If you are interested in the use of SWORD for the deposit of research data, take a look at the DevCSI event report from their recent ‘Managing Research Data Hack Day‘ event report:
There is an interesting discussion and associated video about using SWORD v2 to deposit files using BitTorrent.
Originally published at: http://isc.ukoln.ac.uk/2012/03/20/launch-of-sword-version-2/
The second version of the SWORD resource deposit protocol, designed primarily to enable the deposit of scholarly works into content repositories, has now been released. Developed with funding from the JISC, the SWORD v2 project has built upon the successful and award winning SWORD deposit protocol to now support the full deposit lifecycle of deposit, update, and deletion of resources. In addition of the new technical standard, implementations for some of the most well-known repository platforms have been created, along with client toolkits and exemplar demonstrators.
Led by Richard Jones (Technical Lead) of Cottage Labs and Stuart Lewis (Community Manager), formerly of the University of Auckland, now of the University of Edinburgh along with oversight from Paul Walk from the UKOLN Innovation Support Centre, the project was steered by an international technical advisory group of 36 experts in the areas of repositories, standards development, and scholarly content.
The development of the standard will allow a new breed of smart deposit scenarios and software products that are able to deposit content into one or more repositories, track the deposits over time, interact with them and update, or remove them. Before SWORDv2, deposit interoperability took the form of single deposits, coined as ‘fire and forget’. Once a deposit had been made, no further interaction was possible. SWORD v2 extends its support for the Atom Publishing Protocol (AtomPub) by adding support updates and deletions. These will enable new interoperable deposit management systems to be built that will work with any SWORD v2 compliant system.
Deposit use cases which are now possible include collaborative authoring, or getting more integrated with the publication workflow where multiple updates and versions of documents are required. Further details can be found at the SWORD website: http://swordapp.org/ or by emailing info@swordapp.org
We recently posted a survey about ‘Data Deposit’. The survey is still open if you wish to respond.
The first question in the survey asks:
The SWORD v2 project has been asked by the JISC to look into the applicability of the SWORD protocol for depositing Research Data. The SWORD protocol has always been agnostic about the type of resource it is depositing, however its initial development stemmed from a requirement for the deposit of scholarly communications outputs into repositories – these typically being small text-based items.
In order to investigate how well SWORD and SWORD v2 would deal with Research Data, we need to know about the different types of research data that you are working with. This will allow us to discover some of the range of different data types in use, and the general and specific requirements of each.
We’ve tried to keep the survey short – it is only 9 questions long. If you have a few minutes to share some information with us about the data you work with, we would very much appreciate it.
Visit the survey at http://swordapp.org/sword-v2/sword-v2-data-deposit-survey/
As part of the SWORD v2 project finding, resources were allocated to implement it in a number of repository platforms. First off the block to release SWORD v2 implementations as part of their core functionality are EPrints and DSpace:
Have you wondered how the SWORD v2 development process has taken place, from humble beginnings in 2010 to the standard today? Richard Jones (SWORD v2 Technical Lead) from CottageLabs explains during a Pecha Kucha session at the 2011 Repository Fringe event #rfringe11
We recently announced one of the clients that the SWORD v2 project has been able to fund (the ‘right-click deposit‘ project). This blog post describes the other project that was funded: “A SWORD-V2 Client for Publishing Open Education Resources (OER) to Connexions”.
Kathi Fletcher is a Shuttleworth Fellow who is focusing on how to foster an ecosystem of innovative tools and services around an education highway (metaphorically) made of open education resources (OER). Part of this involves implementing a SWORD v2 deposit interface for the Connexions repository of OERs. Connexions (cnx.org) is a globally available repository of educational materials that can be freely shared, reused, and adapted.
In order to make the deposit of new OERs into the repository even easier this project has been funded to create a deposit tool that will load and convert word document files into CNX-compatible packages, and then deposit them using SWORD v2. The SWORD interface will then be able to be used to update, augment, and make new versions of the OER modules contained within the repository.
This project will be a good showcase of the applicability of SWORD for all types of content repositories, not just traditional ‘Institutional Repositories’.
We’ll post updates on this blog as the project develops.
The SWORD project recently published a call for project proposals to create new SWORD v2 clients. We are happy to announce that two projects have been funded which we’ll introduce in some blog posts.
This blog post introduces the first of the two: Right-click deposit by Kim Shepherd. The project proposal aims to:
Create a configurable Windows SWORD v2 client which offers quick access to repository deposit via the Windows right-click context menu.
It would be developed with a focus on easy and non-intrusive installation to allow easy large-scale deployments. It will be designed to take advantage of the familiarity most Windows users have with right-click menus and actions, so that users do not have to learn how to use “yet another app”.
Some usage examples include:
- Pre-configure repository/collection settings and deposit any file with one click
- Configure repository settings and select collection at time of deposit
- No configuration, select all options at time of deposit
- Configure a range of deposit profiles which can be selected via the context menu
We’ll post updates on this blog as the project develops.
The project has developed SWORD v2 implementations for DSpace, EPrints and Fedora. In addition it has developed client code libraries (APIs) for Java, PHP, Ruby and Python.
In order to increase the number of SWORD v2 client implementations, the JISC have donated over £5,000 to fund new SWORD v2 clients. The majority of this money is being made available in a contested request for projects. We are seeking developers or development teams to submit ideas for creating new SWORD v2 clients, either by upgrading existing SWORD clients, building SWORD functionality into other scholarly communications tools, or developing entirely new deposit tools. In addition a small amount of the money will be used to provide technical support to the winning developers by the original SWORD v2 team ensuring that the projects have access to all the help and support they need.
Entrants are encouraged to make use of the existing SWORD v2 client code libraries. Using the existing client code libraries will lower the development effort needed, enabling rapid, efficient, and cost-effective development. Proposals to add SWORD v2 into existing well-adopted and mature systems are particularly welcome.
To enter, please tell us the following, in no more than 3 pages:
Entries will be judged by a panel of staff from the SWORD v2 project, UKOLN, and JISC. It is anticipated that 2 to 5 projects will be funded, depending upon the quality of submissions, and the amount of money that each submission requests. The decision of the judges is final, and the project reserves the right not to spend the whole amount of money if not enough entries of sufficient quality are received.
By submitting a proposal you additionally agree to the following:
To enter, submit your proposal to info@swordapp.org by 5:00pm Friday 12th August BST. Winners should be announced by the end of August. Proposals are welcome from any country.
We’re glad to announce that the SWORD v2 project has been granted extension funding by JISC. The original SWORD v2 project has been extending the current SWORD standard from its current model of ‘fire and forget’ deposits, to a full CRUD model where items can be updated, replaced, or deleted too. The project will deliver the new draft standard, server implementations for DSpace, EPrints and Fedora, along with client libraries in Java, PHP, Ruby, and Python.
For this extension to the project, the SWORD team is joining up with the SONEX team. SONEX (Scholarly Output Notification and EXchange) have spent the past couple of years undertaking various activities, one of which has been identifying deposit opportunities within the scholarly communications environment. The SWORD and SONEX teams have worked closely together in the past on exploring how SWORD can facilitate the deposit use cases identified by the SONEX work.
The extension project will be split into two halves:
The first part of the extension project has already started. Projects and researchers who have been working with dataset deposit into repositories are being contacted in order to find out more about the way that data transfer takes place, to see where SWORD could fit in. In particular, projects of the JISC MRD (Managing Research Data) programme are being targeted. Once this work has been completed, a gap analysis of their use cases and requirements will be compared with the functionality offered by SWORD.
Further details of the second part of the project will given in other blog posts in the near future – stay tuned: we’re looking for input in the form of ideas, possible systems to be enhanced with SWORD v2 functionality, and we’ll be seeking funded development parters.