convincing the institution: developing an institutional open archive of research publications at the...
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Convincing the Institution: Developing an Institutional Open Archive of Research Publications at the University
of Edinburgh
Morag Watson & Avril ConacherScience & Engineering Library,
Learning & Information Centre (SELLIC) ProjectUniversity of Edinburgh
Scotland, UK
University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
• Large, ancient research-led university• 22,000 students• 1,500 research-active staff• 3,750 research outputs per year• 4 Faculty Groups
– Arts/Music/Humanities– Law/Social Sciences/Education– Medicine/Veterinary Medicine– Science & Engineering
Infrastructure
• Solaris
• Apache
• Perl
• MySQL
• Perl Modules
Installation Issues• Existing Infrastructure
– Solaris– Apache– Perl
• Added for Eprints– MySQL– relevant Perl Modules
Installation Issues
• Using Solaris• Technical knowledge required
– apache, Perl, databases
• Server running other services– commercial software evaluations
• Server running other development projects
– other open source applications
Installation Issues
• Initial Installation Summer 2001– didn’t work– technical support from Southampton
• Reinstalled November 2001 – less complex technical environment – does work
• Currently : begun to think about installation of version 2.0
Current Status
• Pilot available to Library Staff
• Metadata requirement under consideration
• Searching requirements under consideration
• Loaded c. 60 papers to assist with evaluation of requirements
Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA)
• One institutional Open research archive sustained by self-archiving
• OAI makes an alternative to commercial publishing possible
• Library journal expenditure £1.8m per annum
• Savings to library
Content and customisation
• Depositing published research papers from Departments including Physics & Astronomy and Informatics
• All publications : conference, research papers and reports
• Development and customisation of interface for ease of submission begun
First steps to implementation
• Summer 2001 : approached academic departments with Eprints idea
• Response from them was mixed• Spring (?) 2002 : Attitudes have changed
slightly and researchers are more enthusiastic
First steps to implementation
• Library trying to participate in more inter-departmental projects and activities
• Library collaborating with development of VLE’s and courseware
• Have adopted a “Top down” approach at EU• And “Bottom up”• And occasionally sideways!
Why was there resistance at first?
• Library savings have only an indirect benefit to many of them
• Academic concerns
• Disciplines without preprint exchange cultures take more persuading (There was some confusion about eprints and preprints)
Why the library?
1 Trusted administrator of scholarly resources
2 Can run the machinery of self-archiving
3 Has the tools and skills to do metadata and preservation
4 Will apply metadata standards uniformly
Why the library?
5 Can monitor use of commercial journals and make savings
6 Resolver services will empower librarians to choose the free research corpus
7 Can deliver the new system near-seamlessly
8 Has experience of copyright negotiation
Strategy
1 Convince senior managers (Chair of Research Committee, Director of Planning, Director of Research Development, Vice-Principal Information Strategy etc)
2 Meet the researchers in their departments
3 Link to RAE (Research Assessment Ex.)
4 Promote institutional research profile
Strategy5 Respect disciplinary heterogeneity6 Do not make sweeping assumptions7 Free the time of academics to do more
research8 Emphasise conservatism (no threat to
existing publishing practices)9 Cancel subscriptions gradually and only on
basis of strong evidence10 Link to researcher database
Strategy11 View preprints as a bonus12 Respect the top journals13 Build on existing support for RAE
submission administration (‘fresh in their minds’)
14 Disciplinary vs institutional archives: not mutually exclusive
Strategy
15 Include researchers from disciplines without existing archives
16 Make allies of academics on editorial boards of commercial journals
17 Begin with a demonstrator
18 Attract additional internal and external funding
Copyright
• Copyright belongs to University• Researchers and authors should
assert their right to their intellectual property
• University will perhaps assert its copyright over material
• Threat from commercial vendors, for example “electronic courseware”
The IPR scale of assertiveness
• ‘I retain only the right to distribute it for free for scholarly/scientific purposes …’
• ‘The University of Edinburgh is authorised to reproduce and distribute reprints and on-line copies for their purposes notwithstanding any copyright annotation hereon.’
• ‘This licence entitles the publisher to publish the article only in a single issue of The Journal of …’
