Open Repository is rolling out a new ‘Request a Copy’ feature to our DSpace repository platform. Any of our global Open Repository client-base who wish to implement this feature will be able to add the button to their repository instance. For our UK clients,  the ‘Request a Copy button’ will assist repositories looking to comply with new polices for open access as part of the post-2014 Research Excellence Framework.

As per the DuraSpace website: “The request a copy functionality was added to DSpace as a measure to facilitate access in those cases when uploaded content can not be openly shared with the entire world immediately after submission into DSpace. It gives users an efficient way to request access to the original submitter of the item, who can approve this access with the click of a button. This practice complies with most applicable policies as the submitter interacts directly with the requester on a case by case basis”.

Working Across Repository Platforms

The ‘Request a Copy’ feature is part of an international initiative by the repository community to implement this feature in all major open access repository platforms, including DSpace, EPrints, and Fedora Commons.

We have the feature working on our demo site, and we are working with one of our UK clients, Chester, to implement this feature into their repository as requester and lead recipient. Thereafter, the feature will be made available to all other Open Repository clients globally.

Implementation Notes

Open Repository runs on the DSpace platform. To implement ‘Request a Copy’ our development team back-ported the community-contributed  JSPUI version for DSpace 4.0 to our own stable Open Repository DSpace platform version, so to maintain core stability. We have also modified slightly the logic of the contributed JSP version of the code in order to make it work more efficiently with our platform.

James Evans, Product Manager, Open Repository