Building an Institutional Research Repository Based on User Requirements - a University of Southampton Case Study

Abstract

Successful discipline based repositories have provided natural incentives to researchers to deposit their work. An institutional research repository must similarly provide strong incentives to depositors. The UK’s JISC funded FAIR programme has enabled different models and incentives to be explored in practical ways.
The direction now being taken by the University of Southampton has been steered by the needs of the institution and faculties as well as individual researchers. To be sustainable the repository must ideally be built into the natural research recording processes of its staff and students. We demonstrate the key interactions that have influenced the development and the strategic direction of the Southampton University Research Repository (e-Prints Soton) which we believe will lead to open access to research results in a sustainable way. The repository is now based on a publications database for all research output, with full text encouraged whenever available. With this strategy, a true showcase for the work of both Science based and Humanities based disciplines can result as we encourage exemplars to show the way.
At the University of Southampton some core user needs have been identified which may also provide inducements for contributing to an institutional repository. The TARDis (Targeting Academic Research for Deposit and Disclosure) project has targeted the deposit process to provide ways of increasing ease of use for individual researchers from a range of disciplines. It has also been exploring a range of self archiving and assisted deposit methods as incentives to provide quality citation metadata for reuse. Exemplars and practical strategies for working with faculty have evolved from these investigations.

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