Quick guide

Supporting open access through metadata and improved interoperability

Last updated:

This guide is currently under review.

The issue

Institutions are starting to realise the benefits of open access, but one barrier to achieving this has been poor interoperability between funder, publisher and institutional systems.

What you can do

For compliance

In order to better understand key information that needs to be collected for OA compliance reporting, you can use the RIOXX metadata application profile and guidelines, developed in consultation with research funders.

To simplify the process of collecting and validating the metadata needed to achieve funder (Research Excellence Framework (REF) and the former Research Councils UK (RCUK)) OA compliance, we have developed RIOXX software applications.

These have been created for the two most widely used open source repository platforms, EPrints and DSpace.

EPrints RIOXX plugin

The RIOXX plugin for EPrints allows you to:

  • Capture additional metadata required by the RIOXX application profile
  • Measure RIOXX compliance across your EPrints repository
  • Expose RIOXX-compliant XML records for sharing with funders and governing bodies
     

How to get started

If your repository is hosted, contact your service provider for assistance with installation. If your repository is self-hosted, the plugin is available on the EPrints Bazaar and GitHub.

EPrints REF compliance plugin

This plugin for EPrints provides a straightforward means by which you can check whether an article or conference proceeding in your EPrints repository is eligible for the post-2014 REF.

The plugin checks relevant metadata in your repository against the requirements of the open access policy of the UK higher education funding bodies.

The plugin has been developed in consultation with the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to ensure that it is fit for purpose.

Further information can be found on GitHub.

How to get started

The plugin is available on the EPrints Bazaar and GitHub.

DSpace RIOXX patch

DSpace is a repository application used by over 1,000 organisations.

DSpace patches are now available from development and installation specialists atmire. These patches have been designed to ensure your DSpace 3, 4 or 5 installation is compatible with RIOXX.

The patches offer the following enhancements:

How to get started

Contact info@atmire.com for the latest patch and relevant instructions.

DSpace REF plugin

The REF compliance checker patch for DSpace has been developed to aid institutions in complying with the open access policy of the UK HE funding bodies.

The code, documentation and user guide are available on GitHub.

Your RIOXX repository records will be passed (via the Open University and our CORE service) to OpenAIRE, where they are automatically mapped and transformed into records which comply with the European Commission Horizon 2020 policy.

Implementing ORCID in your institution could help you manage better workflows around OA and research management. ORCID provides a unique, persistent, internationally-accepted identifier for researchers and is increasingly being used by research funders and publishers.  

For cost management

Our Article Processing Charges (APCs) spreadsheet will help you report on block grants for APCs from both Research Councils UK (RCUK) and funders who are partners in the Charity Open Access Fund, such as the Wellcome Trust. 

If possible, you should share APC data openly in this format - for example, using a service like Figshare - to increase transparency in the market.

For discovery, use and impact

Implementing RIOXX can improve metadata quality. It therefore leads to better discovery of, and access to, content via search services such as CORE.  Furthermore, because RIOXX records include a rights statement, users will be more confident in using that content.

Installing the Institutional Repository Usage Statistics (IRUS) service tracker code within your repository will give you more trustworthy usage and benchmarking statistics. This is because IRUS uses the international COUNTER standard to measure use of repository content reliably.

Looking ahead: what we're working on

We are leading the development of an open infrastructure consortium for the UK, to launch in early 2020. We're working with UKRI in a coordinating role to join up national and institutional data and support the use of open persistent identifier (PID) infrastructures to enable interoperability to reach its critical mass and provide maximum return on investments in research.

We also work with the UK Forum for Responsible Research Metrics to improve data infrastructure supporting research information management and pursue an open data infrastructure for data underpinning research indicators (recommendation nine of the Metric Tide report).

We continue to work towards improving international interoperability.  We have already worked hard to ensure that the services mentioned above take into account initiatives such as NISO - information industry standards - and OpenAIRE - enabling researchers and universities involved in Horizon 2020 projects to comply with the European Commission open access policy.

We are also members of CASRAI whose mission is to adapt the principles and best practices of open standards and data governance to lead and facilitate key stakeholders in annual deliberations to develop ‘standard information agreements’ that serve as bridges between research information users.