Help - I'm in acronym hell ...... CRIS, RIS, or RMS?

Just went to update my recent post - to use 'RMS' (Research Management System) rather than 'RIS' (Research Information System).

Then I had a brief look at various websites ..... which made me think that the wider community (ie JISC/standards/euro-Uni community) has adopted 'CRIS' (Current Research Information System....... why the 'c'?).

I think, since we're often referring to 'Symplectic Elements', 'RMS' makes more sense to me/our project, or perhaps it should be 'Next Generation Publications Database' (Pub DB v2.0)...... I think because I see Symplectic Elements as being a subset of a RIS/CRIS functionality - it currently helps to manage the publications part of 'research information' and not all the other information created, or which needs to be managed at other stages of the research lifecycle.

Anyway, now I'm thinking of changing every reference on our blogs to 'CRIS' - perhaps we should standardise on that even though 'Current Research Information System' doesn't really fit with Symplectic Elements/Symplectic repository tools.

aarrgh

Bo Middleton (University of Leeds)

Who's following RePosit in cyberspace?

Last week, in the run-up to our project team meeting held on Monday, I took a look at the statistics for visits to the RePosit project blog for our first progress report. Using SeeTheStats (you'll also find the tiny URL link on the right-hand side of the blog at all times), we can see the past month's numbers for how many people came to read this blog, how long they stayed and where they were from. Looking today the totals for the past month are:

• 390 visits
• 796 page views
• 173 absolutely unique visitors
• 624 unique page views
• 25% of visits are international

Our grand totals from the point of setting up the blog are 568 visits and 236 absolute unique visitors.

For a project that only got started recently and doesn't yet have tangible outputs to share, that's not bad going. Interestingly, the biggest peak of interest so far was in the last week of August, so I wonder if anyone out there knows what sparked that? My best guess is that in the run-up to the Repository Fringe 2010 event there was extra interest in the subject of projects working in this area.

We welcome comments, so please feel free to interact with the project team via the blog. There are other ways of keeping up with RePosit. We have now got seven followers on Twitter outside our project team, and even the Pecha Kucha presentation written for the Fringe has elicited a following. Please do join the user community space we've set up, which is for all discussions around deposit, using CRIS systems and how we can share knowledge to solve problems together as a community.


posted by: Lizzie Dipple (project manager)

Reflections on the RePosit Project

I met with JISC Programme Managers yesterday, ie the JISC staff who steer the projects funded under the JISC Grant Funding Call 2/10: Deposit of research outputs and Exposing digital content for education and research. The meeting was a useful reminder of what the RePosit project is all about, and how important it is to remember how other Unis may benefit from our project……….

• The RePosit project is innovative – there aren’t many people out there who are thinking about how a research management system (or RMS) can be used as the mechanism for depositing research outputs in the institutional repository, and thus embedding deposit in the research lifecycle. Many institutions are considering adoption of a RMS, some will also consider ‘integration’ with an institutional repository, some won’t – RePosit findings will be able to inform that decision.
• The RePosit project is well placed to consider the impact of RMSs because of the diversity of the project partners – different repositories, different stages of adoption of a RMS/repository, and different levels of experience in repository advocacy. RePosit project outputs will be focussed to support those that are moving from repository advocacy to RMS/repository advocacy AND those that are starting repository advocacy with RMS as the primary interface.

Also, saw some interesting stuff on Lorcan Dempsey’s blog last week – with links to other relevant stuff http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/002134.html . It reminded me of a Chris Rusbridge blog some time ago http://digitalcuration.blogspot.com/2008/08/repositories-and-cris.html . Both get a bit technical – but underlying both blogs is the idea that a RIS can improve deposits by ensuring that information about a publication is only entered (or harvested) once – ie by simplifying the process for an academic. Which reminded me – at our project meeting earlier this week – we compiled a list of key advocacy messages – for repositories, for a RMS/repository model, and for the RMS itself …..... We had ‘do it once’ on our list of course – but we need to add RMS harvesting functionality to our list. Watch out for more on this in January – when our first project outputs should be ready…….

Bo Middleton
RePosit Project Director
Head of e-Strategy, University of Leeds Library

2nd RePosit meeting, Exeter 13th Sep

The 2nd RePosit meeting was held in Exeter on Monday 13th Sep.

The focus of the meeting was around the advocacy strategies and materials and thinking about the mechanisms by which they would be delivered. This was informed by the literature reviews and experiences at our institutions. Through a very intense but creative process, there are now actions for the HEIs to draw up their advocacy plans and for Symplectic to start work on the training materials. Further dissemination and communication events were also suggested.

The next meeting is scheduled for January in Leeds and there will be run throughs of the presentations ready for feedback as well as detailed scheduling of the workshops in each institution.

The project team met up for a meal on Sunday and this was a great opportunity to chat and catch up. The project is already generating good networking opportunities and good practice sharing both with Symplectic and repositories but also with other aspects of our professional work.

Nicola Cockarill
Senior Subject Librarian, University of Plymouth

Presentation from RepoFringe 2010

Here is the Pecha Kucha presentation Sarah gave at the Repository Fringe last week (link here if you can't see the embedded version below):

JISC RePosit RepoFringe2010 presentation

View more presentations from RePosit project.

Here is the video (sadly the sound quality isn't fantastic, so put the volume up to full):
http://archive.zepler.tv/308/


And here is the live blog from the Fringe event that includes Sarah's presentation:
Live Blog: Pecha Kucha Session Two.


Posted by: Lizzie Dipple

Repository Fringe 2010

Back at my desk after the foray north of the border for Repository Fringe 2010. Despite serious nerves and really not feeling like I knew what I was on about, the project seemed to go down well and I'm hoping people will start to get involved. I hope some of our message got across through my chattering teeth!

Thanks to Lizzie for all the help with getting the slides ready and general moral support.


Sarah Molloy

Pecha Kucha at Repository Fringe 2010

This year's Repository Fringe event is taking place this week (2nd to 3rd September) in Edinburgh, and the RePosit project will be there. Sarah Molloy, project partner from Queen Mary, is giving a Pecha Kucha talk about RePosit. For anyone unfamiliar with the Pecha Kucha format, this is a fast-paced way to give an overview of a topic, where the speaker has exactly 20 slides, with just 20 seconds per slide. We hope that the audience at the Repository Fringe will be interested in hearing about what the project hopes to achieve, and will read this blog, give us plenty of feedback and sign up to our user community Google group for in-depth discussions. Good luck, Sarah!


Posted by: Lizzie Dipple