What do scientific authors want?Attracting scientists to institutional

repositories

Saskia Franken, February 13, 2004

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Igitur, Utrecht Publishing and Archiving Services

Mission:

• supporting Utrecht scientists in electronic publishing• more general: enhancing scientific communication

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Two types of e-publishing support

1. the digital institutional repository of Utrecht University Library

2. other publication platforms such as electronic journals

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Igitur publishing activities

A few examples

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Utrecht institutional repository

• contains approximately 2000 documents

• document types:

• articles: preprints and reprints

• theses

• student-theses

• research papers, speeches, etc.

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Utrecht institutional repository

• tools: partly developed in-house, i.e.

• uploadform

• Utrecht search facilities

• currently implementing Dspace

• participant in DARE project

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The key question: how to attract scientists to our repository?

How to gather (more) content?

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1. get support of the University Board

3. just start: good practices, snowball effect

4. collaborate with others (i.e. DARE)

5. make publishing as easy as possible

6. make the benefits clear

2. publicity

7. offer special, attractive services

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1. get support of the University Board

3. just start: good practices, snowball effect

4. collaborate with others (i.e. DARE)

5. make publishing as easy as possible

6. make the benefits clear

2. publicity

7. offer special, attractive services

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Publicity

• Igitur official launch: symposium 21 november

• further pr: visiting faculties, research institutes etc.

• Adverts, articles in university paper

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1. get support of the University Board

3. just start: good practices, snowball effect

4. collaborate with others (i.e. DARE)

5. make publishing as easy as possible

6. make the benefits clear

2. publicity

7. offer special, attractive services

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1. get support of the University Board

3. just start: good practices, snowball effect

4. collaborate with others (i.e. DARE)

5. make publishing as easy as possible

6. make the benefits clear

2. publicity

7. offer special, attractive services

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1. get support of the University Board

3. just start: good practices, snowball effect

4. collaborate with others (i.e. DARE)

5. make publishing as easy as possible

6. make the benefits clear

2. publicity

7. offer special, attractive services

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Make publishing easy

• It is easy to upload an article (uploadform) in our repository

• Professional support: Igitur team functions as a helpdesk

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Make publishing easy

• It is easy to upload an article (uploadform) in our repository

• Professional support: Igitur team functions as a helpdesk

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1. get support of the University Board

3. just start: good practices, snowball effect

4. collaborate with others (i.e. DARE)

5. make publishing as easy as possible

6. make the benefits clear

2. publicity

7. offer special, attractive services

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Benefits• worldwide visibility

• freely accessible

• search facilities

• fast and easy publication

• no charge

• long term preservation

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1. get support of the University Board

3. just start: good practices, snowball effect

4. collaborate with others (i.e. DARE)

5. make publishing as easy as possible

6. make clear the benefits of your repository

2. make publicity

7. offer special, attractive services

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Special services• Igitur offers various points of access

• Igitur offers a printing-on-demand service

• Igitur offers the possibility of publications on a special occasion

• publications of famous Utrecht scientists, the showroom of Utrecht repository

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Special services• Igitur offers various points of access

• Igitur offers a printing-on-demand service

• Igitur offers the possibility of publications on a special occasion

• publications of famous Utrecht scientists, the showroom of Utrecht repository

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Special services• Igitur offers various points of access

• Igitur offers a printing-on-demand service

• Igitur offers the possibility of publications on a special occasion

• publications of famous Utrecht scientists, the showroom of Utrecht repository

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Special services• Igitur offers various points of access

• Igitur offers a printing-on-demand service

• Igitur offers the possibility of publications on a special occasion

• publications of famous Utrecht scientists, the showroom of Utrecht repository

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Other services

• reader statistics

• web marketing

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There are also some problems...

• copyright issues

• low status of a publication in the repository

• overlap with METIS, Utrecht University’s registration system of scientific publications

• what is the added value of publishing in a repository when publications are already registered in PubMed, Web of Science etc.

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More information: www.igitur.nl

Thank you for your attention