ABACUS: How a New Data Platform Changes the Landscape of Greek Academic Research
The challenge of measuring what truly counts
How can a country, and specifically its academic community, truly understand the impact of its scholarly research? The question is more complex than it seems, especially when the final research products are scattered across multiple platforms, resulting in a picture that is often incomplete and difficult to compare. Greece, through the Hellenic Academic Libraries Link (HEAL-Link), addresses this problem with an ambitious new infrastructure: ABACUS (Academic Bibliometrics & Assessment Computational Utility Service). This text presents the key elements one needs to know about it.
A landscape of fragmented data
- Multiple versions: The same publication may appear simultaneously as a pre-print, post-accepted, or post-print version, beyond the publisher's site, in an institutional repository, complicating reliable tracking.
- Duplications and discrepancies: Databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed, combined with institutional repositories, often contain conflicting metadata and multiple records for the same work.
- Identity mismatches: Unique identifiers (DOI for research products, ORCID for researchers, etc.) do not always correlate correctly, leading to multiple counts of the same publication.
- Incomplete metadata: Information regarding funding bodies, institutional affiliations, or the correct identification of researchers is often incomplete.
All the above render the need for a comprehensive and flexible monitoring system for Greek research production essential.
The ABACUS solution
ABACUS aspires to address this fragmentation. The goal is to create a comprehensive, unified map of the research activity of all Greek academic institutions. The platform is based on five central axes:
- Provision of comprehensive bibliometric monitoring
- Tracking and assessing the adoption of Open Science
- Linking research results with projects and funding
- Supporting strategic decision-making
- Full alignment with the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).
Data collection mechanisms: leveraging a strong European infrastructure
- The platform is based on the OpenAIRE Graph, a massive scholarly knowledge graph publicly available that maps the global research environment.
- The OpenAIRE Graph is not a static structure but a living infrastructure that draws data from a vast number of sources and subsequently passes them through multi-level processing, such as collection, mining, deduplication, enrichment via evidence, and final integration.
- The process utilizes approximately 2,000 direct sources and 150,000 indirect sources via aggregators. Metadata enrichment in the OpenAIRE Graph leverages all available data sources.
By leveraging this pan-European infrastructure we ensure that the Greek infrastructure will be, by-design, fully interoperable with European standards and harmonized with the EOSC, while simultaneously solving inherent problems of the Greek academic ecosystem.
The impact: a tool for the entire academic community
- National Policy: It aims to provide reliable data that will assist in evidence-based policy formulation while enhancing transparency and autonomy.
- Universities and Institutions: It will facilitate the monitoring of Open Science and the development of evidence-based policies based on a plethora of metrics, bibliometric indicators, and visualization/comparison charts.
- Researchers: It will offer a personalized dashboard, correct matching with ORCID IDs, accurate mapping of publications, and the ability to improve the quality of their own data.
Can we accelerate Open Science?
ABACUS constitutes another initiative in the context of a comprehensive HEAL-Link strategy for promoting Open Science in Greece. It complements the HARDMIN infrastructure, which functions as a research data repository and ARGOS the Data Management Planning Tool for producing machine-actionable Data Management Plans, creating a unified ecosystem that covers the entire research cycle.
Beyond being a bibliometric reporting tool, ABACUS is a lever for changing the mindset towards Open Science. Based on transparent methodologies and public, open data, and by incorporating FAIR principles, it highlights the reliability of the recorded bibliometric data, strengthens reproducibility, and aims for the active participation of the academic community. At the same time, it highlights the country's full research footprint, reinforces its visibility and engagement through the EOSC, strengthening its international presence.
The vision reflects HEAL-Link's motto: "Democratising Knowledge, Amplifying Impact".
Towards an open future for Greek research
ABACUS represents a strategic investment in the future of the Greek academic community. It is not merely a tool for recording bibliometric reports, but a catalyst for the quality, visibility, and international impact of Greek research through the flexibility it can provide with indicators and graphs that combine multiple metrics and are the result of the needs of the community and the stakeholders of the Greek academic ecosystem.
When can we use it?
The service is scheduled to be available for testing at some institutions in the first half of 2026 and should be fully live by the end of 2026.
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