Cross-linking and Referencing Data and Publications in
CLADDIER
Brian Matthews, E-Science Centre,
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
About CLADDIER
Bryan Lawrence (PI, BADC)Sam Pepler (Project Manager, BADC)
Sue Latham (BADC)Pauline Simpson (NOCS)
Jessie Hey (Southampton)Brian Matthews (STFC)Catherine Jones (STFC)
Alistair Miles (STFC)Katie Portwin (STFC)Shoaib Sufi (STFC)Kevin O’Neil (STFC)
Katherine Bouton (Reading, NCAS)
Citation, Location and Deposition in Discipline and Institutional Repositories
Funded via a JISC grant, through the Digital Repositories programme - July 2005-Oct 2007
Citation and linking in repositories
In order to achieve this scenario we need to provide a set of key mechanisms
• Publishing of Data
– Conventions for the citation of data– Can then treat data citation in similar way to publications
• Browsing and searching– across different repositories– across data and publication
• Cross-citation of data and publication– forward and backward citation– need to maintain currency of citation links – A simple mechanism to push citation information between repositories
A practical look at citation of data and how repositories could communicate citation information.
Data PublicationIn this context “publication” is defined as the process through which data is fixed and made
retrievable over the long term, and may imply that there has been some quality control process.
– Defining data : fixing and encapsulating a “meaningful” data set
– Quality Control : Publishers, Data Centres
Natural Environment Research Council, Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere Radar Facility [Thomas, L.; Vaughan, G.] . Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere Radar Facility at Aberystwyth, [Internet]. Version 2, Cartesian products. British Atmospheric Data Centre (BADC), 1990- [cited 2006 Apr 25]. Available from http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/mst.
Browsing and SearchingBrowsing and searching
• across different repositories• across data and publication
CLADDIER has provided a harvesting and search tool to support cross-repository searching
Discovery ServiceThe Discovery Service gives a broad-brush search
• Give you both publications and data sets
• indexed by keyword
Google across repositories.
Uses OAI-PMH – a conventional approach
• Simple – but it works!• Simple key-word searching• Three participating repositories in the pilot: BADC, STFC ePubs, SOTON ePrints
Adding Cross-Citations
Traditional Citation
Cross Citation
Cannot tell whether the data and publication are actually related.– what data and
publications inspire a piece of work (generating a new data set)
– what publications arise from a data set
We need to exploit the concept of cross-
citation to see whether items are actually
related.
Maintaining LinksIdeally the archives holding the datasets and publications would be notified that a paper citing them had been submitted.
– Metadata associated with those records would be updated to reflect the citations.
– The metadata in the publication repository should also link to the metadata in the data archives and vice versa.
– It would be great if this notification could be done automatically.
• Tedious to enter citations• “forward citations” (“cited-by”) are hard to track
We adapted a protocol from the world of Blogging– Trackback– Designed to allow cross-referencing of blog articles – Extended to allow richer metadata
Trackback Protocol
Sender Publication
This publication has a citation to a technical report
Adds Citation
Sends trackback call to this URI
Embedded Metadata
Trackback URI
Formats accepted
After Trackback – cited-by link added
Receiver Publication
Added this cited by link
Notes on Trackback•A simple existing protocol
– P2P – loosely federates repositories
– Extended to carry metadata of the citation
– To add “cited-by” links•Can also indicate which metadata is expected
– Simple Dublin Core – ePrints Application
Profile•Can also use the metadata of the receiver
– Improves the citation metadata
•Implemented in ePubs– Also partially in BADC– Receiver only – send
email to admin.
Some problems or extensions are under consideration•Link to metadata– not full text•Spamming – anyone could send trackbacks
– Whitelists– Administrator intervention
•Multiple entries– Same citation multiple times– Same citation in different
repositories•Retraction of citation
– A delete protocol
Conclusions
CLADDIER supports the scientific process with federated repositories
This requires the cross-linking network of information objects.
Which needs to be stored, maintained and searchedNow doing some user testing
Tools and ideas relatively straightforwardLots of gluing of existing components
Keep it simple – so it will get used
http://claddier.badc.ac.uk/