Paul Stainthorp has just blogged a reminder about the institutional repository mandate over at the Library research blog, so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to repeat the message here. As suggested, please get in touch with the University’s Repository Officer, Rosaline Smith (by email or on extension 7427), for help and support in depositing your research outputs.

The University has introduced a requirement that all new significant research outputs be placed in the Institutional Repository from September 2010 onwards. By “significant” we mean peer reviewed research outputs that you would want to be externally accessible; it is for individual academics to decide which outputs to submit. We also require all previously published outputs likely to be submitted to the REF to be deposited, and it is no bad idea to deposit a full record of recent publications.

Help is available from Rosaline Smith, IR Officer, x7427. This includes training sessions and one-to-one sessions. Issues including copyright are covered. Take advantage now, during the quiet summer period, and contact Rosaline!

It takes about 10 minutes to put an output on the Repository, and once there your citation rate is likely to rise significantly (10-250%), it will automatically be incorporated in the University’s quarterly output reports, and in due course can be used to generate publication lists for your WWW pages.

The process is far less painful than it may sound, and is becoming standard practice for all academics everywhere, so please take a few minutes now to get ahead of the game!

Professor Andrew Hunter, Dean of Research