The document discusses the evolution and future direction of Eprints services, highlighting its role in supporting open access and repository activities at the University of Southampton. It outlines current developments, including software improvements and increased integration with external services, and emphasizes the importance of adapting to changing research needs and mandates. Eprints aims to continue evolving as a crucial infrastructure for research management, data collection, and compliance with open access policies.

2. EPrints
State
of
Na/on
In
our
15th
year
(sw)
And
our
10th
year
(service)

3. Where
Are
We
Now?
and
where
are
we
going?
• EPrints
Services
– In
University
of
Southampton
• Repository
ac/vity
in
a
state
of
flux
– Mandate
compliance!
– Research
repor/ng!
– Big
Data!
– CRIS!
– Innova/on
vs
business

4. E
EPrints
Timeline
(1994
–
2010s)

5. EPrints
Services
HQ
in
Web
Science
research
labs
at
the
University
of
Southampton

6. EPrints
Services
Network
Doctoral
Training
Centre
Web
Science
Ins/tute
Open
Data
Ins/tute
Web
Science
SoFWIREd
ERCIM
Trust
Digital
Economy
Catapult
W3C
WAIS

7. Who
Are
We
Now?
• Les
Carr
academic
lead
• John
Darlington
University
business
manager
• Sheridan
Brown
sales
and
marke4ng
• Adam
Field
business
&
community
rela4ons
mgr
• Kelly
Terrell
project
management,
OER
lead
• Jus/n
Bradley
infrastructure
mgr,
specialist
projects
• Seb
Francois
technical
architect
• Jiadi
Yao
support
&
new
builds
• Will
Fyson
support
&
new
builds
• Nawar
Halabi
projects

8. Who
Are
EPrints
Now?
• What
are
the
team
doing?
– Hos/ng
about
70
repositories
– Suppor/ng
Open
Access
repositories
for
about
100
ins/tu/ons
• UK,
France,
Switzerland,
Austria,
Germany,
Australia,
South
Africa,
US,
Canada
– Maintaining
the
core
so_ware
– Developing
new
versions
• Why
are
they
doing
it?
– Not
for
profit
– To
support
the
Open
Access
agenda
– To
build
up
and
support
the
Repository
Community

9. Recent
&
future
developments
• IRStats2
v1.0
released
• EPrints4
developments
• Improved
search
with
Xapian
• Integra/on
with
ROS
&
capture
of
projects
and
funders
data
• Towards
Repository
’16

10. Recent
&
future
developments
• “We’ve
heard
you!”
– Scalability
issues
(browse
pages)
– Search
not
always
accurate
– Limited
UI
interac/ons
– EPrints3
built
from
many
blocks
–
/me
for
refactoring
– Rising
interests
in
complementary
domains
(funders,
projects,
data)

11. The
EPrints
Path
Ahead
To
actual
business
requirements
From
JISC
InnovaCon
projects

12. What
is
EPrints
For?
Research
AcCvity
Data
Collec/on
Data
Analysis
Research
Business
Research
Management
Research
Processes
Research
Impact
Research
Content
Research
Educa/onal
Publica/ons
Resources
Scien/fic
Data

13. What
is
EPrints
For?
• Suppor/ng
your
researchers
• Suppor/ng
your
research
data
• Suppor/ng
your
research
outputs
• Suppor/ng
your
research
outcomes
&
impact
• Suppor/ng
your
research
managers

14. What
is
EPrints
For?
• Suppor/ng
your
researchers
• Suppor/ng
your
research
data
• Suppor/ng
your
research
outputs
• Suppor/ng
your
research
outcomes
&
impact
• Suppor/ng
your
research
managers
…
• Suppor/ng
librarians

15. What
Is
EPrints
4?
4
It’s
4
open
access,
publica/ons
repositories,
research
repor/ng
It’s
4
open
scien/fic
data,
big
data,
data
science,
analysis
workflows
It’s
4
open
educa/onal
resources,
video
handling,
MOOCs
It’s
4
research
management
repor/ng
and
ins/tu/onal
marke/ng
It’s
4
informa/on
management,
project
and
funding
data
It’s
4
facili/es
informa/on
management
It’s
for
the
data
driven
university

16. EPrints
Engineering
• Stripping
EPrints
back
to
its
core
data
management
engine
• Tuning
it
for
speed,
efficiency,
scale
and
flexibility
Sébas/en
François,
EPrints4
lead
developer

17. EPrints4
• Not
a
rewrite
of
the
so_ware!
• Making
the
core
as
generic
as
possible
for
re-­‐
use
(OER,
data,
…)
• Decoupling
the
different
modules
(MVC)
• Modernizing
the
UI
elements:
– New
tools
have
emerged
– Support
for
on-­‐line
form
valida/ons

18. EPrints4
• 11,000
lines
of
code
added
to
the
source
over
the
last
9
months
• Improved
integra/on
with
Xapian
• DB
transac/ons,
memcached,
fine-­‐grain
ACL’s,
…
• Can
run
without
a
UI
at
all:
service
oriented
• But
it’s
berer
with
one:
Bootstrap
(style),
jQuery
(interac/ons)
&
Mustache
(templa/ng)

19. Towards
Repository’16
• IR’s
must
integrate
new
concepts
for
REF2020,
OA
Compliancy
&
ROS/ResearchFish
reports
• JISC
Repository
Shared
Services
• Capture
of
Projects,
Funders
data
from
various
sources
• Integra/on
with
new
external
services

20. Towards
Repository
’16
• OA
Compliancy,
capture
of
Projects/Funders
data:
project
started
with
Uni’s
of
Southampton
&
Reading
• First
submission
to
ROS
completed
for
UoS
earlier
this
year
• IR
can
import
from
ROS,
Gateway
to
Research,
internal
systems
and
link
data:
– Publica/ons
are
linked
to
Projects
and
Funders
– Users
are
linked
to
Projects
and
Funders
(PI,
CoI,
…)
• Development
of
a
Generic
Repor/ng
Framework
for
ROS
&
for
easily
add
new
reports
to
EPrints
(based
on
the
REF2014
plug-­‐in)

21. Towards
Repository
’16
• Other
services/systems:
– IRUS-­‐UK:
released
on
Bazaar
– Publica/ons
Router:
protocol
na/ve
to
EPrints
(SWORD)
+
importers
on
Bazaar
– ORCID:
proof
of
concept
released
on
Bazaar
– RIOXX:
v1
implemented
–
awai/ng
new
specs
for
v2
– WoK/Scopus
imports:
in
EPrints
core
– OA
end-­‐to-­‐end
project:
EPrints
Services
are
partners
• These
features
push
EPrints
towards
being
a
de-­‐facto
CRIS-­‐
light
system

22. Bringing
together
key
repository
services
to
deliver
a
connected
naConal
infrastructure
to
support
OA
22

23. Support
for
Integra/on
• Repositories
to
implement
-­‐
patches,
scripts
and
plug-­‐ins
produced
by
repository
shared
services.
Support
is
being
planned
via:
• Repository
Support
Project
(RSP)
• Planning
co-­‐ordina/on
with
plauorm-­‐specific
support
through
EPrints
Services,
the
DSpace
community
and
Fedora.
Title
of
presenta/on
00/00/2013
23

24. Repositories
=
Science
+
Web
+
Praxis
• Repositories
aren’t
a
thing
but
a
performance
– the
crea/on
of
a
network
of
informa/on
by
networks
of
research
professionals
• Repositories
aren’t
invented
by
developers,
– they
are
being
invented
by
all
of
us
as
we
gradually
adapt
our
tools
and
change
our
prac/ce.
The
web
both
shapes
and
is
shaped
by
society.
There
is
a
gap
between
the
‘script’
proposed
by
a
technology
and
what
it
actually
becomes
in
prac/ce.
Co-­‐consCtuCon

25. Librarians
MediaCng
New
PracCce
Not
just
enforcing
historic
norms,
but
s/mula/ng
new
prac/ce
to
emerge
• Copyright
• Openness
• Intellectual
Property
• Privacy
• Crea/vity
• Science
2.0

26. EPrints
Futures
• Capacity
to
handle
current
and
emerging
open
informa/on
agendas,
policies
and
mandates
• Support
for
current
and
emerging
research
prac/ces
and
management
– open
access
–
data
cita/on
–
open
educa/on
– CRIS
–
open
science
–
MOOCs
• Modern
responsive
user
experience
• Easy
upgrade
path
with
EPrints
3
so_ware