SHERPA

Abstract(s)

SHERPA is investigating issues in the future of scholarly communication and publishing. In particular, it is developing open-access institutional repositories in a number of research universities. These eprint repositories or archives facilitate the worldwide rapid and efficient dissemination of research findings. The SHERPA project aims to: 1. set up institutional open access e-print repositories in 20 partner institutions which comply with the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI PMH) using eprints.org software. 2. investigate key issues in creating, populating and maintaining e-print collections, including: Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), quality control, collection development policies, business models, scholarly communication cultures, and institutional strategies. 3. work with OAI Service Providers to achieve acceptable (technical, metadata and collection management) standards for the effective dissemination of the content 4. investigate digital preservation of e-prints using the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model; 5. disseminate lessons learned and provide advice to others wishing to set up similar services SHERPA is part of the JISC FAIR (Focus on Access to Institutional Resources) Programme which supports projects aiming to achieve the "disclosure of institutional assets" with the vision of setting up a "web of resources built by groups with a long term stake in the future of those resources, but made available through service providers to the whole community of learning."