Databases, institutional repositories and an organisational work flow

Abstract

The CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) is one of the leading research and development, technology and innovation institutions in Africa. The CSIR is committed to serving the development objectives of South Africa and the region by performing research that is relevant and has impact. The CSIR plays a key role in ensuring the science and technology competence to address challenges of the future. In order to meet these challenges, the explicit research output of the organization must be managed effectively. One of the problems facing database and IR managers is compliance. At the CSIR, it is expected that authors to submit their documented research output for inclusion in the Technical Outputs Database (TOdB) but that does not ensure that compliance is at 100%. In addition, suitable records in TOdB must be flagged for inclusion in the institutional repository. Unfortunately, it is not always feasible for the librarians to make the decision regarding the inclusion or exclusion of items. In addition, existing open source repository software lacks high level internal quality controls. In an attempt to address compliance, selection and quality control issues, a workflow system was developed for the TOdB system that also impacts on the Institutional Repository. The intention of this paper is to describe the process that was followed to design the workflow system, a discussion of the system itself and, in conclusion, an overview of the first months after the implementation of the system.