| The California Digital Library (CDL) has announced the launch of a
Web site and associated digital services to store and distribute academic
research results and working papers. The eScholarship Repository (http://repositories.cdlib.org)
includes a set of author and reader services for the rapid dissemination
of scholarship that's authored or sponsored by faculty from the University
of California (UC). Its initial focus will be on working papers from the
humanities and social sciences.
Built through a partnership with the Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress),
the tools behind the eScholarship Repository improve the speed and efficiency
of sharing the results of scholarly efforts, according to the announcement.
The publishing of working papers is greatly streamlined for participating
scholars, departments, and research institutes. The submission, processing,
and dissemination of papers is managed through the bepress EdiKit Web interface.
At no charge, readers can discover and view relevant research by topic,
author, or sponsoring research department with the site's straightforward
organization and search tools. The system also allows users to sign up
for a service that can alert them to new content in their specific areas
of interest.
Associated with an author's concern for the permanence of the digital
versions of his or her papers is a reader's need for reliable tracking
of the work's evolution, according to the announcement. The eScholarship
Repository accommodates that need by maintaining links and citations for
previous or later versions of any posted material.
The repository will first offer early-adopter social science research
units at UC
Berkeley and UCLA. The Berkeley Olin Program in Law and Economics,
the Institute of Industrial Relations, the Institute of Business and Economic
Research, the Institute of Transportation Studies, and others are moving
existing working paper series to the repository and are using it to publish
new scholarship. The eScholarship Repository will also offer papers in
the University of California International and Area Studies (UCIAS) peer-reviewed
ePublications Program, an eScholarship initiative launched last year (http://escholarship.cdlib.org/ias.html).
The repository is an important component of CDL's eScholarship program,
which facilitates and supports scholar-led innovations in scholarly communication.
CDL plans to make the repository's working papers available over time.
It expects the collection to grow quickly with the addition of content
from other social science and humanities institutes and scholars. The eScholarship
program is working with UC libraries and a 10-campus scholarly communication
advisory body to schedule this phased expansion.
Additional information about the eScholarship program can be found at
http://www.escholarship.cdlib.org.
Source: California Digital Library, Berkeley, CA, 510/987-0425; http://www.cdlib.org. |
