EM-Loader entry short-listed in Repository Challenge

The Repository Challenge was an informal competition that took place over the first two days of the Open Repositories 09 conference in Atlanta, Georgia (see link below). This year over a dozen submissions were entered in the competition to develop a working software prototype that addresses a real user problem.

The EM-Loader project sought to address the difficulty of repository deposit. Most academics recognise the need for maintaining a professional personal web page listing and linking to their publications. However, the time required to add the bibliographic metadata needed for submission of their papers to an open-access repository can be prohibitive.

The EM-Loader project designed a prototype that reduces the effort required for a researcher to submit all their papers to a repository to just a few clicks, by linking a system designed for maintaining an online personal publications list (http://publicationslist.org) to a repository, in this case the Depot (http://depot.edina.ac.uk, based on ePrints), using automated interfaces including Simple Web-service Offering Repository Deposit (SWORD).

A panel of four international judges carefully selected a shortlist, which included the EM-Loader prototype, from the dozen entries.