Enabling open research practices - connecting the Octopus platform with research institutional repositories

Abstract

The research landscape is evolving rapidly, with a wide range of tools and platforms being developed to enable open research practices, and increased expectations from funders to openly share research outputs. One such tool is Octopus (https://www.octopus.ac/), a new and innovative open-source platform for the instant publication of research work (detailed methods, analyses, and data) and open peer review processes that was recently launched in 2022 with the support of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and in partnership with Jisc and the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN). Using open and well-adopted standards, this collaborative project aims to increase interoperability between new research publishing tools and remove barriers to depositing research outputs into research repositories. The project will enhance Octopus by developing deposit, synchronisation and export mechanisms to enable the platform’s research outputs to be imported into repositories. This integration will be developed for the DSpace repository platform. Deposit mechanisms will use repository native APIs and content synchronisation methods will be based on the Resourcesync framework specification to maximise interoperability and to follow design principles and behaviours of next-generation repositories. A case study on Apollo, Cambridge’s institutional repository, which uses DSpace, will be developed to further promote reuse and adoption.