Dear Colleagues,

I'd like to draw to your attention the public consultation currently 
taking place to decide the future role of the Depot:

http://tinyurl.com/adjoam

The consultation period is due to end on 31st March - your viewpoint 
would be highly appreciated. Please send any relevant comments direct to 
[log in to unmask], marked 'Role of the Depot'.

Many thanks in advance,

Theo

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Consultation on Role of the Depot

16 February 2009

The role of the Depot must change before the end of 2009.

We have come to the view that we should not decide upon the future of 
the Depot without first consulting wider among those who are working to 
promote and enable sharing of research through Open Access (OA) 
self-archiving, both in the UK and internationally. For the first part 
of that consultation process we approached a small number of individuals 
and we are grateful for their comments; those have helped frame the 
options we are considering. We now seek your input in a short period of 
consultation over the next four weeks.

The initial role of the Depot has been to provide the UK academic 
community with an online deposit facility for eprints during the interim 
period while Institutional Repositories (IRs) were being set up. Among 
other policy issues this was to put in place material support for the 
prospect of mandates for Open Access self-archiving. The initial purpose 
for the Depot has been judged to have been completed, and the project 
funding from JISC for the Depot as part of JISC RepositoryNet is coming 
to an end.

The Depot was never planned to be a central repository that would rival 
institutional repositories; rather it has complemented them by assisting 
both researchers-as-authors by providing two support functions. The 
first is that of re-direction, linking the potential depositor of an 
eprint with the appropriate UK institutional repository. This uses 
identity recognition and the OpenDOAR registry of IRs. The second is 
that of ingest, enabling deposit of that eprint, and thus exposure under 
terms of Open Access for those UK academic authors not having an 
appropriate IR. Both functions are computer-aided and without mediation 
by library or other support staff. We have also carried out some project 
work (EM-Loader project) to investigate how extraction of metadata from 
extant sources could improve the deposit process, both assisting the 
depositor but also helping to ensure good quality metadata.

Within EDINA and SHERPA, which developed and supports the Depot, we have 
been carrying out an appraisal of options for an exit strategy beyond 
its project funding. Could the Depot add value by continuing as support 
activity for the open access agenda, or else when and how to close the 
Depot? Please give us your views.

Preliminary discussion with advocates of OA self-archiving have 
indicated that there is value in continuing the Depot in order to assist 
OA sharing of research output internationally, especially where IR 
capacity is not yet comprehensive. There has also been discussion about 
how to develop the re-direction capabilities more generally, including 
support of OA deposit mandates by funding bodies - for example, by 
helping their funded researchers locate the appropriate IR.

The existing Depot service will be fully supported until at least 30 
September 2009. Next month (March) or shortly thereafter we will decide 
what to do based upon feedback from yourselves, and any other 
developments, using the following six months to enact an agreed plan. 
This might include re-branding or change of mission and message, as well 
as arranging the transfer of the limited content that we have in the 
Depot to some other repository or even handing over the running of the 
Depot to another body.

Your comments are welcome, and should be sent to [log in to unmask], marked 
'Role of the Depot'.