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Guides for OpenAIRE Services

PROVIDE - How to validate and register your data source

Learn how to validate and register your repository, journal, CRIS or aggregator in OpenAIRE

What it is

OA PROVIDE A

OpenAIRE PROVIDE is the content gateway service of OpenAIRE, where data providers are invited to connect scholarly content with OpenAIRE, allowing repositories, data archives, journals, aggregators and CRIS systems, to enter the OpenAIRE and European Open Science (EOSC) ecosystem and be accessible by millions of researchers, research institutes and networks, research funders, policy makers and citizens.

OpenAIRE PROVIDE lowers any technological barriers, by supporting a series of integrations, therefore, enabling its users to visually access OpenAIRE's services that are responsible for the data harvesting process. There are four distinctive steps from the initial express of interest for OpenAIRE PROVIDE to the actual content availability on OpenAIRE and EOSC. The steps indicate the important subservices of OpenAIRE that perform the following functionalities:

  • Validation of data sources with the OpenAIRE guidelines (via the OpenAIRE Validator),
  • Registration of data sources to OpenAIRE and global interlinked networks provides links to content for text and data mining, view history of validations, status of harvesting,
  • Enrichment of metadata information that describes the data sources to be available through OpenAIRE. Subscribe and view/receive notifications to enrich the metadata or the content of the data source (via the OpenAIRE Broker),
  • Generation of usage statistics by subscribing to the OpenAIRE UsageCounts service; Get aggregated, COUNTER compliant usage statistics, like metadata views and full-text downloads, for repository access and broaden your mechanisms for Open research impact assessment.

What it does

metadata validator

Validator

The OpenAIRE Validator tool performs validation checks on both the quality of implementation of the OAI-PMH protocol and the conformance of the metadata to the specific schemas. It is a rule based system which also provides an admin panel that allows its users to easily configure the individual validation rules and sets of rules, that implement the guidelines.

The OpenAIRE Validator service allows to test the compatibility of the data sources with the OpenAIRE Guidelines. If validation succeeds the data source can be registered for regular aggregation and indexing in OpenAIRE.

Registration

To register your data source in OpenAIRE, first you need to test their compatibility to the OpenAIRE guidelines, using the Validator tool. If validation succeeds the data source can be registered for regular aggregation and indexing in OpenAIRE.

OpenAIRE allows for registration of:

  • Institutional and thematic repositories registered in OpenDOAR or FAIRsharing,
  • Research data repositories registered in Re3data or FAIRsharing,
  • Individual e-Journals,
  • CRIS registered in DRIS from EUROCRIS,
  • Aggregators, and
  • Publishers.

How to Validate & Register

The Validator service is available through the OpenAIRE PROVIDE dashboad, so the user needs to have an OpenAIRE account to access it. Logging into the PROVIDE dashboard, the user will have access to the Validator and Registration services, accessible through the top left menu as shown in the image.

PROVIDE top left menu

The Validator service includes two main steps to perform the aggregation and indexing of your data source in OpenAIRE:

1st: Validate your data source
Test the compatibility of your data source (repository, journal, CRIS or aggregator) to the OpenAIRE guidelines.

2nd: Register your data source
Register your data source in OpenAIRE.

Please find below guided information on how to Validate and Register your data sorce.


Validate your data source

To perform the validation of your data source, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Validator service
    1. Login to the PROVIDE dashboard
    2. Go to the top left menu and select: Validator > Validate
    3. Select the data source type you want to validate
PROVIDE validate your datasource
  1. Select data source
    • Select from the list, or enter the base OAI URL of your data source.
    • The repository’s/journal’s published sets are exposed in a later stage and you may select one for the compatibility tests.

  2. Select guidelines
    You may apply two types of compatibility tests on your repository:
    • Content: specific to the content/format of the dc fields
    • Usage: specific to the implementation of OAI-PMH
You may select from a predifined set of rules (OpenAIRE for Literature Repositories, OpenAIRE for Data Archives) or customize them according to your needs.
  1. Select parameters
    • You may define an upper limit on the number of records tested. This is highly recommended for first time users, or when re-checking after the implementation of automated changes.
    • Select one of the data source exposed sets (optional).
    • You may also group your results by a specific field. This is quite useful when validating an aggregator and you know in advance which is the field that distinguished among data sources.
  1. Finish
    Finish the compatibility test and wait for the results by email or check the Validation History menu.

Register your data source

Before you start the registration, please verify the following information:

For Literature and Data Repositories:

Make sure your Repository is already registered in one of the following global registriesOpenDOAR (for Literature Repositories), Re3data (for Data Repositories) or FAIRsharing (for Data and Literature Repositories), and is compatible with the OpenAIRE Guidelines.

For Journals and Aggregators: Make sure that your data source is compatible with the OpenAIRE Literature Guidelines.
For CRIS systems Make sure your CRIS is registered in DRIS, the Directory of Research Information Systems, and is compatible with the OpenAIRE Guidelines for CRIS Managers.

To perform the registration of your data source, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Register functionality
    1. Login to the PROVIDE dashboard
    2. Go to the top left menu and select: Register
  1. Select the type of your data source

PROVIDE register your datasource

  1. Fill in the form with the requested information, according to your data source type, as follows:
  1. for Repositories
    PROVIDE registration repository
    1. Select data source
      Select your Repository from the list, starting by identifying the country to which it belongs.
    2. Register data source
      Fill in or update the basic information of your Repository. Note: the pre-filled information has been collected from OpenDOAR, Re3data and FAIRsharing. Please check it and correct it if necessary.
    3. Register interface
      Register the base OAI-PMH URL of your Repository, to collect your records from, as well the desired compatibility level with the OpenAIRE Guidelines.
      Choose an OAI-set if desired. If no set is chosen, all records will be harvested.
    4. Terms of Use
      Select the desired options regarding the Terms of Use.
    5. Finish
      Select the option “Finish” to conclude the registration process.

  2. for Journals and Aggregators
    PROVIDE registration journal aggregator
    1. Register data source
      Fill in the basic information of your data source.
    2. Register interface
      Register the base OAI-PMH URL of your data source, to collect your records from, as well the desired compatibility level with the OpenAIRE Guidelines.
      Choose an OAI-set if desired. If no set is chosen, all records will be harvested.
    3. Terms of Use
      Select the desired options regarding the Terms of Use.
    4. Finish
      Select the option “Finish” to conclude the registration process.
  1. for CRIS systems
    PROVIDE registration repository
    1. Select data source
      Select your CRIS from the list, starting by identifying the country to which it belongs.
    2. Register data source
      Fill in or update the basic information of your CRIS. Note: the pre-filled information has been collected from DRIS. Please check it and correct it if necessary.
    3. Register interface
      Register the base OAI-PMH URL of your CRIS, to collect your records from.
      Choose an OAI-set if desired. If no set is chosen, all records will be harvested.
    4. Terms of Use
      Select the desired options regarding the Terms of Use.
    5. Finish
      Select the option “Finish” to conclude the registration process.

Once you have finished the registration of your data source, the information will be validated by the OpenAIRE Aggregation team, who will contact you if further information is needed. After this process and if validation succeeds, your data source will join the OpenAIRE infrastructure and their content will be regularly aggregated and indexed to contribute to the OpenAIRE Graph.

 

More information

Support on how to implement the OpenAIRE Guidelines:

For DSpace

OpenAIRE Literature v.4 compliance for DSpace 5.x and DSpace 6.x. See here.
Source: LYRASIS Wiki.

For EPrints

OpenAIRE Export Plugin - Literature Repository Guidelines. See here.
About:

For Journals

[News item]: Open Journal Systems (OJS) sets new standards to achieve OpenAIRE compliance with JATS

Instructions on how to expose Horizon Europe project's information

[News item]: OpenAIRE guidelines for data source managers ensure compatibility of the Horizon Europe Open Science requirements


Webinar

A user journey in OpenAIRE provide services and interoperability guidelines implementation 
14 October, 2020


Community Call for Content Providers

OpenAIRE Guidelines V4: specifications and implementation roadmap and use cases
6  November, 2019

OpenAIRE aggregation and enrichment processes: specifications and good practices
4 March, 2020


FAQ

How do I validate my repository or journal and provide data to OpenAIRE?


Factsheets

OpenAIRE FactSheet RepoManagers v2for Repository Managers

OpenAIRE Service FactSheet PROVIDEPROVIDE - Content Provider Dashboard


Content Providers Community Calls

Are you a content provider? Got questions? Come and Learn more! OpenAIRE is running a series of regular online community calls targeting all OpenAIRE content providers managers.