griffith research repository

Research Data Australia - Short Survey

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Griffith Research Online (GRO)

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Unless otherwise indicated, works by Griffith University Scholars are © Griffith University. For further details please refer to the University Intellectual Property Policy at http://policies.griffith.edu.au/Research/Intellectual-Property/.

Brief description

This dataset is part of a larger collection, related organisations.

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• Supports Griffith Research Online (GRO) OAI Protocol

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• Associated with equella.rcs.griffith.edu.au/research/items/530dcba7-542d-53fe-8f40-0e32a5a7f465/1 equella.rcs.griffith.edu.au/research/items/530dcba7-542d-53fe-8f40-0e32a5a7f465/1

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• 'Weather at Home' project data
• 'Seeds for Snapper' 2021 Posidonia fruit collection data (NESP MaC 1.8)
• "Seed Selection for Successful Fuzzing" supplementary data

Copy and paste a formatted citation or use one of the links to import into a bibliography manager.

Advanced Search

• Use the ? symbol to perform a single character wildcard search. E.g. Organi?ations.
• Use the symbol to perform multiple character wildcard search. E.g. Extend*
• Use quotes " " to perform an exact phrase search. E.g. "ice sheets"
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Commencement Date Range

Completion date range, funding amount.

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• [[item3.prefLabel | toTitleCase]] ([[ item3.collectionNum ]]) [[item3.prefLabel | toTitleCase]] ([[ item3.collectionNum ]])
• Select the box tool.
• Click on the map and drag the mouse to draw a rectangle.
• Release the mouse to finish.

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Search terms.

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• [[ value | formatFacet | truncate:30 ]] [[value]]

Reviewing your Advanced Search

Search terms query constructor, subject filter, data provider filter, access filter, licence filter, time period filter, location filter.

The Advanced Search popout allows you to build/refine complex queries all in a single tabbed popout. From within the Advanced Search you can construct boolean searches and apply one or more filter categories to your search.

Note that there is no defined order to the tabs in the Advanced Search and you can apply the filters in any order you choose. Where there are multiple options for a filter category e.g. (Subjects) the options & record counts displayed are based on your query. Each time you switch tabs the available filter options and record counts are updated to reflect any changes on the previous tab.

As you build/refine your search in the Advanced Search popout, you can review the entire search and the number of results which will be returned by selecting the ‘Review’ tab. The tab also allows you to modify your search by removing filters.

The Query Constructor provides a way of searching for records using multiple search term combinations and Boolean operators.

The advanced queries created using the Query Constructor are comprised of Rows. Each Row consists of a Field, Condition Operator and a Value. The Value tells the search what to look for, the Field tells the search where to look, and the Condition Operator tells the search whether a record should ‘Contain’ or ‘Exclude’ the Value.

• Multiple search terms entered into a single Condition Value are treated by the search as being separated by the Boolean operator AND.
• The search terms are treated as case insensitive E.g. ‘Rain’ is the same as ‘rain’.
• Exact phrases can also be entered into Condition Values by using quotes " " E.g. "ice sheets"
• The ? symbol can be used to perform a single character wildcard search. E.g. Organi?ations.
• The * symbol can be used to perform multiple character wildcard search. E.g. Extend*

Note: Wildcard characters can be applied to single search terms, but not to search phrases.

Boolean Operators

The Query Constructor supports the use of the Boolean operators ‘AND’ & ‘OR’ between Query Rows. The operators are applied at the search level, meaning all Query Rows are separated by the same Boolean value. Changing the Boolean value between two Query Rows will change the value between all Query Rows.

Example - Constructing an Advanced Query

Here we will step through constructing an advanced query where we would like to find all the records which contain ‘Rain’ in the title, and ‘flood’ and ‘weather’ in the description.

• Ensure you are starting with a fresh search by clearing any previous searches.
• Open the Advanced Search popout and ensure you are on the ‘Search Terms’ tab. Two Query Rows should be displayed by default.
• From the Field drop down in the 1st Query Row select ‘Title’.
• In the empty value field in the 1st Query Row enter the search term ‘Rain’.
• From the Field drop down in the 2nd Query Row select ‘Description’.
• In the empty value field in the 2nd Query Row enter the search term ‘flood’.
• Click the ‘Add Row’ button to add a 3rd Query Row.
• From the Field drop down in the 3rd Query Row select ‘Description’.
• In the empty value field in the 3rd Query Row enter the search term ‘weather’.
• Click the ‘Search’ button to execute the search.

The Subject tab allows you to refine your search by selecting subjects which have been used to describe data records. The default subject vocabulary in Research Data Australia, and the one which is used consistently by data providers, is the ANZSRC Field of Research. Other supported subject vocabularies are also available and can be selected by using the drop down displayed at the top of the tab (note that these can take a little while to load).

Subject vocabularies are displayed as browsable hierarchical trees. Subject literals displayed as green links can be clicked to display or hide child subjects.

Subjects can be added or removed from your search by using the checkbox displayed with each subject literal. Multiple subjects can be selected within a single subject vocabulary and also across vocabularies.

The number of records with a subject will be displayed at the end of each subject literal E.g ‘Economics (30)’. Note that because the relationships between records and subjects are many to many, the counts displayed with the subjects will not necessarily match the count of records returned by your search. For example you may see 3 subjects all showing a (1) beside them. This could resolve to a single record containing all 3 of the subjects. Where no records exist with a subject value a (0) will be displayed with the literal.

The Data Provider tab allows you to limit your search to records published to Research Data Australia by specific providers.The number of records available from providers will be displayed at the end of each provider literal E.g ‘Bond University (25)’.

Data providers can be added or removed from your search by using the checkbox displayed with each data provider literal.

The Access tab allows you to limit your search to records with specific access types. Data records in Research Data Australia fall into one of four access types:

The number of records available in each access type will be displayed at the end of the access literal E.g ‘Open(23)’.

Access types can be added or removed from your search by using the checkbox displayed with each access literal.

The number of records available in each licence filter group will be displayed at the end of the licence literal E.g ‘No Licence(57)’.

Licence groups can be added or removed from your search by using the checkbox displayed with each licence literal.

The Time Period tab allows you to restrict your search to only records which contain Temporal Coverage* information which falls within a specific year range. The filter has been implemented as a pair of text fields which allow you to enter a ‘From Year and ‘To Year’. The placeholder text shown in the text fields indicates the available Temporal range you can search within.

To filter your results by a time period: Open the Advanced Search popout and ensure you are on the ‘Time Period’ tab. Enter a time period range by using the From Year and To Year Fields. Click the ‘Search’ button to execute the search.

*Temporal Coverage = Time period during which data was collected or observations made

Note: Where the records in your search contain no temporal information the following message will be displayed on the tab: "Search results contain no time period information."

The Location tab will allow you to filter your search results to only records that have mappable location information described, which falls within a specified region.

• pen the Advanced Search popout and ensure you are on the ‘Location’ tab.
• Use the map navigation tools on the left hand side of the map until you have the required map view.

• Release the mouse to finish. If there are records with location information available for your selection a red marker will be displayed for the first 15 records.

Note to change or redraw a region simply carry out the above steps again.

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Education (Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary)

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Find Griffith University theses in GRO

• Online Griffith University theses via GRO (Griffith Research Online) Griffith Research Online (GRO) is the institutional repository for Griffith Research publications, including Griffith Higher Degree by Research theses.

Find Australian theses in Trove

Trove, from the National Library of Australia, provides a quick way to access online and print theses from Australian and New Zealand universities.

• Available Online

Access help on finding theses in Trove .

International theses

Search these databases to access theses from international institutions:

The ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database is the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. It is the database of record for graduate research, with citations for over 2.4 million dissertations and theses produced since 1861 included from around the world. More than 900,000 theses authored since 1997 can be downloaded in fulltext as PDFs. MOBILE ACCESS: Optimised for use on mobile devices  

• EBSCO Open Dissertations Open-access database providing citation information for historic and contemporary dissertations and theses, with contributions by select colleges and universities from around the world from 1933 to present.
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations Provides links to full-text where available for theses and dissertations from across the globe.

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• Last Updated: Aug 21, 2024 7:58 AM
• URL: https://libraryguides.griffith.edu.au/education

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• Griffith College Library

Griffith Open - Institutional Repository

We are proud of the research work undertaken by staff and students of Griffith College. Griffith Open offers an opportunity to showcase the breadth and depth of this research.

Through providing a central archive and record of research, we aim to make content as accessible as possible. Institutional repositories ensure a wide dissemination of the work produced, maximise impact and contribute to the growing body of research literature that is now freely available online.

Griffith Open is committed to the principles of the growing Open Access movement. Open access to research enhances the visibility and the impact of the work, the author and the College. All material made available here is freely available on the internet.

Content may include:

• Preprints - a working paper or the version of a paper submitted for peer review
• Postprints - a final peer reviewed version, which has been accepted for publishing
• Book chapter
• Conference paper
• Working papers
• Technical reports
• Teaching resources
• Conference Presentations
• Photographic work
• Bibliographic citations and abstracts

Contact us for Support

There is support available to guide you right through the deposit process, clarify what material can be deposited, and assist with any queries about copyright issues. In most cases you may deposit your work in your institutional repository even if it is published in a journal behind a strict paywall. There will often be restrictions on the form this will take or an embargo. We invite you to contact us to see how we can help you to deposit your research publications and activities on Griffith Open, and to discuss how we can help you to further develop your online research profile beyond. [email protected]

This archive is managed by Griffith Library with the assistance of IT services.

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Griffith Open institutional repository is an online open access archive of published research and other scholarly content produced by Griffith College staff and students.

Welcome to Griffith Open

We are proud of the research work undertaken by staff and students of Griffith College. Griffith Open provides a valuable platform to highlight the extensive and diverse range of research endeavors within our institution.

Through providing a central archive and record of research, we aim to make content as accessible as possible. Institutional repositories ensure a wide dissemination of the work produced, maximise impact and contribute to the growing body of research literature that is now freely available online. 

Griffith Open is committed to the principles of the growing Open Access movement. Open access to research enhances the visibility and the impact of the work, the author and the College. 

What can having your research activity hosted on  Griffith Open  offer you?

• Increased dissemination and impact of your work
• Enhanced professional visibility due to broader dissemination and potential for increased use of publications
• A  central archive of your work
• Security and long term accessibility of material

Research published in peer reviewed journals may still be deposited on the repository, with many publishers having policies that are in line with Open Access guidelines. Librarians can support understanding of copyright issues and assist in liaising with publishers for clarity. Professional research activities such as conference papers, presentations and teaching materials may also be included.

Content may include: 

• Dissertations achieving over 60%
• Theses Preprints – a working paper or the version of a paper submitted for peer review 
• Postprints – a final peer reviewed version, which has been accepted for publishing 
• Book chapter 
• Conference paper 
• Working papers 
• Technical reports 
• Teaching resources 
• Conference Presentations 
• Photographic work 
• Bibliographic citations and abstracts

Who can deposit?

Learner’s dissertations that have been awarded 60% and over are automatically considered for inclusion. If there are confidentiality considerations these must be discussed with your supervisor and faculty who will liaise with Griffith Library. Consult your faculty guidelines which will outline the process.

Faculty, support and administrative staff are eligible to deposit. We advise all academic faculty and researchers to submit their research findings to the repository. By doing so, you guarantee maximum visibility for your research, as Griffith Open is indexed by search engines such as Google Scholar as well as Google and other search engines.

A deposit support service is available to academic staff and researchers, supported by the Library repository team.

What is an Institutional Repository, and what can it do for me?

This video gives an overview of how institutional repositories build the research profile of both an individual researcher and that of their institutions, and highlights the support that can be gained from college librarians. Benefits from inclusion in the repository include increased reach, citations and greater impact of work.

Contact the Library for Support

There is support available to guide you right through the deposit process, clarify what material can be deposited, and assist with any queries about copyright issues. In most cases you may deposit your work in your institutional repository even if it is published in a journal behind a strict paywall. There will often be restrictions on the form this will take or an embargo. We invite you to contact us to see how we can help you to deposit your research publications and activities on Griffith Open, and to discuss how we can help you to further develop your online research profile beyond. [email protected]

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• Collection: Repositories transforming scholarly communication

Case Studies

Social engagement and institutional repositories: a case study.

• Susan Boulton

This article explores the community reach and societal impact of institutional repositories, in particular Griffith Research Online (GRO), Griffith University’s institutional repository. To promote research on GRO, and to encourage people to click through to the repository content, a pilot social media campaign and some subsequent smaller social media activities were undertaken in 2018. After briefly touching on these campaigns, this article provides some reflections from these activities and proposes options for the future direction of social engagement and GRO in particular, and for institutional repositories in general. This undertaking necessitates a shift in focus from repositories as a resource for the scholarly community to a resource for the community at large. The campaign also highlighted the need to look beyond performance metrics to social media metrics as a measure of the social and community impact of a repository.

Whilst the article is written from one Australian university’s perspective, the drivers and challenges behind researchers and universities translating their research into economic, social, environmental and cultural impacts are national and international. The primary takeaway message is for libraries to take more of a proactive stance and to kick-start conversations within their institutions and with their clients to actively partner in creating opportunities to share research.

• Research impact
• institutional repositories
• social media
• academic libraries
• research measurement

Literature review

The primary impetus behind exploring the community reach and societal impact of Griffith Research Online (GRO), 1 and by extension institutional repositories, was the emerging trend across governments, nationally and internationally, to demonstrate the economic and social returns from their investments in research. On 7 December 2015 the Australian Government launched its National Innovation and Science Agenda Report . 2 One of the measures under the Agenda was for Australia to introduce a national assessment of the engagement and impact of university research. In 2018 the Australian Research Council published the Engagement and Impact Assessment 2018–19 National Report , 3 the results of the inaugural pilot to assess how well researchers were engaging with end-users of research and how universities were translating research into economic, social, environmental, cultural and other impacts. Around the same time similar agendas were being explored internationally: in New Zealand in 2015, 4 the UK in 2015 5 and the USA in 2015. 6

Results from a literature search around institutional repositories and engagement demonstrated a focus on improving metadata, searchability and discoverability rather than social engagement; a focus confirmed through the guiding principles for repositories published by the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR). 7 Changing direction, the social media practices of other institutional repositories were then examined. Engagement through social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter appears common across institutional repositories, exemplars being Your Story Matters at Harvard University 8 and the twitter account @UON_NOVA for The University of Newcastle Research Repository Online. 9

Griffith University’s overarching social media activity aims to support the University’s broader marketing and communications goals to build reputation, drive student recruitment and foster community. The Griffith Library 10 independently runs its own accounts on Facebook, Twitter ( #GriffithLibrary ), Instagram ( @griffithlibrary ) and YouTube and its own monthly newsletter, Insight , circulated via e-mail to all Griffith higher degree by research (HDR) candidates plus over 1,500 subscribers. Given that our objective was to encourage people to engage with our repository and its content, this case study is about our first foray into moving beyond individual social media channels to creating a campaign or event, to trying to understand how best to present information to our social media users and to embedding the institutional repository into the culture of the Library.

Traditionally, institutional repositories in higher education have largely been driven by funding requirements and by conversations focused on metadata and discoverability. National and international trends around research excellence are now challenging this view. The primary driver is how investments in university research translate into tangible benefits beyond academia assessment, into economic, social, environmental and cultural impacts.

Griffith University, 11 located in the rapidly growing corridor between Brisbane and the Gold Coast in South East Queensland, Australia, has six physical libraries across five campuses. Within the Library the institutional repository, GRO, 12 contributes to the University’s open access compliance, supporting community engagement and collaboration, open scholarship and the FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable). 13 In 2016–2017 the University invested in a major redevelopment of GRO and, as a result, we have a large, comprehensive and well-used repository supporting over 2.7 million downloads of Griffith research outputs (including 200,000+ thesis downloads) per year. In 2019 two-way integration between GRO and the publications management solution Symplectic Elements 14 was deployed. Our current technical infrastructure provides Griffith with a strong base from which to evolve repository services into the future.

Research impact: the campaigns and GRO

Sharing the stories or narratives behind research, as well as the research outputs themselves, was the inspiration behind our initial social media campaign to promote Griffith’s malaria researchers and research for World Malaria Day. 15 This internationally recognized day, 25 April, provided an opportunity to promote the work being done by Griffith researchers in combatting this worldwide disease and to highlight the role our institutional repository plays in increasing the discoverability and accessibility of Griffith research.

It is the first time the Griffith University Library deliberately utilized open access (OA) content in GRO to support a small social media campaign. Two blog posts were written; one highlighting 15 recent and influential articles in GRO 16 and one profiling two of our malaria researchers and their most cited articles. 17 The Library Twitter account ( @GriffithLibrary ) linked to these blog posts. To collate content and allow users to join in on a global debate, prominent hashtags for Malaria Day ( #ReadytoBeatMalaria , #WorldMalariaDay , #EndMalaria ) were included, as well as the Twitter handles for the Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD) and the Institute of Glycomics (see Figure 1 ). 18

Griffith University Library tweet promoting Griffith research for World Malaria Day 2018

As a result of this pilot campaign, during March and April 2018:

• the 15 featured articles were accessed close to 500 times, this being approximately 60% of their combined total for the previous six months (see Figure 2 )
• the most popular article Drug repurposing and human parasitic protozoan diseases co-authored by Dr Gillian Fisher, one of the profiled malaria researchers, was accessed 112 times, this being approximately 45% of its total for the year prior to the campaign (see Figure 3 )
• the most popular tweet from @GriffithLibrary account posted on 24 April 2018 received 16.8k ‘impressions’.

GRO access statistics for 15 featured articles during campaign for World Malaria Day 2018

GRO access statistics for most popular article during campaign for World Malaria Day 2018

The success of this pilot campaign highlighted that social media and blog posts could be used by the Library to increase engagement with an external audience and to drive traffic to the repository.

In August 2018, the Griffith Library entered into partnership with Griffith Review , 19 a leading literary magazine produced by Griffith University to foster and inform public debate around current issues. Primarily, this partnership involves the hosting of lightning talks to complement the themes and release dates for each quarterly issue. In September the Library hosted a lightning talk for public and staff themed around sustainability, complementing Griffith Review ’s issue on climate change. 20 Following on from the success of our initial campaign, the Library Twitter account profiled each of the Griffith academic presenters with links to their research in GRO 21 and, for the first time, the talks were livestreamed via Facebook. 22 The Library blog profiled highly influential Griffith research and Higher Degree by Research (PhD, Masters by Research) theses in the area of sustainability. 23

September also was Dementia Awareness Month. To support dementia initiatives of the Menzies Health Institute Queensland, 24 the Library blog featured OA research into dementia and dementia care and research around the month’s theme of families and carers. 25

The three campaigns reflected different approaches to social engagement and the repository’s role: the malaria campaign was a joint initiative based purely around an online social presence; the sustainability campaign was a joint initiative based around physical lightning talks, supported by an online social presence; and the dementia campaign was a proactive GRO initiative based solely around a blog. Anecdotally, it was felt that the blogs that were connected to, and cross-promoted through other activities, such as talks and interviews, had a much higher audience reach and impact than the singular promotion of the OA dementia research in GRO. As we improve our understanding of measuring benefits this is something to evaluate further in future campaigns.

Reflections

One of the most important reflections from these activities is around the resourcing requirements to create such campaigns, especially around time. Defining the campaign was the simple part of the process; surprisingly time consuming were the conversations around identifying the research and the researchers to be highlighted through the campaigns. Not being subject experts, we needed to determine how to identify and compare research so as to determine its value within its field and to the campaign.

We initially decided that if the research was of value, it would have ‘malaria’ in the title (noting that GRO does not have a populated keyword metadata field) and as the aim was not only to promote but to provide access, that the results would be limited to GRO records with OA files. It soon became apparent that a more sophisticated search was needed to capture important research and significant authors so we approached researchers from GRIDD for expert advice on terminology. We then expanded the search terms to include ‘antimalaria’, ‘malarial’, ‘Plasmodium falciparum’, etc., which resulted in a much richer pool of research outputs.

As this broader pool of research could not be narrowed down using GRO (due to limitations in the statistical reporting functionality of the DSpace platform behind GRO), we altered our approach to selection. We narrowed this latest pool of research outputs by using citation data extracted from Clarivate’s Web of Science and Essential Science Indicators and key authors as identified by GRIDD staff. With this selection process, targeted e-mails requesting OA access files needed to be sent to 22 key authors with corresponding articles in the top 50 most cited malaria-related articles (2003–2018).

All of this resulted in a marked increase in workload for Library staff. With subsequent campaigns, we therefore streamlined the research identification stages, but the impact on workload still is significant as it includes:

• identifying search terms, conducting searches and formatting results
• sourcing and uploading OA files obtained either online or by sending targeted e-mails to obtain accepted author manuscripts
• writing articles and having those articles reviewed, edited and approved by the GRIDD and social media teams
• preparing post-campaign statistical reports.

A comparison of staff time against the value of obtaining OA files through targeted e-mails needs to be evaluated further.

Coinciding with our first campaign for World Malaria Day, the Library introduced an event proposal form as a way of managing events (and resources) across the Library and determining the feasibility and value of events to the Library. The form is most useful in ensuring that the purpose, target audiences and rationale for the event are defined and that the risks and commitment are articulated, be they financial, staff time, channels or technology. Afterwards this information provides the basis for the evaluation of events.

The value of having created a formal event proposal became evident as we progressed, particularly in managing the size of the event and revisiting the purpose during planning. Having a clear purpose meant we could build collaborations and common understanding around the outcomes of the event, mitigating the risk of it becoming unwieldly, missing the mark or having a diluted message; especially important for our pilot campaign.

Research presentation

Given that our objective was to encourage people to click through to the repository content, we needed to consider how best to present this information to social media users. Some points of consideration:

• our repository is not set up to display feature articles or research
• our statistics indicate most users access GRO through Google Scholar and not the repository homepage
• sharing a list of PDFs or a link to a document on Google drive with the wider community is unengaging and involves issues with discoverability and long-term maintenance
• creating a dedicated web page would result in ongoing maintenance
• providing a fixed search URL to GRO for ‘malaria’ meant the results could not be sorted and ranked; certainly not engaging.

Considering the options, we felt that a listing of linked titles in a blog page would increase discoverability and provide ease of access. The blog would then be supported by directional tweets and posts. Useful hashtags would be sourced to increase reach and create community and some call to action could be included. Unlike malaria and dementia, where clearly recognizable hashtags were identifiable and used, a lesson learnt from the sustainability Twitter campaign was that the hashtags used were too narrow, resulting in limited reach.

Researcher profiles proved very popular with both the participants and our social media audience. Whilst helping to identify key malaria research and researchers, GRIDD also nominated two researchers to be featured in a ‘Q&A’ piece. 26 These researchers were provided with a selection of questions, ranging from ‘What did you want to be when you were growing up?’ to ‘Best resources and research tips for researchers?’. The answers then provided the ‘story’ behind the research and the researchers.

Measuring benefits

Whilst access statistics (page views and download metrics) for featured research and tweet impressions have been mentioned, it is important to realize that success can be measured not only through statistics but through the development of relationships. One of the greatest outcomes was our ability to establish or deepen relationships with the discipline librarians, the communications team, the centres, schools and research institutes and with the academics and researchers.

Rather than trying to establish new relationships from the ground up, the discipline librarian for science used her relationships with the GRIDD researchers to brainstorm research around malaria; to identify articles which were particularly important/highly cited, etc.

The lightning talks need close co-ordination across the Library: discipline librarians to contact and organize the speakers; librarians and campus co-ordinators to manage the event; repository staff to identify and disseminate research. It provides an opportunity for repository staff and discipline librarians to work together as ‘one Library’ and an opportunity to highlight the role the Library plays in connecting researchers to the broader community.

The academics and researchers in the schools saw that we were actively partnering with them to create opportunities to share their research, to increase their reach beyond the classroom and academia and to increase their engagement and impact. This helps to build stronger connections between the Library, its clients and the issues that matter to them.

Making these connections and starting conversations has set us on the path of embedding the repository into the Library culture. Research outputs in GRO are now routinely integrated into Library conversations around social events, be they physical or online, large or small. With each issue of Griffith Review , we promote research in GRO that complements the published essays and stories. Themes have included Crimes and Punishments 27 and All Being Equal. 28

The other way to measure the success of such programmes is through statistical evaluation and our efforts to collect data around our campaigns highlighted the need to understand the reporting capability of Dspace and Google. We quickly discovered that DSpace’s existing statistical reporting interfaces are rudimentary and do not provide targeted reports around the underlying captured data. We embedded Google Analytics into the repository site so the correct tracking code and domain were being used. However, we could only obtain statistics for actions on our pages and for the referral sites/pages. As Google does not connect to WordPress, the tool used to create and manage our blogs, we could not tell from Google Analytics how many people came through to GRO from the blogs; though WordPress does have its own tracking capability. We did not have a tool to easily aggregate results of individual tweets and posts. With this new understanding, our methodology around tracking and recording statistics will be examined further in future campaigns.

Future direction

Whilst engagement narratives and impact case studies for funding submissions are clearly understood, defining the future of social engagement and impact, what it looks like, how it is assessed, its effect on policies and new initiatives, is still in its infancy. The next step for the GRO team is to formalize and refine its approach; to obtain a balance between a reactive approach, where we respond to event requests, and a proactive approach, where we highlight research that aligns with the strategic directions of the University, current social conversations and national and international events/observations. Parallel to discussion around approach is the need to investigate channel options, including the value of GRO having its own and/or in using different channels (such as podcasts and YouTube).

Our future direction within the Library is two-pronged as we collaborate with staff to actively promote the repository through campaign events and to embed the repository into the services and training provided by the Library. We also want to reframe our thinking. For these campaigns, GRO and an event were at the centre of our approach. However, by establishing connections across the faculties, our future aim is to frame our engagement around what is valued in their research fields and in the community around their research. We also plan to expand our engagement beyond science and humanities to include non-traditional outputs such as creative works.

Whilst this paper does not provide a definitive roadmap or template for repositories, it does highlight the need to divert from our traditional path, focused on metadata, discoverability and reporting, to proactively find opportunities to demonstrate the important role our repositories play in research dissemination and community reach. A change is necessary to not only assist researchers with broadening their definition of community and open access but to align institutional repositories with the national and international trend towards making research public and ensuring that publicly funded research benefits the community.

This case study focused on a pilot social media campaign held to promote malaria research discoverable on GRO. In this campaign OA content was promoted through two blogs and through featured articles on two of Griffith’s malaria researchers. The positive results show that there is value for both researchers and the repository, and ultimately the University, in such engagement activities. However, repository teams will need to balance these benefits against the required investment of resources.

The primary takeaway message from this case study for institutions and their repositories is to start conversations within the Library and with its clients to actively partner in creating opportunities to share research; to increase its reach beyond the university classroom and academia; to broaden its engagement and impact. Making these connections, beginning these conversations, has started us on the path of embedding the repository into the Library culture and of demonstrating the broader value of the repository within our institution.

Abbreviations and Acronyms

A list of the abbreviations and acronyms used in this and other Insight s articles can be accessed here – click on the URL below and then select the ‘full list of industry A&As’ link: http://www.uksg.org/publications#aa .

Competing interests

The author is the Senior Librarian and Team Leader of the GRO repository and has declared no competing interests.

“Griffith Research Online (GRO),” Griffith University, https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/ (accessed 12 February 2020).  

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Library Connect

Griffith Research Online celebrates over one million downloads of higher degree research theses 

• by The Library
• posted August 13, 2021
• Academics Researchers Students

Submission of the final thesis is the ultimate milestone for any higher degree research (HDR) student. As theses are the culmination of years of work, it’s only fitting that we celebrate passing  the one millionth download of a Griffith HDR Theses from our repository,  Griffith Research Online  (GRO).  

As higher degree research often reflects the cutting edge of knowledge, it’s vital that this research is available not only within the research community, nationally and internationally, but also for the general public. Since the  HDR Theses collection was moved to GRO three years ago, the collection has grown by 36% and become  available to the widest possible audience. Over the past six months, Australia was the top country for item views whilst Russia was the top country for downloads—77,293!  

GRO hosts papers on a vast array of topics, from research on chemical compounds and medical treatments to politics and social work, but the most popular paper of the past six months was   Stefano Barone’s thesis on youth culture and music,  Fragile scenes: Metal, rap, and electro in post-revolutionary Tunisia , which was downloaded 3,524 times.  

Have a look today at the great research in GRO’s  Theses—Higher Degree by Research  collection and explore these statistics in more detail.  

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