Reusing and repurposing metadata in a
Current Research Information System and
Institutional Repository
3 June 2010
Robin Armstrong Viner
Cataloguing Manager, Library & Historic Collections
University of Aberdeen
www.abdn.ac.uk/dit
An opportunity?

2008-09 – Review of the University’s existing
publications database:
 Lessons learned from the Research
Assessment Exercise 2008 (RAE 2008)
 Likely requirements of the Research
Excellence Framework (REF)
 Data quality issues
 Technical support issues
 Usability issues
Library & Historic Collections
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Championing the user

Existing publications database:
 Time consuming:
•
•

Inconsistent:
•
•

Only publications selected for RAE 2008 checked
Changes made outside the database
Incomplete:
•
•

All publications entered manually
Separate workflow for adding publications to our full text
institutional repository – the Aberdeen University Research Archive
(AURA)
Between 90% (2005) to 60% (2008) of publications recorded
Less than 3% of publications added to AURA
Isolated
•
•
No web interface
No integration with the University web pages for individual members
of staff
Library & Historic Collections
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Pure

Spring 2009 – Pure from Atira selected as the
University’s Current Research Information
System (CRIS):
 Offered synchronisation with the
University’s existing data sources (HR,
research grants)
 Offered integration with external data
sources (ArXiv, PubMed, Web of Science)
 Offered integration with Institutional
Repository
 Offered portal and CV modules
 Improved usability
Library & Historic Collections
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Synchronisation
Library & Historic Collections
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Integration with external data sources
Library & Historic Collections
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Portal
Library & Historic Collections
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Partnerships

Pure – joint procurement with the University of St
Andrews:
 Separate installations of a single data model

DSpace – externally hosted solution supported by the
Scottish Digital Library Consortium (SDLC):
 AURA is one of five Scottish repositories hosted by
SDLC, including St Andrews’ Digital Research
Repository (DRR)
 Separate installations of the same integration
model

Web of Science, Scopus, etc – joint negotiations with
Atira, St Andrews (and now other members of the
Pure UK User Group)
Library & Historic Collections
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Improving the user experience

Individual members of staff (or their designated
administrators) can:
 Import bibliographic data via:
•
•

ArXiv, PubMed and Web of Science Application Programming
Interfaces (APIs) – access to the Scopus API is currently under
negotiation
BibTex and RefMan
Link research outputs to:
•
•
•
•
Current, former and honorary members of staff –
synchronised with the University’s HR system
Projects – synchronised with the University’s research grants
database
Events, impact cases and professional activities created by
themselves and other members of staff – linking to other
research outputs is currently being developed
Journals and publishers – from authority lists maintained in
Pure by the AURA team
Library & Historic Collections
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Improving the user experience
Library & Historic Collections
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Improving the user experience

Individual members of staff (or their designated
administrators) can:
 Add the full text for inclusion in AURA
 Display their research outputs through the portal:
•
•
•


Browsable by department, professional activities,
publications and staff
Searchable by keyword
Includes links to the full text in AURA
Select their research outputs to be included in on their
University web pages – currently being developed as
part of the CV module
Export the bibliographic data for their research outputs
to:
•
BibTex, HTML, Microsoft Office (Excel and Word), PDF and
RefMan – an export to Endnote is currently being developed
Library & Historic Collections
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Improving the user experience
Library & Historic Collections
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Preparing the ground

Spring 2009 onwards – Research Information System Project Board:

Vice Principal for Research & Commercialisation

Heads of research of the College of Arts & Social Sciences, the
College of Life Sciences & Medicine and the College of Physical
Sciences

Commercialisation Officer

Directorate of Information Technology and Library & Historic
Collections

Autumn 2009–Spring 2010 – Communication with research staff:

Strong support from the incoming Principal & Vice-Chancellor

Letters from the Vice Principal for Research & Commercialisation

Regular email updates from the Project Director

Demonstrations and presentations to departments by the Project
Director

Support website, documentation and webinars from prepared by the
Documentation team
Library & Historic Collections
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Laying the groundwork


Summer 2009 – Agreed to pre-populate Pure with
data from Web of Science
Existing data passed to Thomson Reuters who
returned three data sets:
 Existing data enhanced with Web of Science
data – loaded as ‘Validated’
 Existing data which could not be matched to
Web of Science data – loaded as ‘For
Validation’
 Web of Science data linked to the University by
Thomson Reuters which could not be matched
to the existing data – loaded as ‘For Validation’
Library & Historic Collections
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Building the repository

March 2010
 Mid-term research review announced

5 April 2010
 Pure launched
 AURA re-launched

5-30 April 2010
 Number of research outputs increases by 20%
 Potential 35% increase to the content of AURA
Library & Historic Collections
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User workflow

There is a single user workflow in Pure which allows individual members
of staff to:

Add their research outputs – including the full text:
•
The bibliographic data displays immediately in the portal (and in future on
their University web pages) unless:
–
–
•
•

The research output has not been published
They choose not to make the bibliographic data publically available
Either they are notified that the research output has been validated and the
full text made available in AURA if it was attached
Or the research output is returned to them with a request for more
information or the appropriate version of the full text
Update their research outputs – including adding the full text:
•
•
•
•
The bibliographic data will be updated immediately on the portal (and in
future on their University web pages) if it has been changed
The full text will be temporarily removed from AURA if it had previously been
made available
Either they are notified that the research output has been re-validated and
the full text made available in AURA if it was attached
Or the research output is returned to them with a request for more
information or the appropriate version of the full text
Library & Historic Collections
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User workflow
Library & Historic Collections
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Repository workflow

There is a single repository workflow in Pure which allows the AURA
team to:

Validate published research outputs:
•
•
•
•

Re-validate published research outputs updated by individual
members of staff:
•
•


Checking the bibliographic data
Checking the full text against Sherpa Romeo
Either triggering the transfer of the full text to AURA, setting the embargo if
appropriate
Or returning the research output to the individual member of staff requesting
more information or the appropriate version of the full text
Either triggering the transfer of the full text to AURA, setting the embargo if
appropriate
Or returning the research output to the individual member of staff requesting
more information or the appropriate version of the full text
The full text is transferred to the appropriate collection in AURA once
any embargo has passed
AURA returns the handle to Pure which is then passed through to the
portal and the individual member of staff’s web page
Library & Historic Collections
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Repository workflow
Library & Historic Collections
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Next steps

Improve the workflow:

Ability to merge research outputs

Additional bibliographic data transferred to AURA

Better handling of research outputs linked to multiple departments
in AURA

Enhance the management information available:

Bibliometrics from InCites

REF module to manage future submissions and exchange data
through Common European Research Project Information Format
(CERIF)

Increase the sources of bibliographic data and options to reuse it:

CV module , export to Endnote, Scopus API, updating service from
Web of Science

Encourage individual members of staff to include the full text

Improve the visibility of the ‘Add document’ section

Integrate SHERPA RoMEO and future JULIET APIs
Library & Historic Collections
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