QUT repository services underpinning support for open scholarship across the research lifecycle

Researchers are often time-poor and disinterested in the technical underpinnings of the research support services provided by their institution. Understandably, their focus is on completing the task at hand as efficiently (and painlessly) as possible; be it completing a data management plan, finding research datasets, research notetaking, submitting a completed thesis, disseminating research findings, publishing, storing research data, reporting outputs for research assessment or gathering impact data for grants and promotion applications. At Queensland University of Technology (QUT) there is a digital repository ‘under the bonnet’ of many of the services supporting researchers with these tasks. For some services, only one repository is involved but, in other cases, multiple repositories are working together behind the scenes. The objective is to provide a seamless experience for the researchers. Implementing and managing these services necessarily involves partnerships or collaborations between one or more organisation units including; the Library, Information Technology Services, the Office of Research, the Research Students Centre and the faculties (academic departments). QUT was one of the first universities in Australia to implement an institutional repository (QUT ePrints) and, in 2003, it became the first in the world to endorse a university-wide policy which required staff to deposit a copy of all new peer reviewed publications. QUT ePrints enjoys strong support from both senior administrators and our community of researchers and has been the highest ranked Australian repository in almost every release of the Webometrics Ranking of Research Repositories. It is currently ranked 13th in the World in the Ranking for Institutional Repositories: http://repositories.webometrics.info/en/top_Inst In recent years, additional repository-based services have been implemented to provide support across the research lifecycle. This includes the preparation of data management plans, data archiving and publication, registering the location of code, software and datasets stored in external repositories and the curation of digitised artefacts (including digitised theses and conference proceedings). Currently, QUT is in the process of implementing an Electronic Research Notebook service that will address issues related to notetaking, records mangement, intellectual property, research integrity and data management. Presentation content This poster presents a graphical representation of the research lifecycle overlaid with details of the various digital repositories at QUT and the associated services available to support researchers at each point in the cycle. Text boxes will describes the various partnerships, successes and challenges associated with each of the services. Conclusion Implementing new repository-related services is rarely challenge-free but these challenges are excellent learning opportunities and generally lead, eventually, to success stories. Our experience has been that, to get researcher buy-in, the process of engaging with the service must be simple, supported and, whenever possible, rewarded.