Introducing Symplectic Elements Symplectic Elements is a new research management system that will [1] allow academic staff to manage their own research profiles, [2] automatically retrieve bibliographic data from citation databases, and [3] deposit full-text research outputs into the university repository with a single click. It aims to provide a centralized system for research management that is not fully mediated and will allow staff to take greater ownership of their research profiles. The system will link to other university systems and make it easier to reuse data for profiles and publications.

1. Introducing Symplectic Elements
Nick Sheppard – Repository Developer
James Fisher – Information Services Librarian
repository@leedsmet.ac.uk

2. Research Management at Leeds Met
• Lack of a centralised system
• What is the repository for?
• Full-text research outputs (Open Access to research)
• Bibliographic database
• Carnegie current totals (22/02/12):
• 876 records
• Of which 96 include full text
• Fully mediated via the library
• No links to other systems (e.g. iTrent)
• Makes it difficult to re-use data (e.g. Staff profiles)

3. Symplectic Elements
• LDAP authentication for all academic staff
• Manage own research profile (if you want!)
• Automatically retrieve bibliographic data from citation databases
• Web of Knowledge / PubMed Central / (Scopus?)
• Notified by email when new publication retrieved
• Easily import data from existing records (e.g. EndNote)
• Reuse data to populate dynamic bibliographies on staff webpages
• Nominate outputs for the REF
• Deposit full-text to the repository with a single click
• Will NOT impact on established faculty process
• WILL allow you to take greater ownership of your own research
profile

4. University
Research Office /
Faculty Admin / LLI
/ Repository team
Import of existing Feed dynamic
Database of Leeds bibliographies to staff /
EndNote libraries Met research faculty / research centre
Manual data entry web-pages
LDAP authentication
for all academic staff
to manage research
profile.
Link to repository to
deposit full-text
Primary data source research outputs
(where permitted by
copyright.)
Full text only?
Nominate REF Research Excellence Framework 2014
Primary data source
submissions
Full text + REF Case Studies
metadata (Linked to relevant research / OER)
Comprehensive One click (eTheses)
Potential data source reporting (individual / deposit to
(require subscription) faculty / institution) repository
Linked to relevant research

5. Links
• Symplectic - https://symplectic-web.leedsmet.ac.uk/
• Carlton Cooke (with manually added links):
• http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/carnegie/05C2C8BFDC6F4
BF194160B3666B5362E.htm
• Staff profile pages populated from Symplectic:
• http://www.keele.ac.uk/chemistry/staff/sallin/
• http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/people/neil.fergus
on/publications/

6. How to make your work Open Access
through the Leeds Met repository
• Prepare paper & submit to journal of choice for peer review
• Make changes required as a result of peer review process
• Submit final version to the journal
• Deposit that same final version to Sam Armitage in the University
Research Office
• A bibliographic record of your research output will then be added
to the repository
• Sam will liaise with the repository team and check journal
copyright conditions on your behalf
• If permitted under copyright, the full text will be added to the
record and made live in accordance with any publisher restrictions

7. Open Access
• Open dissemination?
• Immediate
• Free (to use)
• Free (of restrictions)
• Access to the peer-reviewed literature (and data)
• Not vanity publishing
• Not a ‘stick anything up on the Web’ approach
• Moving scholarly communication into the Web Age

8. Why Open Access?
• Greater impact from scientific endeavour
• More rapid and more efficient progress of science
• Novel information-creation using new and advanced
technologies
• Better assessment, better monitoring, better
management of science
Science and scholarship are cumulative. Open Access can
Accelerate their pace by allowing new connections – big or
small – to be made faster SPARC 2010

9. Open Access: Who benefits?
• Researchers
• Institutions
• National economies
• Science and society

10. The Leeds Met repository provides...
• The means to disseminate your work to the world
• Secure storage (for completed work and for work-in-
progress)
• A location for supporting data that are unpublished
• One-input-many outputs (CVs, publications)
• Tool for research assessment (REF)
• Personal marketing tool
• The route to maximal visibility and impact for your
work

11. Repositories… “are vital to
universities’ economies and
to the UK economy as a
whole.”
Professor J Drummond Bone
Past President, Universities UK

12. 2010 in numbers
• Total number of records = 790
• Number of full text = 196
• 8,656 absolute unique visitors
• 53,663 pageviews
• Total of 11,385 visits from 121 countries