwise frequently detached information on institutional outputs (including publications and data). See more in the COAR Repository Observatory Third Edition on IR and CRIS: "7 things you should know about…Institutional Repositories, CRIS Systems, and their Interoperability".

Date: December 16

Time: 13:00 GMT

Target audience: repository managers, librarians and research administrators.

How to register: please register here.

How to participate: go to instantpresenter and enter this password: EIFL1612

All you will need is an internet-connected computer with sound (and maybe headphones if you are in a busy room).

To check if your computer will be able to access the session successfully, please go to: instantpresenter

About embedding repositories into institutional processes, systems and culture

(Based on RSP’s practical guide to embedding research repositories into institutional processes, systems and culture).

Three scenarios below illustrate the major features of different approaches to embedding repositories:

Scenario 1: embedding a repository which acts as the core research publications database for an institution.

Scenario 2: embedding a repository within a research eco-system which includes a Current Research Information System (CRIS).

Scenario 3: Using the repository functions of a CRIS itself.

While the key requirements for successful embedding in the culture and workflows of the research community in a university apply across all the scenarios, the challenges in terms of people, processes and technologies differ.

The main strategies likely to support embedding are those which imply improved access to the institution’s research outputs and links between research output, overall expertise and personal skills. This may mean (for example) a focus on the national research assessment exercise, increasing research income from outside the country, or perhaps a strong emphasis on the value of an embedded repository for engagement with businesses and the community in joint research projects. Institutional strategies may also indicate internal priorities (such as efficient use of ICT systems or reducing duplication of processes) that will support embedding.

There are the following benefits of an embedded repository:

Improved visibility of the institution’s research outputs by increasing the range of channels that give access and are indexed;
Increased visibility may increase the institutions research income;
Increased opportunity for collaborative work with other institutions;
Increased opportunity for work with businesses and the community;
More effective organisation for submitting outputs for the national research assessment exercise;
A comprehensive, bibliographically managed database of research outputs;
A single managed workflow for making research outputs available in a variety of repositories;
Linking research projects and their outputs more efficiently;
Increasing the number of full text items in the repository.

When the repository fulfills the function of a central publications database as well as the function of storing, preserving and facilitating access to full research outputs (or linking to them, if the object is in another open access repository) (Scenario 1), it is embedded in a number of ways:

Because of its reporting and performance measurement functions it is connected more firmly both to researchers’ workflows and to research management and thereby to one of the central strategic missions of the university;
It is able to add value for researchers through the provision of publication information direct to their online profile pages as well as links to full-text;
It adds value to the research management and library functions through the provision of business intelligence about, for example, which journals a university’s researchers are publishing in, how that has changed and how it relates to the journals which are subscribed to;

As well as the motivation stemming from the reporting function, there is the motivation to see a current complete or selected bibliography online; this can also increase deposit of full-text in the context of maximising impact and citations;
It eliminates some duplication of effort because researchers or other staff do not have to add information both to a publications database and a repository.

When the repository acts as the store for actual publications or other research outputs, while the CRIS acts as the master database for research management and publications information, interacting with other internal and external systems, such as those of research funders (Scenario 2), the CRIS provides rich contextual information for the research available in the linked repository. Workflows are configured to minimise duplication of entry and maximise the re-use of information. The repository focuses on making research discoverable and available through links to researchers’ profiles, and to other repositories.

Another good practice approach is when an institution implements a CRIS with integrated repository functions from the start or phases out its repository when the CRIS has been modified to perform all the necessary processes currently fulfilled by the repository (Scenario 3).

The main positive implication for the repository of being embedded is that it will capture a greater proportion of research outputs produced by its institution.

And most important benefits of embedded repositories for researchers include the following: