PhilPapers is a repository of online research in philosophy. This project will take PhilPapers' services to a new level to secure its role as a central point of exchange for scholars in the discipline.

PhilPapers 2.0

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Background

PhilPapers is a repository of online research in philosophy. Its primary mission is to increase the amount and accessibility of online content in philosophy, and help researchers organize this information. It seeks to fulfil its mission by providing an open access archive which operates in synergy with other services. In addition to an archive, PhilPapers offers a comprehensive repository of metadata and links for online articles and books in philosophy found elsewhere, a community-managed system of categories in which items from the repository are classified, full wiki-like editability of repository contents with complete reversibility, discussion forums associated with the items in the repository and the system's main categories, bibliographic management utilities, highly customizable email alerts and RSS feeds for new content, and much more.

PhilPapers has only been online for a little over two months at the time of writing, but it already has over 3,000 registered users and two to three times as many regular unregistered users. Nearly 2,000 works have been submitted to the index by users. PhilPapers is already by far the most successful repository and archive in the discipline in terms of submission rates and general usage.

The PhilPapers 2.0 project will take PhilPapers' services to a new level to secure its role as a central point of exchange for scholars in the discipline. The interoperability of the site will be greatly improved to enable other services to draw from its large repository of metadata (using OAI-PMH), contribute content through standard machine interfaces (e.g. SWORD), and integrate PhilPapers' tools within their services. PhilPapers' key technological assets will also be redistributed as open source after undergoing an overhaul required to insure sustainability and enable new extensions (this sub-project is known as the DIVRE Project; see divre.org). New Virtual Research Environment services will be integrated with the site's repository to drive more content and improve its value to the discipline. Existing metadata enrichment technologies developed as part of JISC's programmes and other initiatives will be used to enable new services.

Lead Institution
  • University of London
Partner Institution
  • University of London Computer Center
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Summary
Start date
1 April 2009
End date
1 March 2011
Funding programme
Information Environment Programme 2009-11
Strand
Repository start up and enhancement strand
Project website
Committees
  • JISC Integrated Information Environment committee
Topic