ePrints UK: a service provider project

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ePrints UK a service provider project

• Ruth Martin
• UKOLN, University of Bath
• r.martin_at_ukoln.ac.uk

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A few definitions first

• An e-print is an electronic copy of an academic
  research paper, either before the stage of
  refereeing and acceptance by a scholarly journal
  (pre-print) or after (post-print).

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Definitions continued

• An e-print archive is a repository of metadata
  and sometimes the full text of e-print papers. It
  provides a simple interface to allow the
  depositer to enter the metadata for the article
  as well as attaching the full text.

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OAI-compliant e-print archives

• share the same metadata to make their contents
  interoperable with one another and thus allow the
  metadata to be harvested by other OAI-compliant
  archives.

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Why archive?

• online articles are more highly cited because
  of easier availability" 
• Steve Lawrence, Nature (2001) vol 411, no. 6837,
  p.521.

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More definitions

• The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for
  Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) provides an
  interoperability framework for metadata
  harvesting.
• A data provider is a source repository of
  e-print metadata records. A service provider
  harvests those records using the OAI-PMH.

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ePrints UK

• A service provider project
• Funded by JISC under the FAIR programme
• http//www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/development/programmes
  /fair.html
• Partnered by the Resource Discovery Network
  (RDN), University of Southampton, and OCLC.

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ePrints UK architecture
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A technical project?

• Shortage of UK based e-print archives
• Shortage of records in those archives
• Bias towards scientific and technological
  subjects
• Cultural, managerial, legal, and technical
  barriers to overcome.

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How to tackle the record shortage problem?

• Harvest from international archives
• But were called ePrints UK!
• Help other FAIR projects to advocate the
  development of e-print (and e-thesis) archives
  and the practice of self-archiving.

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Barriers

• IPR issues
• Quality control
• Inertia
• Politics
• Institutional identity v subject identity

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For some answers

• Try the SPARC Institutional Repository
  Checklist and Resource Guide
• The Scholarly Publishing Academic Resources
  Coalition (SPARC)
• www.arl.org/sparc/IR/IR-Guide.html

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ePrints UK needs you!

• Ruth Martin
• r.martin_at_ukoln.ac.uk
• Tel [phone]
• UKOLN
• University of Bath
• Bath
• BA2 7AY