International Journal of Library Science

and Research (IJLSR)

ISSN(P): 2250-2351; ISSN(E): 2321-0079
Vol. 5, Issue 1, Feb 2015, 31-38
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

UPLOADING PROCEDURE OF DOCUMENTS IN EPRINTS OSS WITH REFERENCE TO

MANIPAL UNIVERSITY DIGITAL REPOSITORY
REKHAD. PAI1 & SAGENDER SINGH PARMAR2
1

Assistant Professor and Senior Librarian, Department of Library &Information Science, Manipal University, Manipal and
Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India
2

Assistant Librarian, Manipal Centre for Natural Sciences, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India

ABSTRACT
The collection, Storage and dissemination of the intellectual output of an institution in digital form can be
termedas institutional repository (IR). This repository may include journal articles, thesis, articles in conference
proceedings, publication, posters, monographs, videos, learning objects, etc. Today all major universities /institutions are
maintaining the institutional repositories using various open source or commercial softwares. Usually libraries are made
responsible to maintain these repositories, where library staff uploads the intellectual output on behalf of authors of the
institute. This article will elaboratethe document uploading procedure in EPrints, a Open source software.
The understanding of procedure will improve the self-archiving of documents, which in this age of information explosion
is very much necessary.

KEYWORDS: E Prints, Manipal University Digital Repository, Self Archiving, Institutional Repository
INTRODUCTION
We are living in the information society, the era of internet/electronic resources. This has taken birth because of
advancement in information and communication technology (ICT). Both the information and the ways to access the
information has tremendously changed because of ICT. The university and institutions continuously remain engaged in the
process of research and lotof literature gets generated during this process.
To make this information reachable to its own staff (open as per the publishers' policies) and for permanent
preservation they have started with the concept of InstitutionalRepository (IR). This is also supporting the open access
initiative. The repository can hold content like Theses, Conference papers & presentations, Metadata, Book &Book
chapters,digitized material, Research data etc. as per the institutions wish. The users of IRs usually are the
Students/researchers/faculty members, Retired professors and administrative staff.
Institutional Repository: Definition
According to Lynch (2003), a university-based IR is a set of services that a university offers to the members of
its community for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community
members. He further elaborates that, it is most essentially an organizational commitment to the stewardship of these
digital materials, including long-term preservation where appropriate, as well as organization and access or distribution1

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Rekhad. Pai & Sagender Singh Parmar

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objectives of the study are

To know the uploading procedure of documents in EPrints,

To prepare a self-archiving guide for the uploading procedure of documents in E Prints.

MANIPAL UNIVERSITY DIGITAL REPOSITORY (MUDR)

MU is maintaining its repository under the name of Manipal University Digital Repository or E Prints
@ Manipal University. This is powered by EP rints, open source software using EP3.2.7 version. The research output of
the university is collected, preserved and disseminated in digital format, to the faculty, students, and staff community of the
university. MUDR helps the institute community of MU to deposit their pre-prints; post prints and other scholarly
publications using a web interface, and organizes these publications for easy retrieval. Presently university is offering the
access to its repository collection up to the abstract level to avoid the copyright issues related to the documents. But the full
text copy of the document can be obtained upon request via mail. While the E Prints @ Manipal University repository can
be accessed by anybody, submission of documents to this repository is limited to the MU community only.
The collection of three campuses of MU i.e. Bangalore, Mangalore and Manipal are maintained by this repository
of MU. All the libraries of these campuses hold the administrative control of MUDR. MU Libraries are following the
assisted archiving, where each library is depositing the documents of their institution. To maintain the copyright policies,
both concerned library staff and the author are responsible. The visibility of copyrighted articles is channelized through the
concerned library. The libraries maintain this repository includes:
Health Sciences Library, Manipal
KMC Library, Mangalore
Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) Central Library
Welcome Group School of Hotel Management (WGSHA) Library
School of Communication (SOC) Library
School of Management (SOM) Library
Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities (MPH) Library
Manipal Centre for Natural Sciences (MCNS) Library
Presently MU has given the right of submission of documents to the librarian/library staff. The willing faculty
member of MU can submit his/her document as per the guidelines and conditions (available at the MU Digital Repository)
of the MU through the mail. Which will then be uploaded to the repository by concerned library and notification will be
sent to the concerned person.

EPRINTS OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

E Prints is an open-source software, meaning that the software is available free, anyone can download and the
software can be modified however the user likes. E Prints requires some additional software to run: Linux, Apache,
Impact Factor (JCC): 3.2349

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0

33

Uploading Procedure of Documents in E Prints OSS with Reference to Manipal University Digital Repository

MySQL, and Perl. These are all open source and are already present on the servers of many institutions. There is a version
of E Prints that will run on Windows servers as well, which will make the adoption of E Prints even easier.2
It is OAI-PMH COMPLIANT. E Prints is a web and command line application based on the LAMP architecture.
It successfully runsin Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X. A version that runs on of Microsoft Windows is also available.
E Prints is translated to languages other than English through languages-specific XML phrase files. In India NCSI is
conducting workshops and training programmes for installing and customizing E Prints software.
Document Uploading Procedure in Eprints
The procedure of uploading the document starts with:
First - Enter into the website of IR
Second- Login the IR system
Third- Enter the account password
After completion of above three steps follwing are the steps in uploading the document/item in E Prints.

By using either of the methods mentioned below one can reach the home page of MU EPrints.
http://www.manipal.edu OR http://eprints.manipal.edu

Figure 1: E Prints Interface

To submit the document one has to log in by using username and password. This has to be entered in the
concerned bar and then one has to click on login. This can be a self-archiving where users are given with the
username and password or assisted archiving, where librarians/library staff will upload the article on behalf of the
faculty or institution staff. In MU digital repository as librarian/library staff is providing the assisted archiving;
only the administrator /librarians are having the username and password of E Prints.
First a cross check of the article is required either by using different search options available in E Prints or in

Google/Google Scholar/OCLC to ensure that article is not submitted before.

After logging in by using the administrative username and password, it leads the user to below shown figure.
Then one has to click on the new item icon for submission of the document. The full text of the document should
be kept ready in PDF format. It is mandatory that one author of the depositing document has to be from the
institution maintaining the repository. This should be taken care before submitting.

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Rekhad. Pai & Sagender Singh Parmar

Figure 2: Logged in Page of E Prints

There are five major steps in uploading the document to the EPrints. Namely:Type,Upload, Details, Subject and
Deposit.

Selecting the type of item is the first step in uploading of the document. In this step item type of the document to
be uploaded is to be specified. MU EPrints has the provision for the following item types like Article, Book
section, Image Monograph, Video, Conference or workshop item, Audio,Book,Dataset Experiment, Thesis,
Patent, Teaching Resources and other (Which are not gettingcovered under these categories)

Figure 3: Selection of Item Type

One has to just click in the circle provided in front of the item type to specify his/her document category. At each
step in document uploading procedure the option of save for later is available.So one can save his/her work and
can stop the uploading procedure for future continuation.Thenclick on next icon will continue the procedure.
Which takes him to the next step of the procedure i.e. Upload.In the next step full text of the document to be
uploaded should be selected by browsing it from the computer, where it is located.

Impact Factor (JCC): 3.2349

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0

Uploading Procedure of Documents in E Prints OSS with Reference to Manipal University Digital Repository

35

Figure 4: Browse the Item

The click on the Browse helps one to open the document to be uploaded (which has to be in PDF format) from
the place saved in the computer like My Documents,
Document Desktop or My Computer etc. Then one has to click on open
icon.

In the next step the path/destination of the browsed document gets visible in the browse bar. Then one has to click
on Upload icon,immediately
,immediately after that the show option will become active where users have to decide the
visibility of the documenti.e. Anyone, Registered staff or Repository staff only. The click on Next button
movesthe procedure to further steps.

The fields marked with star (

with a symbol (

) are mandatory. One has a choice to fill other fields mentioned.

mentione The help option

) is available at the right side of each field and can be used for convenience. One can drag the

Icon given next to the bar to select the available options/answers for that field. Even if one has selected the wrong
document,
ment, he can delete that by clicking on the icon (

) and can repeat the previous steps to select new

document.

The third step in the procedure, i.e. Details ask to fill the various fields regarding the document like Title and
abstract, creators name, publication'sdetail, etc.[First
etc.[First from the PDF the required matter may be copied to the
notepad and the necessary alignments have to be made.The
made The junk characters have to be removed. The matter in the
proper format should be copied to the relevant fields of the IR.]

Figure 5: Uploading of Document Details

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Rekhad. Pai & Sagender Singh Parmar

After entering the title and abstract, user has to fill creators name (the option of E-mail
E
of the creators is
optional).By clicking on the more input rows one can increase the creators column. While entering,
entering the
correctness of author name should be taken care, otherwise the uploaded article may not get included in the
already existing article count of the author.
autho But one need not be tensed as the option
optio of rectification is available
with the editor.

Next comes the publication's detail where filling of refereed (the version has been refereed or not), status
(i.e. Published,, in press, submitted, unpublished),
unpublis
journal or publication title is mandatory and remaining are the
optional to the user. This includes the publishers name, official URL of the publisher / journal,
journal volume number,
ISSN etc.

The contact email address of the administrator of the repository should be given. With this e-mail
e
address the user
can request for the full text of the document. This can be added by clicking on the

Sign. References,

Uncontrolled Keywords, Additional Information, Comments

Comments and Suggestions can be added, in the same way by
clicking on the

icon. Then one has to click on the next icon to proceed

pro
with the uploading procedure

This is the fourth step of document uploading, where the subject has to be selected depending upon the authors'
affiliations. It is not according to the subject to which the document is dealing with. The selection of the subject
has to be done for each author of the document who belongs to the depositing institution community.This step is
helpful in indicating
icating the number of documents deposited by each department of an institution. The number of
uploaded documents will be present in front of each department name under the department wise search option.

Figure 6: Selection of Subjects

One has to select the subject, to which the author belongs, by clicking on the

icon This will display the list of

icon.

subject categories, and then one has to click on ADD icon

icon to get that section added into
in the procedure. Various
numbers of departments can be added as per the creators list of the documents.. The option of removing the
selected subject is also available, which can be used if one has made a wrong selection of the subject. Search bar
help can be taken to searchh out the particular department. Then one has to click the next icon.

Finally the next screen is showing last step in the process of uploading the document to the repository.

Impact Factor (JCC): 3.2349

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0

Uploading Procedure of Documents in E Prints OSS with Reference to Manipal University Digital Repository

37

Figure 7: Deposit Step of E Prints

One can see the title of the document which is going to be uploaded. Page contains the acceptance declaration by
author(s) under two headings i.e.
For work being deposited by its own author
For work being deposited by someone other than its author

Clicking on deposit item now means one is agreeing with the same. And document gets deposited in the
repository.

The item gets deposited, which will be shown with the green indication, confirming that the item has been
deposited. Below that a message is displayed indicating as your item will not appear on the public website until it
has been checked by an editor with red indication. Which means that item is not going to be displayed on the
repository site immediately after deposition, shown below the red indication. The administrator has to review the
deposited item to take the final decision on deposition of the document or for any modification and rectification.
With this the process of document uploading in the repository comes to an end.

Down to the same screen all the entries entered are displayed. One can go through these step by step to ensure the
correctness of the entries.

Figure 8: Showing the Metadata Entered for the Document

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Rekhad. Pai & Sagender Singh Parmar

After submitting and reviewing the document one can logout from the repository site by clicking on the logout
button. With this the job of depositor ends.

Once the document gets submitted it automatically goes to the concerned administrators account. Then comes the
administrator's role where he has to review the item deposited by using administrator passwords. By checking the
correctness of all the fields entered, he can movethe document to the repository. The item will be visible on IR
collection after 24 hours, as it has to be indexedfrom websites- Google, Google Scholar, and Oalster.

CONCLUSIONS
Institutional Repository plays a major role in making a library more resourceful. Certain literature like conference
papers, monographs, and lectures can be stored and preserved through uploading them in IR. Document uploading in
IR can be encouraged by self-archiving, where the researchers/faculty deposit their intellectual output by themselves rather
than one where the library does all the depositing work, as the editing control always remains with the library. This will not
only reduces the burden of library work but also improves the sustainability. For the libraries using the E Prints Open
source software, this article will serve as a guideline for uploading the document. I.e. for both library staff and the faculty
members.

REFERENCES
1.

Bansod, Sadanand Y (2011). Developing institutional repository in university library: a case study of university of
Pune. International journal of information dissemination and technology, 1 (4),1 88-192.

2.

Beazley, Mike (2010). E Prints Institutional Repository Software: A Review. Partnership: The Canadian Journal
of

Library

and

Information

Practice

and

Research,

5,

1-6.

Retrieved

from

https://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/perj/article/view/1234
3.

Pai, Rekha D (2013). Digital Repository Using Open Source Software: an Insight in to Manipal University Digital
Repository. National Conference on Knowledge Management and Organization in the Digital Era (ICKMODE),
17-19 January 2013, Tumkur, Karnataka, India. 461-465.

4.

The upload instructions of institutional repository system. NCKU Institutional Repository, 1-9. Retrieved on
December 11, 2013 From http://scholar.lib.ncku.edu.tw/explain/upload_exp_eng.pdf

5.

Manipal University Digital Repository. About Manipal University Digital Repository. Retrievedon February 15,
2014 fromhttp://EPrints.manipal.edu

6.

E Prints. About E Prints. Retrieved on February 4, 2014 from http://www.EPrints.org/software/

7.

Manipal University Digital Repository. Screen shot of document Uploading procedure in Manipal University
Digital Repository. Retrieved on February 18, 2014from http://EPrints.manipal.edu

Impact Factor (JCC): 3.2349

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0