COAR has been working with the US Repository Network (USRN) to connect and strengthen the position of repositories in the US. With the advent of the recent OSTP Memorandum requiring Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research – which directs government research funders and agencies to adopt policies that require adopt immediate public access to articles – the need has become more urgent, especially in terms of effectively tracking research outputs.
The USRN is launching a pilot project aimed at improving the discoverability of articles in repositories. This pilot project involves the use of services from CORE (a not-for-profit aggregator based at Open University in the UK) to evaluate and improve local repository practices. Additional technical support will be provided by Antleaf Ltd.
The one-year project involves 18 repositories representing a variety of institutions, software types and repository models and will result in concrete recommendations and best practice guidelines for machine and human discoverability of research articles in US repositories. The project will also lead to greater international interoperability of US research outputs.
The USRN is an initiative of SPARC with support from COAR to bring together the repository community and assist with the adoption of good practices.
