Re: Ranking Web of Repositories: July 2010 Edition

From: Armbruster, Chris <Chris.Armbruster_at_EUI.EU>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 11:44:45 +0200

Hélène,

"Institution" is indeed not a very precise concept, but the repository ranking
will not be improved if one were to spend much time trying to decide which
repository is institutional and which is not (e.g. how about also deleting No 10
because it is only a departmental repository?). Also, it is a bad idea to define
repositories as institutional only if they restrict themselves to the output of
a single institution. We already have too many repository managers who succumb
to this kind of institutionalist logic - and reject OA content only because it
is not from their own institution.

The CSIC has a sound methodology for ranking repositories, and it not their job
to define exclusively what is an IR and what not. And in cyberspace it is much
more interesting to compare repositories according to domains and services they
offer...

Moreover, it would help if we could move beyond the often narrow understanding
of what an institutional repository is and what not & acknowledge more clearly
that a strategy of privileging institutional repositories as such has not
helped. The value & sustainability of IRs (individually, as isolated instances,
& if not embedeed in a national system) is rather limited for both scholarship
and open access. Hence, it is very welcome that more determined efforts are
underway at building viable networks of research repositories and integrate IRs
in national systems (e.g. Ireland as latest instance).

For a sustained argument, please see:

Armbruster/Romary (2010) Comparing Repository Types: Challenges and Barriers for
Subject-Based Repositories, Research Repositories, National Repository Systems
and Institutional Repositories in Serving Scholarly Communication." (accepted
for publication in IJDLS)
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1506905

Romary/Armbruster (2010) Beyond Institutional Repositories. IJDLS 1(1)44-61
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1425692

Regards, Chris

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: American Scientist Open Access Forum im Auftrag von Hélène.Bosc
Gesendet: Mi 7/7/2010 23:03
An: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
Betreff:      Re: Ranking Web of Repositories: July 2010 Edition

Isidro,
Thank you for your Ranking Web of World Repositories and for informing us
about the best quality repositories!


Being French, I am delighted to see HAL so well ranked and I take this
opportunity to congratulate Franck Laloe for having set up such a good
national repository as well as the CCSD team for continuing to maintain and
improve it.

Nevertheless, there is a problem in your ranking that I have already had
occasion to point out to you in private messages.
May I remind you that:

Correction for the top 800 ranking:


The ranking should either index HyperHAL alone, or index both HAL/INRIA and
HAL/SHS, but not all three repositories at the same time: HyperHAL includes
both HAL/INRIA and HAL/SHS .

Correction for the ranking of institutional repositories:


Not only does HyperHAL (#1) include both HAL/INRIA (#3) and HAL/SHS (#5), as
noted above, but HyperHAL is a multidisciplinary repository, intended to
collect all French research output, across all institutions. Hence it should
not be classified and ranked against individual institutional repositories
but as a national, central repository. Indeed, even HAL/SHS is
multi-institutional in the usual sense of the word: single universities or
research institutions. The classification is perhaps being misled by the
polysemous use of the word "institution."


Not to seem to be biassed against my homeland, I would also point out that,
among the top 10 of the top 800 "institutional repositories," CERN (#2) is
to a certain extent hosting multi-institutional output too, and is hence not
strictly comparable to true single-institution repositories. In addition,
"California Institute of Technology Online Archive of California" (#9) is
misnamed -- it is the Online Archive of California http://www.oac.cdlib.org/
(CDLIB, not CalTech) and as such it too is multi-institutional. And Digital
Library and Archives Virginia Tech University (#4) may also be anomalous, as
it includes the archives of electronic journals with multi-institutional
content. Most of the multi-institutional anomalies in the "Top 800
Institutional" seem to be among the top 10 -- as one would expect if
multiple institutional content is inflating the apparent size of a
repository. Beyond the top 10 or so, the repositories look to be mostly true
institutional ones.


I hope that this will help in improving the next release of your
increasingly useful ranking!


Best wishes
Hélène Bosc

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stevan Harnad" <harnad_at_ECS.SOTON.AC.UK>
To: <AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG>
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2010 6:07 PM
Subject: Fwd: Ranking Web of Repositories: July 2010 Edition



Begin forwarded message:

From: "Isidro F. Aguillo" <isidro.aguillo_at_CCHS.CSIC.ES>
Date: July 6, 2010 11:13:58 AM EDT
To: SIGMETRICS_at_listserv.utk.edu
Subject: [SIGMETRICS] Ranking Web of Repositories: July 2010 Edition

Ranking Web of Repositories: July 2010 Edition

The second edition of 2010 Ranking Web of Repositories has been published
the same day OR2010 started here in Madrid. The ranking is available from
the following URL:

http://repositories.webometrics.info/

The main novelty is the substantial increase in the number of repositories
analyzed (close to 1000). The Top 800 are ranked according to their web
presence and visibility. As usual thematic repositories (CiteSeer, RePEc,
Arxiv) leads the Ranking, but the French research institutes (CNRS, INRIA,
SHS) using HAL are very close.  Two issues have changed from previous
editions from a methodologicall point of view:, the use of Bing's engine
data has been discarded due to irregularities in the figures obtained and MS
Excel files has been excluded again.

At the end of July the new edition of the Rankings of universities, research
centers and hospitals will be published.

Comments, suggestions and additional information are greatly appreciated.

--
===========================
Isidro F. Aguillo, HonPhD
Cybermetrics Lab (3C1)
IPP-CCHS-CSIC
Albasanz, 26-28
28037 Madrid. Spain
Editor of the Rankings Web
===========================
Received on Thu Jul 08 2010 - 13:13:06 BST

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