UC's digital repository exceeds 50,000 documents deposited

The reinforcement of the "Estudo Geral" reflects policy of Open Access to research results

UM
UC Open Science, com Ana Miguéis
25 august, 2022≈ 4 min read

The digital repository of the University of Coimbra - Estudo Geral - surpassed, this summer, the mark of 50 thousand documents deposited. Created in 2008 with the aim of disseminating scientific digital content from authors linked to the UC, the repository represents the University's subscription to the guiding principles of the Open Access movement, inventorying and disseminating the scientific production of the university community and, whenever possible, making available the full texts of the research results.

The increasing use of the Estudo Geral (General Study) benefits from factors such as the Open Access Policy of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), which guides, at a national level, the provision of publicly funded scientific research results openly, freely and at no cost to the user. The national Policy states that publications should be deposited in open access as soon as possible, preferably at the time of acceptance for publication, in a RCAAP aggregated repository - which is the case of the General Study. In addition to following the recommendations of FCT and its integration in RCAAP, the General Study is also linked to the Open Access Policy of the UC, approved in 2010.

The legal obligation to deposit Theses and Dissertations in institutional repositories belonging to RCAAP, existing since 2013, is another contributing factor to the growth of the use of the UC digital repository. The Portuguese Decree-Law 115/2013 indicates the need for a digital copy of these documents when defended in Portuguese Higher Education Institutions.

Integration and comprehensiveness

Another important component to be highlighted in the development of the Estudo Geral is the system's integration with other tools, for example, the UC's Nónio - where dissertations are initially registered and deposited - and CiênciaVitae, a curriculum management platform that allows deposits to the University's repository. The UC repository is also integrated with ORCID and DOI, which register unique identifiers for researchers and documents, respectively.

Showing its potential comprehensiveness in terms of scientific information, the Estudo Geral has now a set of information that also includes the research units, the profile of the associated researchers and the projects related to the production. Such coverage reinforces the importance of the Estudo Geral among research centres and contributes to the creation of a system for the management of scholarly information.

In addition to the more than 50,000 documents deposited, the repository currently registers 38,500 researchers, 76 research and development units, and 2,563 projects.