FAIR Synthesis: Theses Alive! : JISC

FAIR Synthesis: Theses Alive!

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The Theses Alive! project has developed a pilot system for the management of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs*). This has involved the implementation of an Open Archives Initiative-compliant thesis repository system, including the creation of an add-on to support submission, called TAPIR, and the testing of an infrastructure to enable ETDs to be published on the web by institutions. The management of ETDs at the University of Edinburgh has sat alongside the development of an overall Edinburgh Research Archive covering ETDs, e-prints and other research outputs. This experience has fed back into the project.

* ETDs, or electronic theses and dissertations, is the internationally used term for e-theses

Further information is available via the JISC project page and the project website. The final report from the project is also available.

Outputs from the project include the implementation and extension of DSpace software, an ETD collection, extensive supporting documentation, a series of reports and guidance (including legal), an advocacy event, and a range of publications and presentations. Theses Alive! has also established links with related projects, primarily with the DSpace community.

Contact

Theo Andrew

Edinburgh University Library
University of Edinburgh
George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9LJ

Email: theo.andrew@ed.ac.uk
Tel: 0131 651 1612

Software

The project originally implemented DSpace software version 1.1 for the creation and development of an ETD archive for the University of Edinburgh. This software is also the basis of the Edinburgh Research Archive, which, through a combination of activities in the Theses Alive! and SHERPA projects, seeks to record the research outputs from the University of Edinburgh. The archive is available at http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/index.jsp and represents the service outcome as well as software output from the project.

The TAPIR (Theses Alive Plug-in for Institutional Repositories) DSpace add-on version 0.3 has been developed to enable supervised authoring of dissertations and theses, and general submission to the archive of e-prints and e-theses. This software, which is compatible with DSpace 1.2, and a description of its role and functionality is available at http://www.thesesalive.ac.uk/dsp_home.shtml. An earlier version, 0.2.1 is also available for use with DSpace 1.1. TAPIR is being further developed beyond the lifetime of the project, and all future releases will be made available through the TAPIR SourceForge site at http://sourceforge.net/projects/tapir-eul/ - the 0.4.2 version is now available as at December 2005. It is also planned to incorporate TAPIR within the main DSpace system in a future release. As of December 2004, the software had been downloaded 42 times.

Content

As of December 2004, there were over 200 ETDs available through ERA.

Supporting documentation

An extensive collection of supporting information for TAPIR is available as follows:

Installation, available at http://www.thesesalive.ac.uk/dsp_installation.shtml
Documentation, available at http://www.thesesalive.ac.uk/dsp_documentation.shtml
Known bugs and future developments – refer to the SourceForge site for TAPIR at http://sourceforge.net/projects/tapir-eul/
Version history, available at http://www.thesesalive.ac.uk/dsp_version_history.shtml
Workflow operation underpinning TAPIR, available at http://www.thesesalive.ac.uk/dsp_archive.shtml

Documentation has also been developed to support ERA, and is listed here for reference. Both are available at http://www.thesesalive.ac.uk/dsp_archive.shtml

DSpace Installation and Systems Administration Procedures for the Edinburgh Research Archive
ERA Administration Guide

Reports

Project reports (available at http://www.thesesalive.ac.uk/arch_reports.shtml)

Initial proposal for DSpace workflow procedure for e-theses, Richard Jones, March 2004
Theses submission procedure at Edinburgh University, Richard Jones, March 2004
Metadata schema comparison, Richard Jones, September 2003
Metadata schemas/DTDs for ETDs, Richard Jones, September 2003
DSpace and ETD-db comparative evaluation, Richard Jones, August 2003

Event reports (available at http://www.thesesalive.ac.uk/arch_events.shtml)

DSpace User Group Meeting report, Richard Jones and William Nixon, 10-11th March 2004
4th OA Forum Workshop report, Richard Jones and Theo Andrew, 3-5th September 2003
JISC IPR Workshop report, Theo Andrew, 29th May 2003
ETD 2003 report, Richard Jones and Theo Andrew, 20-23rd May 2003
UKSG OAI seminar report, Theo Andrew, 14th May 2003

Guidance

Theses Alive! has made the following guidance available, including a Briefing Paper commissioned by the JISC Legal Advisory Service

Intellectual Property and Electronic Theses, a JISC Legal Briefing Paper, Theo Andrew, available at http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/publications/ethesesandrew.htm
Information for Submitters of theses website FAQ, available at http://www.thesesalive.ac.uk/ta_submitters_faq.shtml
ERA also offers a general Deposit Guide, available through the repository at http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/help/deposit-guide.jsp

Event

Capturing Edinburgh’s Research, a half-day seminar at the University of Edinburgh, 23rd October 2003. Details are available at http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/news/cernews.shtml.

Links with related projects

The project team has worked with the e-theses projects at the University of Glasgow (DAEDALUS) and The Robert Gordon University (Electronic Theses) along with the British Library to share experiences and agree on a UK Metadata Core Set for ETDs
Richard Jones is a member of the DSpace Committers Group and the DSpace Implementation Group for the NDLTD
The University of Edinburgh is also a partner institution in the SHERPA project
EThOS project - this JISC-funded collaborative project will extend the findings from the FAIR ETD activities and projects, and investigate the practical applicability of a national ETD solution. The University of Edinburgh is a partner in the project.

Publications

Jones, R. and Andrew, T., Open access, open source and e-theses: the development of the Edinburgh Research Archive, Program, 2005 39(3):198-212

Jones, R., In brief: TAPIR (Theses Alive Plugin for Institutional Repositories), D-Lib, 2004 10(12), available at http://www.dlib.org/dlib/december04/12inbrief.html#JONES
MacColl, J., FAIR creates a new ERA for Edinburgh, Short report included in: Open Access in Scotland: Punching Above Our Weight? WIDWISAWN, 2004 2(4), available at http://widwisawn.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/issues/vol2/issue2_4_2.html#fair
Jones, R., The Tapir: Providing E-Theses Functionality for DSpace, Ariadne, 2004, Issue 41, available at http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue41/jones/
Andrew, T., Theses Alive!: an E-theses management system for the UK, ASSIGNation, 2004, 21(3)
Jones, R., DSpace vs. ETD-db: Choosing software to manage electronic theses and dissertations, Ariadne, 2004, Issue 38, available at http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue38/jones/
Andrew, T., Trends in Self-Posting of Research Material Online by Academic Staff, Ariadne, 2003, Issue 37, available at http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue37/andrew/
MacColl, J., Electronic Theses and Dissertations: a Strategy for the UK, Ariadne, 2002, Issue 32, available at http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue32/theses-dissertations/

Presentations

Those marked * are available at http://www.thesesalive.ac.uk/arch_confpapers.shtml

DSpace at Edinburgh: The Edinburgh Research Archive, Theo Andrew, SPARC Meeting: Institutional Repositories, The Next Stage, Washington DC, 18-19th November 2004, available at http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/ir04/ir04speak.html
Dawn of a new ERA, Theo Andrew, Digital Library Services Launch, University of Edinburgh, 7th October 2004, available at http://www.thesesalive.ac.uk/arch_presentations.shtml
*DSpace ingest workflow, Richard Jones, ERPANET Workshop on workflow in preservation, Central European University, Budapest, 13-15th October 2004

*Intellectual property and e-theses: what you need to know, Theo Andrew, E-theses: The next step, British Library London, 27th September 2004

The Edinburgh Research Archive: ERA, Richard Jones, talk to the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, 16th September 2004, available at http://www.thesesalive.ac.uk/arch_presentations.shtml
*A roadmap for sustainable outputs from the Theses Alive! project – a poster, Theo Andrew and Richard Jones, JISC Joint Programmes Meeting, Brighton, 6-7th July 2004

*ERA: capturing Edinburgh’s research – a poster, Theo Andrew, ETD 2004, University of Kentucky, Lexington, 2-4th June 2004

*DSpace for e-theses at the University of Edinburgh and Robert Gordon University, Richard Jones and Andrew Penman, ETD 2004, University of Kentucky, Lexington, 2-4th June 2004

Why self-archive? What’s in it for institutions and for libraries? Setting up a repository, Theo Andrew, ePrints UK workshop, Edinburgh, 14th May 2004, available at http://www.rdn.ac.uk/projects/eprints-uk/workshops/edinburgh/
*Technical issues for repository software, Richard Jones, ePrints UK workshop, Edinburgh, 14th May 2004, also available at http://www.rdn.ac.uk/projects/eprints-uk/workshops/edinburgh/
Preserving eprints: why and how? John MacColl, ePrints UK workshop, Edinburgh, 14th May 2004, available at http://www.rdn.ac.uk/projects/eprints-uk/workshops/edinburgh/
*Technical issues for repository software, Richard Jones, ePrints UK workshop, Oxford, 22nd March 2004, also available at http://www.rdn.ac.uk/projects/eprints-uk/workshops/oxford/
*Using DSpace for e-theses at Edinburgh University Library, Richard Jones, DSpace User Group meeting, Boston, 10-11th March 2004
*Electronic Theses: the story so far, Theo Andrew, Electronic Theses: the story so far event, University of Leeds, 30th October 2003
*Theses Alive! – an ETD management system for the UK, Theo Andrew and Richard Jones, 4th OA Forum Workshop, University of Bath, 3-5th September 2003

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