Countries accessing the LRA (2009-2011)

Following a conversation with a fellow repository manager on Friday about countries using our research, I did a bit of quick and dirty analysis on the LRA, taking a data range of 1/4/2009-30/4/2011.  Here’s the top 20 countries using us, and the percentage of the overall accesses they make up.

1. United Kingdom (39.72%)
2. United States (12.84%)
3. India (3.13%)
4. Germany (2.64%)
5. Australia (2.41%)
6. Canada (2.35%)
7. China (2.23%)
8. Italy (1.51%)
9. France (1.48%)
10. Malaysia (1.44%)
11. Netherlands (1.29%)
12. Japan (1.06%)
13. Iran (1.05%)
14. Spain (1.04%)
15. Greece (0.94%)
16. Turkey (0.89%)
17. Hong Kong (0.82)%
18. Ireland (0.82%)
19. Indonesia (0.77%)
20. Taiwan (0.75%)

• The top 10 make up 69.7% of all accesses to the LRA mounted research over that time.
• The top 20 make up 79.2% of all accesses to the LRA mounted research over that time.

I don’t know whether to be delighted or distressed that the bulk of accesses come from the UK.  It’s good that the research is getting read here, but so much depends these days on overseas researchers making use of the research we publish.  Other repository managers reading this – how does this compare to your own repositories? Similar? Completely different?

And for any Leicester folk reading this – are these the countries that we’d expect to be using our research?  Of course, we are always limited by the materials that academics send us, and I’m well aware there are many, many gaps in our collections that I’d be only too keen to fill!

LRA Top Research items at Leicester Dec 2010

Happy new year, and welcome once again to the highlights from the Leicester Research Archive for the past month.

1. (1st equal) Female Fandom in an English ‘Sports City’: A sociological study of female spectating and consumption around sport (Pope, Stacey Elizabeth Sociology Thesis)
2. (1st equal) Social inclusion, the museum and the dynamics of sectoral change (Sandell, Richard Museum Studies Article)
3. The propagation of VHF and UHF radio waves over sea paths (Sim, Chow Yen Desmond Engineering Thesis)
4. Ancient Egyptian astronomy: timekeeping and cosmography in the new kingdom (Symons, Sarah Mathematics Thesis)
5. Visions of a new Jerusalem: predictive fiction in the Second World War (Hooley, Tristram English Thesis)
6. (6th equal) Pedagogical models for podcasts in higher education (Edirisingha, Palitha et al BDRA Conference Paper)
7. (6th equal) The costs of Activity-Based Management (Armstrong, Peter Management Article)
8. Teaching presentation skills to undergraduates: Students’ evaluations of a workshop course (Colman, Andrew M. Psychology Article)
9. Measuring the efficiency of European airlines: an application of DEA and Tobit Analysis (Fethi, Meryem Duygun et al Management Report)
10. (10th equal) Writing up and presenting qualitative research in family planning and reproductive health care (Pitchforth, Emma et al Health Sciences Article)
11. (10th equal) Thomas C. Schelling’s psychological decision theory: Introduction to a special issue (Colman, Andrew M Psychology Article)

A good mix and spread from across the university’s disciplines.  In terms of countries accessing the LRA, there were a few new surprises appearing in the top 10.

1. United Kingdom
2. United States
3. India
4. China
5. Germany
6. Canada
7. Iran
8. Italy
9. Japan
10. Taiwan

Open Access Week 2010: What did we learn

So that was it for Open Access Week 2010, and while we weren’t perhaps bowled over by the number of academics we got to see during it (happening during half-term can’t have helped) those we did see were fulsome with praise for us coming out to them.  Certainly it’s something I’ll happily keep offering throughout the year, given that it still netted us an additional 101 full text publications for deposit onto the LRA, and I’ll be encouraging the team to get this on as a matter of priority.

Time to start planning open access week 2011 I guess!  Thanks to all those who took part and supported us throughout, it was very much appreciated.

Open Access Week 2010: Thursday

A busy day yesterday, so to make up here’s  a couple of interesting open access related things to make up!

ROAR, based down in Southampton, is launching an interesting little widget called an Overview of Open Access which

showcases open access material from repositories around the world. Picking one recent deposit at a time, the animated map cycles around the world’s repositories showing a description of the deposit itself, together with a description and thumbnail of the repository’s home page. Every few seconds another deposit is chosen from another repository, making what we hope is an interesting trip around the World of Open Access! The title of each repository and each deposit is linked from the display, allowing viewers to explore repositories and open access research from around the globe.

I’d like to say more about it, but at the time of blogging the site appears to be down (potentially due to the number of people looking at it!).

The second item is a paper published in PLoS One on

• Gargouri Y, Hajjem C, Larivière V, Gingras Y, Carr L, Brody T, Harnad S. Self-Selected or Mandated, Open Access Increases Citation Impact for Higher Quality Research. PLoS ONE. 2010;5(10):e13636+. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013636.

You can read more about the paper in this useful blog post from PLoS One.  The actual impact of open access on citation rates continues to be hotly debated topic, and so this paper is a welcome addition to the literature.

And two randomly selected full text papers of interest for your reading pleasure

• A catalyst for change: the social impact of the Open Museum
• On Corruption and Institutions in Decentralised Economies

Open Access Week 2010: Tuesday

So far this week I’ve been to the offices of three academics, and have one more coming to see me.  A small number, but I am quietly very pleased with the response – all those I have seen so far have been very fulsome in praise for the spur to deposit that Repository in your Office is.  What’s struck me today comes from looking at how academic have their file space organised, I’ve come away with a greater appreciation on how hard it is for them to exercise version control – which makes it harder for us (and them) to find the publisher permitted versions of articles to archive.

Today’s random article from the LRA: Prisoner’s Dilemma, Chicken, and mixed-strategy evolutionary equilibria

Repository in your Office – Open Access Week 2010

Next week is the 4th SPARC International Open Access week.  Around the globe open access advocates and repository staff take this time to celebrate the successes of their repository, but also to redouble their efforts!  Various special events take place, and this year as part of the celebrations, the Leicester Research Archive Team are offering Repository in Your Office – adapting its name from the popular television show Restaurant in our Living Room (well popular with me anyway)

In essence it’s a chance for academics to call us over to their offices to collect any and all materials they’ve got for potential archiving on the LRA and a chance for them to have a handy 1-2-1 consultation on any and all aspects of open access.  I think it’s a great chance for us to fly the flag for the LRA and the brilliant research that Leicester produces, as well as interacting with our fantastic academic community on a more personal level.

Here’s just a sampling of some of the top rated research publications on the LRA from across the colleges.

• Emma Pitchforth et al (2005) Writing up and presenting qualitative research in family planning and reproductive health care. (Health Sciences/College of Medicine, Biological Sciences & Psychology) 825 accesses
• Gaia Garino & Christopher Martin (2007). The Impact of Labour Turnover: Theory and Evidence from UK Micro-Data (Economics/College of Social Science) 908 accesses
• Palitha Edirisingha, Gilly Salmon, John C Fothergill.(2007) Profcasting: a pilot study and guidelines for integrating podcasts in a blended learning environment (BDRA) 758 accesses
• Richard Sandell (2003). Social inclusion, the museum and the dynamics of sectoral change (Museum Studies/College of Arts, Humanities & Law) 1,115 accesses
• Ying Liu (2009). Advanced Photovoltaic converters (Engineering/College of Science & Engineering) 1014 accesses

Will it be a success?  At this stage I just don’t know, we’ve never tried this kind of advocacy here at Leicester so this is somewhat a bit of an experiment.  But win, lose or draw I’m sure the lessons we learn from the exercise will serve us well in planning Open Access Week 2011!

So if you’re a researcher here at Leicester, and you’ve been thinking about depositing with the LRA, but haven’t quite got around to it – why not take this opportunity to invite us in (coffee appreciated but not essential) to help make it

Repository in your Office – making it easier than ever to deposit with the LRA! 

LRA Top 10 Items: July 2010

Here are the top 10 accessed items on the LRA in the past month

1. Antisocial personality disorder: An evolutionary game theory analysis. Colman, Andrew M. et al (Article)
2. The Impact of Labour Turnover: Theory and Evidence from UK Micro-Data Garino. Gaia et al (Report)
3. Advanced control of photovoltaic converters. Liu. Ying (Thesis)
4. Lead-free soldering alloys: microstructure optimization for electronic applications. Belyakov, Sergey  (Thesis)
5. Succinct DOM. Delpratt, O’Neil et al (Conference Paper)
6. Electrofinishing of metals using eutectic based ionic liquids. Abbott, A.P. et al (Article)
7. A Study of Solidification Structure Evolution during Investment Casting of Ni-based Superalloy for Aero-Engine Turbine Blades. Dai, Huijuan (Thesis)
8. Saint Christopher Wall Paintings in English and Welsh Churches, c.1250-c.1500. Pridgeon , Eleanor Elizabeth (Thesis)
9. Measuring the outcomes and impact of learning in museums, archives and libraries: the Learning Impact Research Project end of project paper. Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean et al. (Report)
10. Social inclusion, the museum and the dynamics of sectoral change. Sandell, Richard  (Article)

Interestingly once again all are full text, which given that the LRA is ~ 40% full text currently is by no means guaranteed.  However, it seems that our metadata tagging of metadata only items is helping searchers discriminate between bibliographic entries and those where they can actually read Leicester’s research.

Top Leicester Repository Items: June 2010

The most used items in the University’s open access reposiotry (the LRA) during June 2010 were:

1. Lead-free soldering alloys: microstructure optimization for electronic applications Belyakov, Sergey  (thesis)
2. Advanced control of photovoltaic converters Liu, Ying  (thesis)
3. Electrofinishing of metals using eutectic based ionic liquids. Abbott, A.P. et al Chemistry (article)
4. Measuring the outcomes and impact of learning in museums, archives and libraries: the Learning Impact Research Project end of project paper Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean et al Museum Studies (report)
5. Social inclusion, the museum and the dynamics of sectoral change Sandell, Richard (article)
6. Comparison of systemic availability of curcumin with that of curcumin formulated with phosphatidylcholine Marczylo, Timothy H. et al (article)
7. Saint Christopher Wall Paintings in English and Welsh Churches, c.1250-c.1500 Pridgeon , Eleanor Elizabeth  (thesis)
8. Psychology Colman, Andrew M. (article)
9. A Study of Solidification Structure Evolution during Investment Casting of Ni-based Superalloy for Aero-Engine Turbine Blades. Dai, Huijuan (thesis)
10. Teaching presentation skills to undergraduates: Students’ evaluations of a workshop course. Colman, Andrew M. (article)

A strong month for theses, which are only about 10% of the items on the repository