sheila cannell project director

Electric Connections, Edinburgh, March 11 2008

Sheila CannellProject Director

'Institutional Repository Infrastructure for Scotland'


IRIScotland

• JISC funded project, with recent extension

• Collaborative project bringing together main players in Scotland, initiated by SCURL, sponsored by NLS, SLIC and all Scottish Universities

• Work packages involved Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Strathclyde (CDLR), NLS, Stirling, Abertay


Outline of talk

• Scottish research and institutional repositories• Aims of IRIScotland• The changing landscape• Project recommendations


Scottish Research and Institutional repositories

• Scottish research punches above its weight• Most outputs are published in journals not available to all

and not visible to other researchers• Publicly funded research should be publicly available• Scottish Declaration on Open Access• Author’s webpages, subject repositories, institutional

repositories• IRs can help with research management also• IRs and not just for research


Aims of IRIScotland

1. To bring about cultural change

2. To establish a framework for institutional repositories; and provide a hosted repository; and to provide a cross searching or harvesting repository

3. To explore what should be done at international, UK, Scottish, and institutional level


The changing landscape• Changes in research agenda:

– research pooling; – Research Assessment Exercise, now Research Excellence

Framework

• Work at National Library of Scotland on Trusted Digital Repository

• Less change than expected worldwide in scholarly communications until recently

• Development of other hosting repositories


Current situation

• Cultural change moving more rapidly now• Toolkit and advocacy in place• Hosting repository• Harvester repository• Collaboration• Project extension to take these issues forward


Project recommendations• Successor group established• Summative evaluation commissioned• Hosting service incorporated in NLS TDR with view to

continued development• Harvester service being maintained by CDLR• Seek metadata agreement• Seek Open Access mandate/requirement at institutional

and national level• Continue to collaborate on these issues

The context and

ways forward

Alma Swan

Key Perspectives Ltd

Truro, UK



The wider repository context in which IRIScotland sits

• Institutional repository developments– >1000 worldwide– Growing at 1 per day– Some collaborative repositories

• ‘Central’ (subject-based) repositories – e.g. arXiv, RePEc, EconomistsOnline

The cultural context• Researcher awareness remains low (but

now growing…)

• Institutional leadership still not engaged

• Current modus operandi is very deep set

• Reward system slow to shift to match new technologies and opportunities:– remains rooted in journal prestige (JIF)– new measures and metrics now possible


The policy context• Metrics… (research assessment systems in

UK [HEFCE] and Australia)

• Research funders (request or require?):– UK Research Councils– Australian Research Council and AMRC– Austrian, German, Swiss, NIH …– European Research Council

• Institutions, departments, faculties (Harvard)Electric Connections, Edinburgh, March 11 2008

Ways forward: three-pronged• Advocacy to researchers

• Advocacy to institutional leaders (and higher)

• Promote Scottish ‘view’: a tool for …– showcasing Scottish research– promoting Scottish education– enabling innovation and knowledge transfer,

boosting economic competitiveness

• Build services that will capture researchers’ attention and contribute to culture change


Thank you for listening

aswan@keyperspectives co.uk

www.keyperspectives.co.uk


sheila cannell project director

Documents

universities of edinburgh

abertay electric connections

ukelectric connections

scotlandelectric connections

researchelectric connections

issueselectric connections

research agenda

research management