Note: A University of Florida spokesperson told us that this is the first time Elsevier has done this type of pilot project.
From the The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida (UF):
The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida (UF) and Elsevier have embarked on a pilot project to maximize visibility, impact and dissemination of articles by UF researchers that have published in Elsevier journals. Starting today, article links and metadata are automatically delivered to UF’s institutional repository (IR@UF) through ScienceDirect application programming interfaces (APIs) that are freely available to libraries.
“The project addresses several university needs including showcasing UF’s body of works, providing a better user experience for researchers who use its repository and facilitating compliance with US policies on public access to federally funded research,” said Judith Russell, Dean of University Libraries, UF.
Among UF authored articles, the largest portion is published in Elsevier journals, and they represent a large share of citations. For Elsevier, this pilot provides an opportunity to get a better understanding of information and content presentation requirements of institutional repositories. Combined, these facts made it a natural choice to collaborate.
“The project is a great example of libraries and publishers working together to expand access, to increase compliance with funder policies, and to reduce duplication of cost and effort,” said Alicia Wise, Director of Access & Policy at Elsevier. “Our shared aim is to broaden this approach to include other libraries and other publishers.”
This is how the IR@UF works after implementation of ScienceDirect APIs:
ScienceDirect shares article metadata and links to the full text directly within the institutional repository, so the university’s output is more easily found by users. Users can access the published article on ScienceDirect which enables tracking and reporting of article usage and reach. Linking back to the full article on ScienceDirect also means that users add to overall aggregated data of the article which is helpful for both the author and the institution. These aggregated data would not be available if different versions of the article existed across multiple platforms.
The automated population of the repository is applicable for both open access and subscription articles. Open access articles, which are available to everyone, are identified by an indicator in the search results.
The full article on ScienceDirect is available to all users of IR@UF that have access to ScienceDirect, not only those affiliated with UF. In instances where users are not entitled to access ScienceDirect, articles can be accessed through an interlibrary loan request, or options to purchase the article are specified.
[Our emphasis] In the next phase, the University of Florida and Elsevier will work together to also embed accepted manuscripts within IR@UF. This means all IR@UF users will be able to read a full-text version of the article —the final published version of the article for entitled users and the post-embargo accepted manuscript for other users. Indexing will be based on the full text.
Looking ahead, the pilot holds opportunity to be scaled up, collaborating with other libraries and publishers, and by, potentially working together with CHORUS, a nonprofit organization that facilitates a simple compliance process, optimized search and dashboard services, and multi-party archiving and preservation capabilities, and SHARE, an initiative of the Association of Research Libraries, Association of American Universities, and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.
Direct to the Elsevier Collection (at U. of Florida) User Interface
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