News from 2014



Release Candidate 2 Released For Comment

Following further public consultation and discussion with stakeholders, we have just released RIOXX 2.0 Release Candidate 2 for comment.

The changes from RIOXX 2.0 Beta 1 are detailed in the release notes, but the most significant change is that we have added a recommendation to use ISNI identifiers for for organisations when named as authors, contributors or funders.

We think RIOXX 2.0 is very close to being ready for its final release and are aiming for a release date of 2015-01-09.

NISO's Access and License Indicators guidelines

RIOXX is required, following Jisc's V4OA process, to use two properties from the NISO's Access and License Indicators guidelines: 'license_ref' and 'free_to_read'. While the guidelines are still in a final review process, we have been assured that there will be no significant changes to these.

The 'license_ref' property is the most important of these - it's mandatory in a RIOXX record, while 'free_to_read' is optional.

The license_ref property

This property, which is mandatory for a RIOXX record requires an HTTP URI and a date, where the HTTP URI identifies a particular license. The ideal case is the use of one of the licenses which are acceptable to RCUK & HEFCE, such as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0.

It is recognised that there will, however, be cases where either the license is not known, or where no appropriate HTTP URI has been established to identify the license. We did contemplate making 'license_ref' an optional property, but decided against this, on the grounds that this would undermine the drive towards clearer licensing of open access materials. Instead, we have taken steps which maintain the integrity of the mechanism supported by the use of the 'license_ref' property, while allowing repository managers to supply information in a valid RIOXX record.

The absence of a license means that the default copyright position of "All Rights Reserved" applies. For convenience, we have 'minted' the HTTP URI 'http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved' for such situations.

A particular, common case for repositories will be where an item is held in the repository under embargo. In such cases, the item is not licensed for use, and the default copyright position of "All Rights Reserved" applies. Again, for convenience, we have minted an HTTP URI, 'http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/under-embargo-all-rights-reserved', for embargoed items.

In neither of these cases are we creating some new license expression, but we are allowing the mechanism which requires explicit URIs to function, and are making the absence of a license explicit, rather than inferred.

Beyond this, the license entered here will be that demanded by the funder, the publisher or the owner of the repository (or even the author), depending on the circumstances (e.g. green/gold).

We welcome comment (please use the comments facility on this blog) on this, or on any aspect of RIOXX 2.0 RC 2.

Edit: this post has been slightly edited to make clear that the recommendation to use ISNI to identify authors and contributors applies only where the author or contributor is an organisation rather than a person. ORCID remains the recommended identifier scheme for individual people.

RIOXX 2.0 beta 1 released for comment

Update:

This consultation will be closed for comments at 17:00 BST on Wednesday 16th July

We are pleased to release a beta version of RIOXX 2.0 for public comment. RIOXX 2.0 has been developed by EDINA and Chygrove Ltd, with significant input from RCUK. This work is endorsed by RCUK and HEFCE and has been funded and facilitated by Jisc.

Background

RIOXX 1 was released in April 2013 to support institutional repositories in complying with open access reporting mandates from RCUK. Repository managers were facing a very short period of time in which to implement RIOXX. Consequently, RIOXX contained a number of compromises designed to minimise the amount of necessary software development and repository re-configuration.

Changes in the policy landscape have created a 'window of opportunity': we believe there is now sufficient time for the software development and repository reconfiguration necessary to implement a more complete version of RIOXX.

RIOXX 2.0

The RIOXX Team has worked closely with RCUK and HEFCE, to create a new version of the RIOXX application profile. Valid RIOXX 2.0 records are designed to satisfy the open access reporting requirements of RCUK and the REF 2020 reporting requirements of HEFCE. We expect RCUK to align its schedule for reporting with that of HEFCE. This means that repositories will have until April 2016 to reconfigure their repositories to support RIOXX 2.0, should they wish to use RIOXX to meet these funders' reporting requirements.

RIOXX 2.0 is specifically focussed on describing open access publications. It allows linking to other open access outputs types (such as research data sets for example), but does not describe these.

Vocabularies for Open Access (V4OA)

The RIOXX Team undertook to include the recommendations of the V4OA process. RIOXX 2.0 introduces several elements and vocabularies which have been recommended by V4OA.

Interoperability

The RIOXX Team is collaborating with OpenAIRE to ensure that there is a degree of interoperability with the OpenAIRE Guidelines For Literature Repositories (version 3.0). This interoperability is in one direction only: we undertake to ensure that a valid OpenAIRE 3.0 metadata record can be produced from a valid RIOXX 2.0 metadata record. We have invited OpenAIRE to verify interoperability and will be working closely with them in the next few weeks to test this.

Software (plugin) development and support

The RIOXX Team has had preliminary discussions with some repository system suppliers. Jisc plans to commission the development of plugins to support RIOXX 2.0 on the more popular repository platforms in use in the UK.

Jisc also plans to fund a repository support project which will have as part of its remit the support of repository managers in implementing RIOXX 2.0

Public review

RIOXX 2.0 (beta 1) is now available for public review. We anticipate making at least one further revision following your feedback - this can be offered either publicly in the comments on this blog post (preferred) or more privately to the rioxx admin email address: [email protected] (also OK).

We look forward to your comments!

more posts (archive)