FAQs about Open Research OnlineFAQs about Open Research Online
What is Open Access?Open Access refers to the free dissemination of research on the internet through repositories and open access journals. Drivers for Open Access include the so-called "serials crisis" (the inability of academic libraries to keep pace with the hyper-inflation of journal subscription prices), the fundamental need for academics to have access to as much of the world's scholarly research as possible, and demands from funding bodies for wider dissemination of the research they pay for. For more information on freely available research see Open Research Collections. What is an institutional repository?Institutional repositories are online collections of electronic copies of research papers (also known as e-prints). E-print repositories offer far greater visibility than individual websites as they are all interoperable using the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. See the Open Archives Initiative for further information. What are the benefits for researchers of depositing e-prints?
What are the benefits for the Open University?
What can I deposit on Open Research Online?Open University researchers are encouraged to deposit all peer-reviewed research and other high-quality research outputs which meet the "Frascati" definition of research:
Where copyright allows, each record should be accompanied by the full text. If not, bibliographic details only can be deposited. A link to the online published version should always be included, if available. If this is not included upon deposit, a member of the ORO Team will add it in. Can I only deposit publications produced whilst working at the OU?No, you can deposit as complete a record of your publications history as you like, including publications produced whilst working at previous institutions. It really depends on how you want to use ORO: some people like it to be a showcase of their complete publications history; while others prefer it to reflect only their recently published work. Either is fine. This excludes eTheses produced at other institutions. How far back can I go?As far back as you like. There is no limit. Start with your most recent publications, and then work backwards as and when you can find the time. It is not obligatory to include absolutely everything: some do, some don't. With older publications, some people prefer to include only those for which they still think there is sufficient interest and demand for, or perhaps what they consider to have been their best work, while others are completely non-selective and include absolutely everything they have published. What about copyright?Journal articles: Book chapters: Books: Conference items: Other research output types: How do I deposit papers?Open University staff can deposit papers in Open Research Online through their User Area where they will be guided through the deposit process using web-based forms. Deposits are checked by the ORO Team before the paper is moved to the public area of the repository. The ORO Help pages give further guidance on the depositing process. How long does it take an item I submit on the ORO system to become available to users?We generally aim to make submitted items live in 5 working days depending on satisfactory external verification. How do I automatically import items onto ORO?The import function, available via the Manage Deposits screen in ORO, saves time when depositing articles in ORO. Below is some guidance on how to import items using the item's DOI, from the PubMed database, and from an Endnote library. If you have any queries about the import function please contact library-help@open.ac.uk. Importing an item using its Digital Object Identifier (DOI): If a journal article has a DOI it will usually be displayed on the abstract page of the publisher's website or on the PDF full-text of the paper. You may also get informed of your paper's DOI in the letter or email of acceptance you receive from the Editor-in-Chief and/or publisher of the journal.
Note: Importing items using the DOI does not pull in all of the information relating to the article, but it does pull enough for it to be deposited. The ORO Team will add any missing metadata before making the article live on ORO. Also, you can import several DOIs together. Just enter them all in the text box, one per line. Importing using the PubMed ID: You can import items from the PubMed database by making a note of the PubMed ID, which is usually found on the contents page or on the abstract page in the form PMID: 16319828
Note: You can import several IDs together. Just enter them all in the text box, one per line. Importing from an Endnote library: To import into ORO from an Endnote library you will need to save the data out of Endnote in the correct format.
%0 Journal Article %A Smith, J %A Jones, K %D 2005 Importing using a Bibtex file: Bibtex files can be imported to ORO through the import file options. Many of the standard bibtex entries are processed, although any @comment{ How do I edit items already on ORO?Once items have been deposited, changes can only be carried out by a member of the ORO Team. This is to ensure the content of the repository is standardised, and to improve data quality. Requests for amendments or updates to your items can be sent to library-help@open.ac.uk. How do I add full text to an existing record?Uploading the full-text is not required but strongly encouraged. If you have any documents to add to your items already on the repository, please email these to library-help@open.ac.uk. We are happy to convert Word documents and other file types into PDFs for you. How do I export items on ORO?Items can be exported from ORO in a variety of formats. To export a number of items you need to carry out a search to retrieve a results list. It is not possible to export from a browse list. At the results page you can use the drop-down menu to select an export format. Can I set up feeds from ORO?There are a number of options for delivering dynamic content from ORO to external web pages. The simplest way to do this is to use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds, and these can be generated from any ORO page, or from any set of search results you have generated. Simply click on the RSS icon to view the feed. A limitation of the RSS standard is that it will deliver content to your web page in the order it has been added to ORO, i.e. the most recent items. While on the face of things this sounds good and not a limitation at all, it is actually not always the best option for producing publication feeds for staff pages or research group websites because the order in which people deposit items in ORO is rarely the order in which they were published, chronologically-speaking. Therefore, for more tailored feed solutions, you or your website developer/editor will need to use the ORO API (Application Programming Interface). Please contact library-help@open.ac.uk for more information. How should I cite items I find in ORO?When you click on an item in ORO, you will see (under the main title in blue) a reference to the official published version. Always cite this published version, as this will result in the author(s) receiving proper recognition through services that track citation counts (e.g. Thomson's Web of Science). While you should always cite the published version when referencing the article as a whole, there may be instances (for example if you need to refer to a specific page of the article for a quote), where you will need to cite the ORO version. This is because the page numbering in the ORO version might not match the page numbering in the final published version. If you need to do this, here's how: Smith, C (2009). How to reference papers in ORO. Open Research Online. Available at: http://oro.open.ac.uk/xxxxx. Replace the 'xxxxx' with the item ID from the URL. In such cases, if you or your institution has access, the preference would be to click through and use the specific page reference from the published version. However, even if citing the ORO version, please try to cite the published version as well so that the author(s) receive proper recognition, as mentioned above. Why do I have to provide information about myself in order to request a copy of an article found on ORO?Basically, it is in your own interest to tell the author(s) as much information about yourself as possible. Authors who have deposited research articles in Open Research Online are not obliged to send a copy to any person who requests one, but he or she is much more likely to do so if they realise you have a genuine reason for wanting to read their work. For example, knowing that you are an academic researcher working in a similar field but that you do not have access to the journal in which an article has been published would be a very good reason for requesting a document. Having required fields for you to complete is therefore beneficial to both you and the author(s). Why have I received a request from someone for a copy of my article through ORO and what should I do about it?For one of three reasons:
Under all three circumstances, a "Request Copy from OU Author" button would have been added for users to click. This is where the email has come from. If the reason for receiving the request was b) or c), then the email you have received should contain two links: one to accept the request, and one to decline it. Clicking on the link to accept the request will take you to a page in ORO asking you to confirm that you wish to send the person a copy. The full text attached to the ORO record will then be released by email to the requestor. Clicking on the link to decline the request will again take you through to a page on ORO, but this time you can enter a reason why you have chosen not to send the person a copy. The reason will be sent to the requestor in an email. NB: In both cases, you will need to be logged in to ORO for the automatic accept or decline links to work. If the reason you received the request was a), you will need to physically create and send an email to the requestor, attaching the full text. This is because there would have been no full text attached to the ORO record to be automatically released. The request copy email you have received (for whatever reason) should include some information about the requestor, e.g. name, email address, affiliation, and their reason for wanting a copy of your article. All emails are copied to the ORO generic email address so that we can monitor the use of this button, and therefore if we notice you have been emailed by an Open University student or academic and that they do in actual fact have access to the article through Library services, then we will tell them, copying you in. If after reading this FAQ you are still in any way unsure or uncertain as to how to respond, or indeed if you want the button removed from a particular article (perhaps because you do not have a copy to send), simply contact library-help@open.ac.uk and someone will be able to assist you further. Similarly, if you want to add the full text to your article's entry in ORO so as to not receive email requests for it in future, again please contact library-help@open.ac.uk and someone will be able to advise which version can be attached. Can I deposit my thesis in ORO?Yes, ORO accepts the deposit of OU-awarded PhD, EdD and MPhil theses. The full text must be included (abstract-only records cannot be deposited), and permission to make any third-party copyrighted material contained in the thesis openly accessible online must have been granted. For more information, please visit the ORO eTheses help pages. What is the Frascati definition of research?In addition to, or instead of, the process of external peer review and publication, the following definition of research can be used to determine eligibility for inclusion in ORO: [An] original investigation undertaken in order to gain knowledge and understanding. It includes work of direct relevance to the needs of commerce, industry, and to the public and voluntary sectors; scholarship (creation, development and maintenance of the intellectual infrastructure of subjects and disciplines); the invention and generation of ideas, images, performances, artefacts including design, where these lead to new or substantially improved insights; and the use of existing knowledge in experimental development to produce new or substantially improved materials, devices, products and processes, including design and construction. It excludes routine testing and routine analysis of materials, components and processes such as for the maintenance of national standards, as distinct from the development of new analytical techniques. It also excludes the development of teaching materials that do not embody original research. The majority of research will be funded from external sources. (OECD 1993 Frascati Manual, ISBN 9264142029) If, after reading this, you are still unsure whether a publication or other research output is deemed to be eligible for inclusion in ORO, please direct your query to the PVC-RS (PVC-RS@open.ac.uk), who is the institutional officer responsible for the service. Why is there missing information on the coversheet?There are two pieces of information which can sometimes be missing on the coversheet: the copyright holder, and the version of the article. The reason is most likely that the article was deposited in the repository before we began capturing this information, but could also be because we were unable to establish what should be recorded. Who do I contact for further information about Open Research Online?For further details about depositing papers or amending existing records, or for any other related enquiries contact library-help@open.ac.uk or phone the library helpdesk on 01908 (6)59001. Can I submit 'in press' items to Open Research Online?If you have had an output (typically a book, journal article or chapter in an edited collection) formally accepted for publication, it is possible in some cases to upload the details to ORO prior to its actual publication. In order to do so, however, you will need to supply the ORO team with evidence that it has been accepted for publication and the expected date of publication. This evidence can take various forms - for example, a page on the publisher's website referencing the output, a scan of a contract (in the case of a book) or an email from a journal editor confirming publication would normally suffice. When entering your output's details, you should use the 'Information for Library Staff' box to alert staff to the fact that this is an in press item and to supply relevant confirmation. Once deposited and checked by the ORO team, it becomes your responsibility to notify the ORO team once the item is actually published, and to update the item entry to reflect this. |