PILOT

Preprints Monitor

Status: Pilot running

 

The Participating Institutions

AmsterdamUMC, Groningen University, Utrecht University, TU Eindhoven, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Maastricht University.

Preprints have been a key part of the publishing process ever since 1991 (when the arXiv started) and form a fundamental pillar in Open Access publishing and Open Science. While preprints are openly available for reading, their use for other purposes such as meta data ingestion in a CRIS system, alerts or impact tracking is less common and not straightforward to support. In order to make such use cases possible, preprints need to be harvested from multiple preprint servers/services, their metadata harmonised and authors as well as their affiliations identified.

• This pilot would aim at creating such a harmonised and enriched meta data feed that can be ingested by participating institutions’ CRIS systems, repositories, an Open Knowledge base, etc.
• A long-term objective of this pilot (not part of the intended outcomes of the pilot) would be to enable linking of preprints to their final published versions (version of record). Such a link would enable tracking of scholarly communication from early stage to final stage, and combine the online attention often received by preprints versions to the academic impact generally received by final publications; an often heard and much wanted need within the academic community.
• An important characteristic of preprints is that they are being edited over time and that there are updates and subsequent versions of preprint papers. We aim to include links to the latest version at all times (given acceptable update intervals).
• There are no restrictions for the institutions on how the enriched and stored data can be used; they can make it publicly available through their public portals, through a future Open Knowledge base, etc.

 

The pilot will be a success if/ when:

• participating institutions are using the feed to enrich their systems
• Preprints will become visible in their repositories
• Researchers publishing preprints recognise the option as a benefit and are not spending extra time uploading preprints

 

Relevant links

• Preprint Monitor Statement of Work
• Preprint Monitor Framework Document
• Preprint Monitor Pilot Initiation