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

2. Green Route
Picture by Darkos

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. The RSP Offers…

8. Proportion of repositories by country

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

10. 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

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

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

13. 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

14. Benefits for academics
© The University of Nottingham 2010

15. 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

16. “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

17. How to make your repository successful

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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.

22. 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
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.

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

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

25. 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

26. 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

27. Repository data feeds staff profiles

28. 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.

29. Policies
Image by Terry Bain

30. To mandate or not to mandate?

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

32. 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.

33. Stevan Harnad

34. 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

35. 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

36. Compliance with copyright

38. Take down policy

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

40. Be Seen!: implement OAI-PMH
OAI-PMH = Open Archives Initiative-Protocol for Metadata
“provides an application-independent interoperability framework based on metadata harvesting “
Also see: DRIVER Guidelines

41. Be Seen!: registering repositories
OpenDOAR-
ROAR -
Openarchives.org -
Your software community
e.g DSpace instances
OAIster -
BASE - *

42. 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.
URLs that use ' instead of '
URLs that include unusual port numbers e.g. :47231
Overlong URLs with arguments (any URL containing ‘?’) *

43. 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'

44. Focus on the creative arts
Visibility
Showcasing work
Preservation
Gallery content disappears
Personal websites go down
From Constance Howard Collection
For reuse rights see VADS

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

49. 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.

50. 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

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

52. Roles

53. 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”!.

54. Further information on staffing
RSP Repository staff and skills set
UK Repositories including staffing levels: RSP wiki
JISC Recruitment toolkit

55. Thanks for listening Questions?

56. Jackie Wickham
+44(0)

57. Resources Repositories Support Project www.rsp.ac.uk
Driver guidelines
Confederation of Open Access Repositories
OASIS
RCAAP How to create a repository