Submit to Publications Review for Publications Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser

Selected Papers from Open Repositories 2018

Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
Published Papers

A special issue of Publications (ISSN 2304-6775).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2018) | Viewed by 56038

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

William J. Nixon

E-Mail
Guest Editor

University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dermot Frost

E-Mail
Guest Editor

Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Evviva Weinraub

E-Mail
Guest Editor

Northwestern University, USA

Dr. Claire Knowles

E-Mail
Guest Editor

University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Following the very successful Open Repositories 2018 in Bozeman, Montana, USA, we would like to build on the conference theme of “Sustaining Open” with a Special Issue of peer-reviewed papers, which further develop individual presentations and the broader conference theme. We would like to invite you, as a presenter at OR2018, to contribute to this Special Issue.

There were over 200 submissions to Open Repositories 2018 and over 140 were accepted as conference papers, panels and developer talks across a range of themes, including:

Open source software – sustainability of software developed locally and large open source systems, legacy code
Community – reaching out to new audiences, developing a community, governance
Content – research data, digital preservation, persistent urls, archiving
Teams/People – staff and knowledge within the community, contingency planning, training and development, and succession planning
Projects – sustainability of projects beyond the grant, maturing communities
Infrastructure/Integrations – integrations between systems, changing technical environments
Policy – national, international, local and community policy and decisions
Challenges of Sustainability – funding, local, technical, community
Rights and Copyright – including data protection, sharing and storing of content
Reuse, Standards, and Reproducibility – for example software, data, content types
New open technologies and standards

William J. Nixon
Dermot Frost
Evviva Weinraub
Claire Knowles
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Publications is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Open Access
Open Scholarship
Open Data
Open Science
Research Data
Metrics
Cultural Heritage

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (11 papers)

Download All Papers

Order results

Result details

Show export options Show export options

Select all

Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Other

17 pages, 5398 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Curation and Publication of Simulation Data in DesignSafe, a Natural Hazards Engineering Open Platform and Repository

by Maria Esteva, Craig Jansen, Pedro Arduino, Mahyar Sharifi-Mood, Clint N. Dawson and Josue Balandrano-Coronel

Publications 2019, 7(3), 51; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7030051 - 9 Jul 2019

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3981

Abstract

Most open repositories present a similar interface and workflow to publish data resultant from different types of research methods. Publishing simulation datasets is challenging due to the iterative nature of simulations that generate large numbers and sizes of files, and their need for detailed documentation. DesignSafe is a web-based open platform for natural hazards engineering research where users can conduct simulations in high performance computing resources, curate, and publish their data. Working closely with experts, we completed a data design project for curation and representation of simulation datasets. The design involved the creation of a data and metadata model that captures the main processes, data, and documentation used in natural hazards simulation research. The model became the foundation to design an interactive curation pipeline integrated with the rest of the platform functions. In the curation interface, users are guided to move, select, categorize, describe, and register relations between files corresponding to the simulation model, the inputs and the outputs categories. Curation steps can be undertaken at any time during active research. To engage users, the web interactions were designed to facilitate managing large numbers of files. The resultant data landing pages show the structure and metadata of a simulation process both as a tree, and a browsing interface for understandability and ease of access. To evaluate the design, we mapped real simulation data to interactive mockups and sought out experts’ feed-back. Upon implementing a first release of the pipeline, we evaluated the data publications and made necessary enhancements. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from Open Repositories 2018)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 9237 KiB

Open AccessArticle

DRAS-TIC Linked Data: Evenly Distributing the Past

by Gregory Jansen, Aaron Coburn, Adam Soroka, Will Thomas and Richard Marciano

Publications 2019, 7(3), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7030050 - 4 Jul 2019

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3696

Abstract

Memory institutions must be able to grow a fully-functional repository incrementally as collections grow, without expensive enterprise storage, massive data migrations, and the performance limits that stem from the vertical storage strategies. The Digital Repository at Scale that Invites Computation (DRAS-TIC) Fedora research project, funded by a two-year National Digital Platform grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), is producing open-source software, tested cluster configurations, documentation, and best-practice guides that enable institutions to manage linked data repositories with petabyte-scale collections reliably. DRAS-TIC is a research initiative at the University of Maryland (UMD). The first DRAS-TIC repository system, named Indigo, was developed in 2015 and 2016 through a collaboration between U.K.-based storage company, Archive Analytics Ltd., and the UMD iSchool Digital Curation Innovation Center (DCIC), through funding from an NSF DIBBs (Data Infrastructure Building Blocks) grant (NCSA “Brown Dog”). DRAS-TIC Indigo leverages industry standard distributed database technology, in the form of Apache Cassandra, to provide open-ended scaling of repository storage without performance degradation. With the DRAS-TIC Fedora initiative, we make use of the Trellis Linked Data Platform (LDP), developed by Aaron Coburn at Amherst College, to add the LDP API over similar Apache Cassandra storage. This paper will explain our partner use cases, explore the system components, and showcase our performance-oriented approach, with the most emphasis given to performance measures available through the analytical dashboard on our testbed website. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from Open Repositories 2018)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

10 pages, 1316 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Understanding Connections: Examining Digital Library and Institutional Repository Use Overlap

by Mark E. Phillips, Pamela Andrews and Ana Krahmer

Publications 2019, 7(2), 42; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7020042 - 8 Jun 2019

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4013

Abstract

The University of North Texas Libraries’ Digital Collections are situated as a unified whole within their preservation infrastructure, with three separate user interfaces serving the content to different audiences. These separate interfaces are: The UNT Digital Library (DL), The Portal to Texas History, and The Gateway to Oklahoma History. Situated within each interface are collections, and hosted within these collections are digital objects. One collection, the UNT Scholarly Works Repository, specifically serves UNT’s research and creative contributions and functions as the Institutional repository (IR) for the University of North Texas. Because UNT Scholarly works is seated as a collection amongst other collections, users can access faculty research, not just out of an interest in research from specific faculty members, but also as it ties into the user’s broader understanding of a given topic. With flexible infrastructure and metadata schema that connect collections beneath the umbrella of the wider preservation infrastructure, the UNT DL employs full-text searching and interlinked metadata to strengthen and make visible the connections between objects in different collections. This paper examined how users navigated between other collections within the UNT IR, as well as within the UNT DL. Through this examination, we observed patterns between how users navigated between objects, understood which collections may have related to one another, examined why some unique items were used more than others, and viewed the average number of items used within a session. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from Open Repositories 2018)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 763 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Oxford Common File Layout: A Common Approach to Digital Preservation

by Andrew Hankinson, Donald Brower, Neil Jefferies, Rosalyn Metz, Julian Morley, Simeon Warner and Andrew Woods

Publications 2019, 7(2), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7020039 - 4 Jun 2019

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 6658

Abstract

The Oxford Common File Layout describes a shared approach to filesystem layouts for institutional and preservation repositories, providing recommendations for how digital repository systems should structure and store files on disk or in object stores. The authors represent institutions where digital preservation practices have been established and proven over time or where significant work has been done to flesh out digital preservation practices. A community of practitioners is surfacing and is assessing successful preservation approaches designed to address a spectrum of use cases. With this context as a background, the Oxford Common File Layout (OCFL) will be described as the culmination of over two decades of experience with existing standards and practices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from Open Repositories 2018)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

10 pages, 860 KiB

Open AccessArticle

What Is an Institutional Repository to Do? Implementing Open Access Harvesting Workflows

by Rachel Smart

Publications 2019, 7(2), 37; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7020037 - 27 May 2019

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 6232

Abstract

In 2016, Florida State University adopted an institutional Open Access policy, and the library staff were tasked with implementing an outreach plan to contact authors and collect publication post-prints. In 2018, I presented at Open Repositories in Bozeman to share our workflow, methods, and results with the repository community. This workflow utilizes both restricted and open source methods of obtaining and creating research metadata and reaching out to authors to make their work more easily accessible and citable. Currently, post-print deposits added using this workflow are still in the double digits for each year since 2016. Like many institutions before us, participation rates of article deposit in the institutional repository are low and it may be too early in the implementation of this workflow to expect a real change in faculty participation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from Open Repositories 2018)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

6 pages, 1478 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Data2paper: Giving Researchers Credit for Their Data

by Neil Jefferies, Fiona Murphy, Anusha Ranganathan and Hollydawn Murray

Publications 2019, 7(2), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7020036 - 27 May 2019

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4063

Abstract

Initially funded as part of the Jisc Data Spring Initiative, a team of stakeholders (publishers, data repository managers, coders) has developed a simple workflow to streamline data paper submission. Metadata about a dataset in a data repository is combined with ORCID metadata about the author to automate and thus greatly reduce the friction of the submission process. Funders are becoming more interested in good data management practice, and institutions are developing repositories to hold the data outputs of their researchers, reducing the individual burden of data archiving. However, to date only a subset of the data produced is associated with publications and thus reliably archived, shared and re-used. This represents a loss of knowledge, leading to the repetition of research (especially in the case of negative observations) and wastes resources. It is laborious for time-poor researchers to fully describe their data via an associated article to maximise its utility to others, and there is little incentive for them to do so. Filling out diverse submission forms, for the repository and journal(s), makes things even lengthier. The app makes the process of associating and publishing data with a detailed description easier, with corresponding citation potential and credit benefits. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from Open Repositories 2018)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 855 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Balancing Multiple Roles of Repositories: Developing a Comprehensive Repository at Carnegie Mellon University

by David Scherer and Daniel Valen

Publications 2019, 7(2), 30; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7020030 - 26 Apr 2019

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 8087

Abstract

Many academic and research institutions today maintain multiple types of institutional repositories operating on different systems and platforms to accommodate the needs and governance of the materials they house. Often, these institutions support multiple repository infrastructures, as these systems and platforms are not able to accommodate the broad range of materials that an institution creates. Announced in 2017, the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Libraries implemented a new repository solution and service model. Built upon the Figshare for Institutions platform, the KiltHub repository has taken on the role of a traditional institutional repository and institutional data repository, meeting the disparate needs of its researchers, faculty, and students. This paper will review how the CMU Libraries implemented the KiltHub repository and how the repository services was redeveloped to provide a more encompassing solution for traditional institutional repository materials and research datasets. Additionally, this paper will summarize how the CMU University Libraries surveyed the current repository landscape, decided to implement Figshare for Institutions as a comprehensive institutional repository, revised its previous repository service model to accommodate the influx of new material types, and what needed to be developed for campus engagement. This paper is based upon a presentation of the same title delivered at the 2018 Open Repositories Conference held at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from Open Repositories 2018)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 9344 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evolution of a Service Management Framework: Spotlight at Stanford as a Use Case

by Catherine Aster

Publications 2019, 7(2), 28; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7020028 - 24 Apr 2019

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 5579

Abstract

Service management—the entirety of activities undertaken by an organization to design, plan, deliver, operate, and control information technology (IT) services offered to stakeholders—has long been applied successfully by the government and commercial sectors. In this article, service management is discussed in the context of open-source software developed in an academic library setting, by exploring the creation and growth of the Spotlight at Stanford service framework. First, service management is briefly introduced as a guiding principle and philosophy, within the Stanford Libraries context. Second, the Spotlight at Stanford software is described. Third, people who are key players in both the delivery and use of the software are discussed. Fourth, processes including goals and activities of the Spotlight at Stanford service team are reviewed. Fifth, various accomplishments are listed, including how the service team has contributed to the successful adoption and development of the web application at Stanford University. Finally, lessons learned are discussed and directions are shared for the future development of the Spotlight at Stanford service framework. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from Open Repositories 2018)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

14 pages, 216 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Labours of Love and Convenience: Dealing with Community-Supported Knowledge in Museums

by Stefano Cossu

Publications 2019, 7(1), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7010019 - 7 Mar 2019

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3318

Abstract

This writing utilizes the case study of a specific project, namely adopting a Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) based on open source technologies at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), to describe the thought process, which along the way led to the discovery of Linked Data and more general technology development practices based on community participation. In order to better replicate such a thought process and its evolution into a broader strategy that goes beyond technology, this paper will begin by describing the problem that the Collection IT team at AIC had been initially tasked to resolve, and its technical implementation. After that, the paper will treat the strategic shift of resources from a self-contained production and review cycle toward an exchange-based economy. The challenges, both external and internal, posed by this change will be addressed. All the while, the paper will highlight perspectives and challenges related to the museum sector, and the efforts of AIC to adopt views and methodologies that have traditionally been associated with the library world. A section is dedicated to ongoing efforts of the same nature among museums. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from Open Repositories 2018)

Other

Jump to: Research

13 pages, 40594 KiB

Open AccessCase Report

Building a Dataset Search for Institutions: Project Update

by Sara Mannheimer, Jason A. Clark, James Espeland and Kyle Hagerman

Publications 2019, 7(2), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7020029 - 24 Apr 2019

Viewed by 5407

Abstract

Most out-of-the-box institutional repository systems do not provide the workflows and metadata features required for research data. Consequently, many libraries now support two institutional repository systems—one for publications, and one for research data—even when there are nearly a thousand data repositories in the United States, many of which provide services and policies that ensure their trustworthiness and suitability for research data. Libraries are either increasing spending by purchasing data repository solutions from vendors, or replicating work by building, customizing, and managing individual instances of data repository software. This article gives an update on a potential solution to this issue: An in-progress prototype for an open source Dataset Search tool that promotes discovery and reuse of institutional research datasets through automatic metadata harvesting and search engine optimization. Once finished, the Dataset Search tool has the potential to support three key impacts: Increasing discovery, reuse, and citation of research data; reinforcing the idea that research data are a legitimate scholarly product; and promoting community-owned systems that require less resource expenditure. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from Open Repositories 2018)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 8778 KiB

Open AccessCase Report

The Ecosystem of Repository Migration

by Juliet L. Hardesty and Nicholas Homenda

Publications 2019, 7(1), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7010016 - 5 Mar 2019

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4052

Abstract

Indiana University was an early adopter of the Fedora repository, developing it as a home for heterogeneous digital library content from a variety of collections with unique content models. After joining the Hydra Project, now known as Samvera, in 2012, development progressed on a variety of applications that formed the foundation for digital library services using the Fedora 4 repository. These experiences have shaped migration planning to move from Fedora 3 to Fedora 4 for this large and inclusive set of digital content. Moving to Fedora 4 is not just a repository change; it is an ecosystem shift. End user interfaces for access, management systems for collection managers, and data structures are all impacted. This article shares what Indiana University has learned about migrating to Fedora 4 to help others work through their own migration considerations. This article is also meant to inspire the Fedora repository development community to offer ways to further ease migration work, sustaining Fedora users moving forward, and inviting new Fedora users to try the software and become involved in the community. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from Open Repositories 2018)

► Show Figures

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Selected Papers from Open Repositories 2018

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

Published Papers (11 papers)

Research

Other

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI