Dear Prof. Rajashekar,
Congratulations on the IISc Eprints Archive!
http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in/
Here are some replies to your queries:
On Thu, 1 Jan 2004, Dr. T.B. Rajashekar wrote:
> We have also interfaced our archive with Greenstone
> digital library software to support full text searching (not supported by
> current version of eprint.org software).
It is supported in the next eprints.org release. Please contact Chris
Gutteridge for the date. (But note that full-text searching is far more
useful as a cross-archive service than a within-archive one.)
> However, self-archiving so far has been extremely sporadic - till today we
> have only about 70 papers submitted to the archive. I should admit that on
> our part, we have not promoted the archive vigorously (except for the
> initial announcement and a poster we brought out sometime back).
> We intend to go on a promotional drive and we are quite confident of
> convincing significant number of our researchers (if not all!) the benefits
> of self-archiving, through promotional seminars and individual contacts.
So far that is on a par with most other archives at institutions
that have not yet formulated an open-access provision policy. But
the further measures you describe sound promising. As a
potential model for your institutional policy, I recommend:
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/archpolnew.html
See also:
http://eprints.st-andrews.ac.uk/proxy_archive.html
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0022.gif
> 3. Track 'clicks' and downloads of papers from the archive and generate
> statistics in support of improved access and visibility.
>
> I believe eprints.org software does not support this feature. We have to
> find a way to do this - we consider this important.
Please contact Chris Gutteridge at eprints.org about this, but
also Tim Brody designer of citebase, an opcit/eprints sister
project, which does all of that as a cross-archive service:
http://citebase.eprints.org/cgi-bin/search
> I welcome comments and suggestions about these plans and also other means of
> improving deposition and visibility of the archive content.
I suggest you also ask the eprints-underground and OAI-general lists for suggestions.
> There is another interesting issue. Some researchers in our institute (e.g.
> physics and chemistry) ask the question - why the need for archiving in
> institutional archive if they are already depositing in domain archives like
> arxiv? How do we address this?
Please see the Amsci threads:
"Central vs. Distributed Archives"
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0293.html
"Central versus institutional self-archiving"
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/3205.html
In a nutshell, all OAI archives are equivalent, but institutional self-archiving
policy is more easily and systematically monitored if all research output is
self-archived in the institutional archive.
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0028.gif
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving_files/Slide0044.gif
> I wish you and your colleagues a Very Happy New Year.
Happy New Year to you too! It struck here just as I was replying to your message!
Stevan Harnad
NOTE: A complete archive of the ongoing discussion of providing open
access to the peer-reviewed research literature online is available at
the American Scientist Open Access Forum (98 & 99 & 00 & 01 & 02 & 03):
http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/index.html
Post discussion to: american-scientist-open-access-forum_at_amsci.org
Unified Dual Open-Access-Provision Policy:
BOAI-2 ("gold"): Publish your article in a suitable open-access
journal whenever one exists.
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#journals
BOAI-1 ("green"): Otherwise, publish your article in a suitable
toll-access journal and also self-archive it.
http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/
http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml
http://www.eprints.org/signup/sign.php
Received on Thu Jan 01 2004 - 05:23:38 GMT
