Technical update: RPS and UCL Discovery

UCL researchers manage their publications and upload papers in the Research Publications Service (RPS).  The uploaded papers are made available in our open-access repository, UCL Discovery, in accordance with the publishers’ copyright conditions.  The connection between these two distinct systems has recently been updated; this blog post summarises the minor differences in behaviour that RPS users may notice as a result.

The upgrade provides immediate improvements to the back-end, technical management of RPS and UCL Discovery by ISD and the provider of the RPS platform, lays the foundations for future improvements in publications management and display, and ensures the ongoing robustness of the systems as open-access policies and mandates continue to develop.

UCL Discovery as a data source

The connection between RPS and UCL Discovery previously allowed the deposit (upload of files) of publications from RPS to UCL Discovery only.  The upgrade activates the harvest of bibliographic information, or metadata, from the UCL Discovery record back to RPS.

This means that all RPS records for which the full text has been uploaded now contain a UCL Discovery data source, alongside the existing data sources that have been created manually or harvested from external databases, such as Crossref, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science.  As with all data sources, the UCL Discovery data source can be set as the “preferred record” in RPS in order for its metadata to display publicly in IRIS.

No file reupload possible in RPS

Every RPS publication record includes a “full text” window where the full text file, if one has been uploaded, and its status in UCL Discovery is displayed.  It was previously possible to access this area after the upload and to “remove the licence from the repository”, upload a new file, and even to delete the existing file.  However, none of these actions had a direct effect on the existing UCL Discovery record: for instance, a file deleted through RPS would still be accessible in UCL Discovery without further intervention by the Open Access Team.

A change in system behaviour as part of the upgrade has resulted in this functionality no longer being present: if a file that has been uploaded in RPS needs to be replaced or removed, for any reason, please therefore contact the Open Access Team, who will be able to carry out the necessary actions in UCL Discovery.

The Open Access Team is aware that some publication uploads consist of multiple files, for example if there is a supplementary file in addition to the file containing the main text of the research output, or if the accepted manuscript version of the output consists of figure and table files that are separate from the main text.  Uploading multiple files within a single publication record is still possible, as the screenshot below demonstrates:

Please direct questions about managing publications in RPS and UCL Discovery to the Open Access Team.