Workflows and key messages to enable Open Research

Abstract

The movement towards more open research has significant impact on the culture and practice of all disciplines. Researchers are increasingly expected to consider the end user’s ability to reuse data and scholarly publications by sharing these outputs through repository systems. The approach of the University of St Andrews Library (Digital Research Division) is to consider the needs of researchers holistically and provide a joined up support service for Research Data Management and Open Access. We use a Research Information System (Pure) to present a single interface to researchers for recording and depositing all research outputs. The combination of import sources, synchronized data, connected repository, web services and customized portal are employed to maximize visibility of data and publications, while presenting a seamless experience for researchers. This paper will describe how we develop workflows that can be communicated through key messages, easily remembered by researchers, and mapped to existing research lifecycles. Workflows can be tailored to disciplinary needs, for example using existing metadata from subject-repositories already used by researchers. We will describe a range of solutions that include staff in the Library and School offices providing different levels of mediation, and the benefits of an overall joined up approach.