Repositories management, policies, and best practices RSP webinar 29th June 2012 Jackie Wickham Centre for Research Communications University of Nottingham

Green Route Picture by Darkos http://www.flickr.com/photos/darkos/

Outline Background – RSP and repository growth Value of institutional repositories Success - support, advocacy and integration Policies and content types Staffing and skills

RSP Aims More… Support repositories to be fit for purpose, content Support repositories to be fit for purpose, Standardised and Sustainable support repositories to be fit for purpose, standardised and sustainable re-use of content use of content

Project history - Initially a 2.5 year JISC funded project September 2006 – March 2009 Lead Institution – University of Nottingham Partner Institutions – University of Southampton, Aberystwyth University, Digital Curation Centre (University of Edinburgh), UKOLN (University of Bath). - Second phase April 2009 – July 2012 University of Nottingham

The RSP Offers…

Proportion of repositories by country

Finch Report “Barriers to access – particularly when the research is publicly funded - are increasingly unacceptable in an online world.” Image by Tobyotter

Recommendations Support for publication in open access or hybrid journals Research Councils and other public sector bodies funding research in the UK should arrangements to meet the costs of publishing in open access and hybrid journals

Is there a place for institutional repositories in a gold open access world?

OA Repositories – the benefits for institutions © The University of Nottingham 2010

Benefits for institutions Showcase for institutions research output Marketing mechanism – internally and externally REF and research management – repositories support process Complies with research body requirements for open access publishing Allows systematic management and preservation of assets Encourages collaboration and inter-disciplinary work Public engagement – community, business

Benefits for academics © The University of Nottingham 2010

Benefits for academics Faster dissemination Wider readership Increased citation Compliance with funders mandates Secure environment to store own research output Personalise services – statistics on downloads, personal profiles/bibliographies

“I’ve also had a number of international scholars and research students read my articles and listen to the music I have available in the repository. As a result, I am now pursuing collaborative research projects with music studios and researchers in Mexico and Norway” Monty Adkins, University of Huddersfield

How to make your repository successful

3 P’s – from the University of Glasgow We believe that we can also be seen as an institutional exemplar for the benefits of integration between research systems and a repository, particularly in the areas of: People (Relationships) Processes Policies Strong relationships between repository managers and staff at all levels are vital in supporting the deposit of content. We have extended this work beyond traditional advocacy activities to create active and ongoing partnerships with academic departments and staff working with the repositories. We have run a variety of workshops, met with Heads of Department and addressed departmental meetings. We have worked to address the local content and process needs of departments, for example the journal abbreviations for the Mathematics department. These include technical and administrative processes needed to join-up the existing elements of the research lifecycle which will facilitate the ease of deposit. These include a single sign-on system, a wide range of import and data capture options, including DOI via Crossref and ongoing support for copyright clearance by the University Library. The implementation of clear and sustainable workflows has been a critical factor in the success of Enlighten. With Enrich we have continued to refine our existing policies for deposit and the use of funder data. We have worked closely with Research & Enterprise in this work. People Processes Policies

Senior management support We felt it [the repository] was a big opportunity for the university to promote its research outputs in many ways it had not done before… we saw the Open Access agenda as a way of supporting that rekindling of promoting the university.” Professor Steve Beaumont, University of Glasgow

Senior management support Demonstrate the case Talk to influential people, make relationships Use other institutions as a benchmark – the competitive element Make the most of drivers – e.g. support for research assessment Set up a steering group with key people from research, library etc Formal policies approved by key management committees e.g. Research Committee

Advocacy Key element of embedding repositories in research culture Increases number of deposits Ensures continuation of resources for the repository Interactive – listening is as important as talking Address local/departmental concerns – ensure this voice in repository developments Cultural change is key.

Tips for Successful Advocacy Every institution will be different No one approach that succeeds for all Message and medium must be tailored Selling minutiae to ProVC is doomed to fail Be where the academics are Advocacy isn’t just top academics Administrators, support staff, opinion leaders Prepare a two minute pitch We often to provide too much information – make it attractive, credible, understandable. The REF & other quality assurance audits A route to your academics’ hearts New metric based approach suits repository functionality http://www.rsp.ac.uk/grow/advocacy/ The RAE & other quality assurance audits Directly affects personal and professional standing of academics. Academics are used to complying with odd requirements for information in respect to this already. Change to more metric based approach favours IRs as they can offer this data. Advocacy isn’t just top academics support staff, librarians, administrators etc All can convey message to academics Message and medium must be tailored to academic level and language Too easy to talk about process when should be covering key issues Common librarian failing to do this. Mandated deposit over voluntary to ensure enough material. Mandates and direction from research funders are especially effective ways to enable cultural change. They want to see an outcome from their investment and OAR items are a very effective way to see that. Very definite views on the importance of dissemination – demonstrates VFM. Solves Academics’ problem of how to show this.

Silos are the past… Sources: Flickr, silo by dsearl

Integrated and embedded Repositories are the future SwordAPP LDAP University of Glasgow, William Nixon

Integration Working towards a culture among researchers which leads them to view the repository as a natural tool for disseminating their research and for raising their profile, which will in turn increase the volume of actual outputs placed in the repository Ensuring that the repository is seen by both researchers and senior managers as part of the institutional research infrastructure rather than a separate information or data silo and is properly resourced to fulfil that role  

Integration Making certain that the process of deposit into the repository forms part of the workflow for research in as seamless a way as possible and avoiding duplication of effort Linking the repository to external systems (such as those of funders) and information sources (e.g. Web of Science), where appropriate Facilitating the search and discovery process to ensure that the repository’s contents are easily found and appropriately linked to other information such as staff profiles

Repository data feeds staff profiles

Over the past few years, there have been a number of JISC funded projects and other institutional initiatives which have focused the embedding of research repositories into organisational systems and workflows. The results have been documented in websites, blogs, conference presentations etc but they had not been synthesised into a coherent whole. This guide collates this learning and experience into a comprehensive and practical guide on how to embed a repository in an institution. It aims to help institutions get the best value from their research repositories by making sure they are an integral part of the systems, culture and processes – the message is don’t let your repository become a silo, link it in. www.rsp.ac.uk/embeddingguide

Policies Image by Terry Bain

To mandate or not to mandate?

Hands up if you have a mandate? Hands up if you have a publications policy?

Does it really matter what you call it? As long as you a policy and senior management buy in. Many academics don’t like the idea of compulsory.

Stevan Harnad http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/905-Finch-Fiasco-in-Figures.html

Other key policies Metadata Policy- for information describing items in the repository. Access to metadata; Re-use of metadata Data Policy - for full-text and other full data items. Access to full items; Re-use of full items Content Policy - for types of document and dataset held. Repository type; Type of material held; Principal languages

Other key polices Submission Policy - concerning depositors, quality and copyright. Eligible depositors; Deposition rules; Moderation; Content quality control; Publishers' and funders' embargos; Copyright policy Preservation Policy Retention period; Functional preservation; File preservation; Withdrawal policy; Withdrawn items; Version control; Closure policy http://www.opendoar.org/tools/en/policies.php

Compliance with copyright

Take down policy http://www.rsp.ac.uk/start/policies-and-legal-issues/take-down-policies/

Make your repository discoverable Be seen! Implement OAI-PMH Registering repositories Be visible to search engines

Be Seen!: implement OAI-PMH OAI-PMH = Open Archives Initiative-Protocol for Metadata http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/openarchivesprotocol.html “provides an application-independent interoperability framework based on metadata harvesting “ Also see: DRIVER Guidelines http://www.driver-support.eu/managers.html

Be Seen!: registering repositories OpenDOAR- http://www.opendoar.org ROAR - http://roar.eprints.org/ Openarchives.org - http://www.openarchives.org/Register/BrowseSites Your software community e.g DSpace instances http://www.dspace.org/whos-using-dspace/Repository-List.html OAIster - http://www.oclc.org/oaister/ BASE - http://www.base-search.net/ *http://www.rsp.ac.uk/usage/

Be Seen!: be visible to search engines Do Not! Require all visitors to have a username and password Set a 'robots.txt' file and/or use 'robots' meta tags in HTML headers that prevent search engine crawling Accept poor quality or restrictive PDF files   Hide your OAI Base URL Ensure you have a 'Browse' interface with hyperlinks between pages   Avoid awkward URLs - Many harvesters and firewalls will spit out or block: Numeric URLs - e.g. http://130.226.203.32/ URLs that use 'https:' instead of 'http:' URLs that include unusual port numbers e.g. :47231 Overlong URLs with arguments (any URL containing ‘?’) *http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/documents/ways-to-screw-up.html

Types of materials stored in repositories Journal articles Bibliographic references (metadata only) Books, sections and chapters Conference and workshop papers Theses and Dissertations Unpublished reports & working papers Datasets Educational resources and learning objects Multimedia and audio-visual materials Software Patents Repositories aim to make content accessible to wider user groups - sometimes at a global level. ‘Closed’ repositories are designed to support sharing within a specific group and are sometimes described as 'closed'

Focus on the creative arts Visibility Showcasing work Preservation Gallery content disappears Personal websites go down http://www.rsp.ac.uk/help/creativearts/ From Constance Howard Collection For reuse rights see VADS

Using Statistics Show the rate of deposit Number of downloads Where from Top 10 downloads

Usage statistics – University of Huddersfield Many universities are producing reports for different audiences – management reports, for individual researchers. Use of Google Analytics to present a very pictorial view of use.

Survey of UK Repository staff 29th July to 5th September 2010 SurveyMonkey Distributed via UKCoRR list 215 members (August 2010) and there were 84 respondents. Interviews with a couple of respondents http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1511/

Backgrounds of UK staff 95% first degree 74% post grad qualification 78.6% library background

Roles

Skills Libraries have taken on repositories because of traditional role of cataloguing and information management. And whilst these are important, they are not top of the list of skills identified by staff. In the survey. Communication is the most dominant term – not surprising given that main role of repository staff is to radically alter the process of scholarly communication, with their own interpersonal skills being the key weapon in their armoury. Many of the other skills listed such as the delivery of training and presentations and liaison with other departments in the university are linked to this. Strategic planning, project management and prioritisation were also common themes as well as accuracy and attention to detail. Many people highlighted the need for perseverance also using terms such as determination, patience and persistence. One respondent summed it up as “aka bloody minded obsession”!.

Further information on staffing RSP Repository staff and skills set http://www.rsp.ac.uk/documents/Repository_Staff_and_Skills_Set_2011.pdf UK Repositories including staffing levels: RSP wiki http://www.rsp.ac.uk/pmwiki/index.php?n=Institutions.HomePage JISC Recruitment toolkit http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/themes/informationenvironment/recruitment.aspx

Thanks for listening Questions?

Jackie Wickham Jacqueline.wickham@nottingham.ac.uk +44(0)115 8466389

Resources Repositories Support Project www.rsp.ac.uk Driver guidelines http://www.driver-support.eu/managers.html Confederation of Open Access Repositories http://www.coar-repositories.org/ OASIS http://tinyurl.com/68jrpk3 RCAAP How to create a repository http://tinyurl.com/bpmmgzc