News Story

CORE Successfully Completes the USRN Discovery Pilot Project, Enhancing Repository Discoverability in the United States

Nancy Pontika, Thursday 20 Mar 2025

A significant milestone has been reached: CORE’s pilot project with the USRN has concluded, delivering impressive outcomes, our pilot project with the United States Repository Network (USRN), a collaborative initiative between CORE, SPARC, Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) and AntLeaf. This pilot, which commenced in 2023, focused on assessing and increasing the discoverability and promoting good practices of U.S. repositories, a crucial step towards building a robust and interoperable national research infrastructure.

Considering the widely discussed OSTP memorandum on “Ensuring Free, Immediate and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research,” the importance of a well-connected network of repositories cannot be overstated. These repositories are pivotal in facilitating rapid and open access to research, thereby fostering a more inclusive and equitable global research communication system.

The pilot engaged 23 diverse repositories, ranging from prestigious universities to subject-specific institutions, ensuring a representative sample for broader application. Our process involved a comprehensive technical evaluation and a detailed survey of current practices, resource availability, and technical development aspirations.

The initial assessment revealed that many repositories faced challenges in implementing optimal practices, often due to resource constraints and a lack of awareness regarding available tools and functionalities. To address these issues, CORE provided tailored support, including one-on-one consultations, webinars, a comprehensive knowledge base, and automated checks via the CORE Dashboard.

Significant Outcomes and Impact

The pilot yielded substantial positive outcomes, most notably a significant increase in the discoverability of content within participating repositories. At the project’s outset, approximately half of the repositories had improperly configured OAI-PMH interfaces, hindering indexing by external discovery systems. Through our collaborative efforts, all but one repository are now OAI-PMH compliant. This has resulted in a remarkable 50% increase in indexed content, with 728,770 new records now publicly accessible.

Key resources developed during the pilot, which will be made available to the broader USRN community, include:

CORE US Desirable Characteristics for Digital Publication Repositories Validator: Specifically designed to assess repositories’ compliance with the USRN Desirable Characteristics for Publication Repositories.
CORE Data Provider’s Guide: Offering comprehensive instructions for repository indexing, applicable beyond the scope of this project.
USRN Desirable Characteristics Toolkit: A valuable wiki resource providing guidance on metadata, discoverability, and persistent identifiers.

Looking Ahead

The United States boasts over 1,000 repositories, each playing a vital role in preserving and providing access to valuable research outputs. However, ensuring optimal practices and interoperability remains essential for maximising their impact. This pilot demonstrates that targeted support can lead to significant improvements, even with limited resources.

Our next steps involve expanding the availability of these resources to the wider USRN network and engaging in strategic discussions about the importance of good practices and interoperability. We will continue to support repositories in adopting new functionalities, enabling them to participate in cutting-edge research and innovation.

We have been proud to be able to support the USRN network and the CORE team looks out to help/support/empower/work/collaborate with other national repository networks in supporting their discoverability efforts, thus ultimately supporting the open access mission …

Project Team Acknowledgement:

We extend our sincere gratitude to the dedicated project team:

Jennifer Beamer, Visiting Program Officer, USRN/SPARC
Matteo Cancellieri, CORE Lead developer
Heather Joseph, Executive Director, SPARC
Petr Knoth, Founder and Head of CORE; Professor of Data Science, The Open University
David Pride, CORE, Research Fellow, The Open University
Kathleen Shearer, Executive Director, COAR
Halyna Torchylo, CORE, Liaison and support
Michael Upshall, CORE Communication and Engagement Manager
Paul Walk, Antleaf Ltd, Technical Consultant

This project demonstrates how CORE can work with the network of global repositories to deliver a more connected and accessible research landscape. CORE remains committed to advancing open access and fostering a more connected and accessible research landscape.