[Dspace-general] New "Request Copy Add-on"

[Eloy Rodrigues]

Apologies for cross-posting

 

I’m glad to announce that the RepositóriUM team at Minho University has
finished the development of a new Add-on to DSpace, that we called “Request
Copy” (but others may call “Request Eprint” or “Email Eprint”, etc.).

 

This first version of the Add-on (see description below) is available at:
<http://wiki.dspace.org/RequestCopy> http://wiki.dspace.org/RequestCopy.  

 

As we plan to release a new version (including a third option/reply – Change
Access to Open Access) in the coming weeks, we will welcome comments and
suggestions from early adopters or testers. Please send your comments and
suggestions to: repositorium at sdum.uminho.pt

 


What is the DSpace Request Copy Add-on?


It was recently suggested by Stevan Harnad that we develop a "request eprint
by email" feature for DSpace, similar to one that has recently been
implemented in GNU Eprints for deposits whose full-text access privileges
are set to Restricted Access (RA) rather than Open Access (OA), in order to
tide over any RA period with facilitated email access. The Request Copy
Add-on is this feature developed for DSpace 1.3.2.

The purpose of this feature is to increase both the content deposited in
Institutional Repositories (IRs) and its immediate usability by providing a
way to accommodate the (frequently unfounded) worries of authors and their
institutions about copyright infringement during any publisher embargo
periods on public self-archiving, by creating a semi-automated mechanism
whereby would-be users can request and authors can email an individual copy
of a full-text deposited with access set as RA.

This feature will be very important for advancing OA if universities and
other research institutions adopt the Generic Model for an Open-Access
Self-Archiving Mandate (
<http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/71-guid.html>
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/71-guid.html). In this
model, depositing immediately (upon acceptance for publication) is mandatory
whereas setting deposit immediately to OA is merely encourages, leaving the
decision up to the author.

 

This is how the “Request Copy” feature works:

1- In all non-OA items (we consider non-OA all DSpace items/files that have
access different from Anonymous) there is a link to a “Request a Copy to the
author” Form, activated in the View/Open link and also on the “Restricted
Access/Request-a-copy” logo that we added at the side.

2- The requester must enter his/her email address and name, and may add a
comment, and press a “Request-a-copy” button.

3 – An email is sent to the depositor (either one of the authors, or their
designee). The text of the mail is configurable (in our case we made an
express statement to forward the mail to the author(s) if the depositor is
not author). The email message contains a token. 

4 – Using that token, the author may reply, by just clicking in one of the
two buttons available: “Send Copy”, “Don’t send copy”.

5 – After choosing the Send/Don’t send reply, the author is presented with
one of the two message models (also configurable and editable) for the
reply. Finally, the author must hit the Send button, and the message
(including the file(s) if the author chose the Send option) is sent to the
requester.  

 

Best Regards,

 

Eloy Rodrigues

Universidade do Minho - Serviços de Documentação

Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga

Tel: +351 253 60 41 50; Fax - 253 60 41 59

Campus de Azurém, 4800-058 Guimarães

Tel: +351 253 51 01 19; Fax - 253 51 01 17

 

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