JISC

Anecdotal evidence has suggested that the majority of user traffic into an institutional repository is generated through hits from Web search engines such as Google. Searchers will be directed towards a single item or record and have no additional incentive to look for further relevant information within therepository. The purpose of the proposed AEIOU Wales Project is to increase the visibility and usage of all academic research by aggregating Welsh institutional repository activity data to provide a“Frequently viewed together” recommendation service, such as those used by Amazon and many othere-commerce websites.

This project will utilise existing relationships and build on the national repository infrastructure established through the Welsh Repository Network (WRN), a collaborative venture between the twelve Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Wales. We propose to create a shared recommendation service by aggregating activity data from each WRN repository so that searchers accessing an item within aninstitutional repository will be presented with recommendations to further research outputs from across Wales. We will also explore the potential of promoting relationships between cross-institutional, collaborative research groups within Wales via the recommendation service, as well as enhancing the visibility and usage of all academic research by directing users to a Welsh Research Gateway.We therefore hypothesise that the creation of a shared recommendation service will increase the visibility and usage of that research and will be demonstrated through a significant increase in attention and usage data at both an institutional and national level.

Project blog:

 http://aeiouproject.blogspot.com/