Tuesday 18 August 2009

Symplectic - Eprints link testing underway

The University of Leeds purchased the Symplectic Publiction Management System last year; it has been live at the University since Oct 2008. The University Library is currently working with developers at Symplectic to put in place an effective link between the University of Leeds' Symplectic installation (sometimes known as TULIP but most people at Leeds simply refer to 'Symplectic' or 'the publications database') and White Rose Research Online. Once the link is in place, it is envisaged that the main - probably exclusive - route for Leeds' White Rose content will be Symplectic. Symplectic regularly searches for new publications by Leeds authors and sends an email alert to them when something new has been harvested. It is straightforward for the author (or someone designated to work on their behalf) to click on a button to accept or reject the publication. Once the EPrints Symplectic link is in place, it will also be straightforward to upload the full text of the work at the same time. It is also possible to add new publications to the Symplectic system manually - clearly, not all publications are indexed in the searched sources (currently Web of Science and PubMed). Again, depositors will be able to upload the full text of their work at the same time as the entry is created in Symplectic.

Once the work is deposited, it will automatically enter the White Rose Research Online workflow, where the attached file's copyright status will be checked. White Rose will supply a White Rose Research Online URL for the work which will be included in the Symplectic record. Some departments use the Symplectic data to produce publication lists for their web pages; once the EPrints Symplectic link is established, these pages will include a link to the open access text within White Rose Research Online.
Publish Post

If testing goes to plan, we hope that the link will be implemented in late September 2009. One step further to creating and depositing items once for multiple purposes!

I'm very interested to discuss developments with anyone interested in repository/research systems links - especially if you use EPrints and/or Symplectic (Rachel Proudfoot eprints@whiterose.ac.uk).