Introducing the Work of the Open Access Repository Assessment and Alignment Project

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Posted by Michelle Doran

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14 February 2023

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Blog | News | OA Repository Assessment and Alignment | PublishOA

In this blog post, Dr. Cillian Joy, Digital Library Developer at University of Galway and Lead Investigator on the NORF-funded Priority Action targeting Open Access (OA) Repository Assessment and Alignment, introduces the work of the project and invites stakeholders to register their repositories as part of the project’s inventory of national OA repositories. Led by the University of Galway, this consortium of fourteen institutional and organisational partners addresses Action 4.1 of the NORF National Action Plan for Open Research 2022-2030: “Strengthen Ireland’s network of open access repositories”.

OA repositories are typically operated by research active institutions to openly publish their own research. This project starts a national programme of repository assessment and alignment and takes steps to develop a standardised national approach while aligning infrastructure with international best practices.

As a first step, the project is now creating an inventory of national OA repositories. Work will then proceed to audit the repository network to report on existing practices to identify strengths, gaps, and potential costs to fill gaps.

You can register your Repository by Thursday, 16 March 2023, at 17:00 here: https://forms.office.com/e/V5540dKdqc.

Scope and deliverables

This project is of national scope and includes all national open-access repositories and stakeholders. National stakeholders will be invited to contribute to this project via audits, workshops, surveys, interviews, and being part of the collective community. We fully acknowledge that all Irish OA repositories and people will contribute and ideally be part of the community being fostered.

The following are the main deliverables:

A database/inventory of repositories.
An audit report on existing practices for Irish repositories to identify strengths, gaps, and potential costs to fill gaps
An agreed and published national roadmap for OA repositories
An agreed metadata implementation standard for research publications
A cost report to bring national OA repositories to an agreed national standard from a technical, content, and workflow perspective
A set of community guidelines for metadata implementation
A governance approach to oversee compliance and quality in OA repositories
Guides to implement common and best-practice standards for technical infrastructure and service provision within the network
Pilot implementation in repositories

Why do we need this

The current issue, in brief, is that most Irish OA repositories take different approaches to metadata and have different methods of service management and delivery – and strategy. This variation poses significant challenges when we aim to present ourselves as a coherent collective internationally. Our approach to metadata is different and this affects how effectively we can work together. This project will start the journey to address these challenges by agreeing a robust metadata standard for interoperability of Irish repositories. Put another way, the project will align repositories by using the same metadata standard (the same fields) and at the granular level of data (ensuring the same type of data entered in the same way). It means, for example, author names are controlled and added in the same way in all Irish OA repositories.

The impact

The impact of the project will be seen in three areas:

repositories will have better quality metadata, with interoperability between members. There will also be an alignment to existing data standards, such as use of Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) in metadata
by aligning to a national roadmap, new repositories will have access to a template to join the network and ideally fast track their implementation
improved repositories and their metadata will provide a streamlined gateway to national and international research platforms and aggregators.

Nationally we will be coherent and organised whilst supporting evolving open access requirements in line with international best practice.

Next steps

We are beginning to engage with stakeholders to take part in the national audit. This is a key step to quantify the landscape to plan more exacting solutions. Also, expect community building from the project and engagement in drafting and reviewing the national metadata standard. A Project Manager for this work, who will be based out of the University of Galway, will likely be in place by April 2023.

Register your Repository by Thursday, 16 March 2023, at 17:00 here: https://forms.office.com/e/V5540dKdqc.

Finally, a big thank you to the project partners, whose collective vision drove us to this point and will continue delivering via this project. Thank you to NORF, of course, and our own institutions who see the value and benefits in us working together on this project. This is one of six national action plan open research funded projects that will run in parallel and will complement each other. This is just the start of the transition to open research, I think we are all on this journey together.