On 18 Sep 2010, at 21:59, Velterop wrote:
o Make a repository easy to find (a Google search for "University
of X repository" more often seems to produce a link to an
article or press release about the repository than a link to the
repository itself, at least on the first few pages of the search
results – repositories often have names or acronyms that make
them difficult to find if you don't know the name)
o Draw attention, unambiguously and very clearly, on the
repository home page, to the possibility of submitting a
paper/manuscript (e.g. a brightly coloured "submit now!" button)
o Make the deposit procedure very, very easy and intuitive.
Involve UX experts where possible.
o Make deposit the *prime* focus of the repository. Repositories
and their contents can be searched in a variety of ways and via
many routes, but submission of articles can only take place via
the repository's own web site.
I'd like to take this opportunity to mention the new JISC DepositMO project
whose aim is to increase the ease of deposit into repositories chiefly by
allowing direct deposit from word processors, office programs and the computer
desktop ("save as..." and "send to..." directly into EPrints or
DSpace). Although the repository's web interface should be a useful and
advantageous environment for the author as well as the reader, the fact is that
depositing is An Extra Thing to add to the author's workflow, and it might help
to woo some recalcitrant professors if it appeared to be the same thing as
"saving a new copy" and it could be achieved in the familiar interface of
Microsoft Word.
I don't think that technology changes alone will stimulate more Self Archiving
(improve the repository! make it more friendly! make it faster! make it more
useful!) There has to be a combination of social, management and technological
advances all pressing in the same direction. Make Open Access policies
mandatory, make open access practices a key part of your institutional business
activities and make open access technology as useful as possible.
---
Les Carr
http://blogs.ecs.soton.ac.uk/depositmo/
PS Please note that the work of DepositMO (where MO stands for Modus Operandi)
is building on the SWORD protocol for repository deposits and on
Microsoft's Article Authoring Add-in.
Received on Sun Sep 19 2010 - 09:58:41 BST