User workflow

This section describes the workflow for a researcher using publicationslist.org to maintain their web page, and the new Deposit feature to send items to their institutional repository.

The screencasts below run through the complete process for setting up a new page, importing the publications details and sending all publications to the local repository.

The entire process takes 3 minutes 37 seconds in total to set up a publications list, import metadata, and send all this user's publications to the repository.

The user also gets a publications list web page in addition to their repository submissions.

1. Set up a publications list page

The process starts by registering an account on PublicationsList.org and choosing a user name:

Users can then import their publications metadata in batch mode from bibtex, endnote, web of knowledge, or as in the screenshot below from the PubMed database by using the integrated author search:

Having imported publications, the user gets a publications list which they can publish as static web page (using the 'Publish' button); click the image below to view a sample list in a new window:

2. Press the Deposit button to send items to the repository

Having assembled their publications list, the researcher can press the 'Deposit' button to send items to the institutional repository.

Most users will not yet have an institional repository account yet (or know that their institution even has a repository). To create a repository account, the researcher can click the 'create account' link. They are already logged in to publicationslist.org, so we don't force them to go through another registration process at the repository. The 'create account' link sends the user's email, full name and publications list user name to the repository, creates a repository account, and stores their repository user name in publicationslist.org. It would also be possible to integrate this step with existing university authentication systems.

Once the account on the repository has been set up, there is a 'Click to send to repository' link. This sends all selected items to the local repository, using the SWORD protocol.

On pressing the button, all selected items are sent to the repository, and the screen shows progress and repository IDs as each item is sent. After sending items, an additional check is performed to fetch the status of each item sent; some repositories have an approval process where items are initially send to a private work area, and reviewed by library staff before being added to the public repository (some days / weeks later, possibly with corrections). This check updates the publications list entries with a status; 'submitted', 'pending', 'accepted', 'rejected' and a link to the repository entry.

Each item has links to the corresponding entry created in the ePrints repository, e.g.:

In this example, most of the items were submitted to the repository without full text, so there is a 'Request a copy' link next to each entry for emailing the author for the PDF.

3. Keep the repository entries up to date with edits and new items

Maintaining a publications list is an ongoing process; new publications are added, full text versions are attached, bibliographic metadata is added before publication, then updated with page numbers and additional keywords once they are known.

PublicationsList.org handles these edits, but they need to be communicated to the repository too, or it will become out of date. In this example, we'll attach a PDF to an article on publicationslist.org after it has been sent to the repository:

When the user next presses the 'Deposit' button, the system checks the timestamps of the local and repository copies, and notices that the repository entry is out of date:

The user presses 'Click to send' again, and the updated version (with full text) is sent to the repository, which also maintains links back to previous versions.