Monthly Archives: September 2015

ORO Annual Update 2014-15

I’ve collected the data for the ORO Annual Report 2014-15. ORO 2014-15 Annual Report Highlights include:

  • 15% increase in deposits over previous year
  • Over 1 million downloads from ORO for the second year in succession
  • Open Access deposits reaching 73% in KMi

ORO continues to punch above its weight compared to other Institutional Repositories. The latest ranking from The Ranking Web of Repositories puts ORO 7th of 146 repositories in the UK.  In this list we are behind only 3 other University Repositories (University of Southampton, LSE & UCL). Additionally the full text figure (i.e. publicly available open access paper and papers restricted by a publisher’s embargo) reached 51% in 2014-15. This is significant as it indicates OU researchers are engaging with the HEFCE Open Access policy and depositing papers earlier in the publication lifecycle when they are likely to be subject to a publisher’s embargo. The HEFCE policy comes into force in April 2016.  It’s going to be a busy year for the ORO service! PDF version of the Annual Report is here: ORO 2014-15 Annual Report

Top ORO Downloads for August… and the short story of ORO ID 43854

Top downloads from ORO in August are available below.

PDF version available here: AugustTop15

AugustTop15ORB

 

One item new to the Top 15 is Removing barriers for citizen participation to urban innovation by Annika Wolf et. al. or ORO ID 43854.

This paper was only made live in ORO on 11th August and collected over 200 downloads by the end of the month.  Digging into the short online history of this paper was quite instructive.

The paper was indexed by Google Scholar on the 15th August and was issued in relevant Google Scholar alerts on the 17th August.  It was picked up in the social media and tweeted (most notably by @participatory on the 17th August).  Downloads immediately peaked at over 100 including nearly 40 downloads referred from twitter.  The importance of repositories, web scale indexing and alerts, and social media in the dissemination of scholarly publications is strikingly apparent.

43854-page-001And throughout this, hits to the ORO webpage (the abstract view) were virtually zero. So the repository is in a way invisible to the reader – and I’m not sure that really matters.  As long as we structure good metadata around content and are visible to services like Google Scholar then our research publications can be surfaced wherever the reader finds them.

Depositing in UK Data Archive Reshare – online training

Re-posted from: http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/news-and-events/newsitem/?id=4175 

A guided walk through ReShare: 22 September 2015: 12.00-13.00 (online)

Are you an ESRC grant holder who has a grant that has ended and are required by the ESRC to submit your research data into the ReShare repository?

Are you a researcher interested in depositing data into ReShare, to make them available for reuse or as evidence for a published paper? Are you just curious to explore how publishing in ReShare happens in practice?

If so, come and join an interactive online group session, led by experts at the UK Data Service, where we’ll ‘walk’ you through the process of submitting a data collection into the ReShare repository. You can then start describing and uploading your own data collection. We will be there to answer any questions you may have and to help you, should you encounter problems. At the end you can submit your data collection and after a final review by us, we’ll publish it. Or you can opt to save your data collection for later submission.

In practice you will learn:

  • How to start the process of depositing data into ReShare
  • How to describe a data collection well (i.e. which metadata to provide)
  • Why providing detailed and accurate metadata is important
  • How to prepare and upload your data files and documentation files
  • How to decide upon the most suitable access level and licence for your data
  • How we review your data before publishing it

Before joining the online session you’ll need to register with the UK Data Service and have your data and documentation files prepared according to our guidelines. Booking will be limited to 15 people and priority will be given to ESRC grant holders whose grant has recently ended.

For more information and to register, visit the event page on the UK Data Archive website.

What’s in a name? Top tips for organising your data during your research project

When you’re working on a research project that involves the collection, creation or re-use of data, it is essential at the outset to set up procedures for the organisation of those data. This is particularly important when you are working as part of a team, as a number of people will be accessing, working on, updating and saving the same set of files.

Frustration by Sybren Stuvel

Frustration by Sybren Stuvel

Although it might feel like time-consuming and monotonous work, carrying out effective data organisation procedures throughout your project will actually save you time (and frustration!) by avoiding hours spent trawling through your folders looking for that key piece of data; it will also reduce the effort needed to prepare your data for archiving at the end of the project; organising your data effectively may also make you more innovative – helping you to spot connections in your data that you might otherwise have missed.

Not sure where to start? The following tips will help you to set up some data organisation procedures for your project:

Don’t reinvent the wheel – your department or research group may already have existing procedures in place, or one of your colleagues may have set up some processes for their own project. Ask around and find out if you can adopt these conventions rather than having to start from scratch.

"Stick with it" and "Be logical" - Rubix Cube by jaymzg

“Stick with it” and “Be logical” – Rubix Cube by jaymzg

Stick with it  Once you’ve decided on a system, stick with it throughout your project; changing your procedures halfway through will be confusing and may cost you time trying to find a file saved in the old format.

Be logical– structuring your files and folders logically (according to project or work package, for example) will make them easier to find. Avoid leaving files unsorted, hanging under top level folders

House of Cards by Peter Roberts

“Embrace structure” – House of Cards by Peter Roberts

 

 

Embrace structure – design a hierarchy for your folders; saving more specific folders within folders for higher level broader topics. Avoid using very tall structures as they are difficult to navigate and will cost you time trying to find information within them.

Think about names – give your folders and files meaningful names.  Avoid creating names which only mean something to you, are excessively long, or relate to individuals. Ideally it should be obvious what’s in a folder or file before opening it.

Stop hoarding – think carefully about what you really need to keep and for how long, and what you can (and can’t) destroy or delete. Avoid hanging onto pointless multiple copies of data. Continually review what you’re keeping at intervals as well as at the end of your project.

For more information, visit the “Organising your Data” pages on the RDM intranet site (internal link only)