Co-creating open initiatives at De La Salle University Libraries: The Animo Repository experience

Introduction

In recent years, scholarly communication has shifted towards open access initiatives, which has increased the accessibility and influence of academic research. This growing prominence of open access has disrupted the traditional subscription-based journal publication model and fostered greater equity in access to scholarly information (Sheikh and Richardson, 2023). Open access typically refers to the free availability of peer-reviewed scientific articles on the Internet, including reviewed journals, books, reports and data (Suber, 2012). It is a transition from the traditional pay-per-view model, where access to research content is limited to a system where information is freely available to anyone without payment and restrictions (Heaton et al., 2019; Kankam et al., 2024). Libraries have played a crucial role as partners in the open access movement, establishing infrastructures, staffing and models to produce, contribute and publish scholarly research information for open access (Duffy, 2024; Xia, 2009). Scholars like Martzoukou (2021) and Suber (2012) emphasize the crucial role libraries play in advocating for and supporting open access initiatives, particularly as we move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. They serve as catalysts for change, promoting the principles of accessibility and equity in scholarly communication (Schöpfel and Prost, 2013), as well as leading in adopting digital platforms and introducing cutting-edge technologies (Lee, 2021). This new role of libraries reflects a shift in thinking towards an ‘engagement-centric model of librarianship’ (Kenney, 2015:386).

Today, libraries leverage digital institutional repositories for digital publishing, enabling the creation and dissemination of scholarly resources within their collections and repositories (Bailey, 2017). Kilcer et al. (2021) emphasize that institutional repositories serve as vital tools for promoting open access, and by linking scholarly communication services with open distribution through a repository, institutions create a more efficient and engaging portal, enhancing the user community's experience. The significance of institutional repositories in promoting open access and increasing the visibility of academic work is well documented. Lynch (2003) provides a foundational understanding of the role of institutional repositories in the digital landscape, thereby highlighting their capacity to transform scholarly communication by providing open access to institutional research outputs. Further research by Crow (2002) emphasizes that institutional repositories support the dissemination of a diverse range of digital content, including preprints, theses and multimedia materials. This broadens the scope of accessible academic resources. A study by Morrison (2014) highlights libraries’ efforts in developing institutional repositories and providing platforms for hosting open access journals, as a result democratizing access to scholarly outputs. Additionally, Xia et al. (2012) analyse the impact of institutional repositories on scholarly communication, finding that repositories significantly enhance the visibility and citation rates of deposited works. All these studies highlight the crucial role of libraries as advocates and enablers in the transition towards open access publishing, ensuring scholarly works are accessible to all.

The Animo experience

With the launch of the Animo Repository in October 2020, De La Salle University (DLSU) Libraries made substantial advancements in response to this transformational trend. ¹ The Animo Repository acts as the central archive for a wide range of intellectual outputs from DLSU. This includes faculty research outputs, electronic theses and dissertations, conferences and events, open educational resources, archives and special collections, and university journal publications (Cruz and Aliwalas, 2021). Using Digital Commons by BePress, a commercial solutions provider for hosting and openly publishing institutional research and scholarly outputs, the Animo Repository aims to showcase and make available these institutional outputs. This gives DLSU stronger leverage as the university sets to increase and share its institutional impact with the wider global academic community. The Animo Repository's journal hosting and publication capability offers a complete publishing workflow – from paper submission, peer review and publishing to long-term hosting and storage. With this flexibility, the platform can accommodate each journal's unique editorial and publishing workflows.

This article explores the collaborative partnership between DLSU Libraries and DLSU Publishing House in hosting and publishing DLSU's research journals. The partnership was officially launched in June 2022 with the primary objective of enhancing the discoverability and accessibility of the university's research publications. It involves the migration of the university's journal publications from their previous location on the DLSU Publishing House website to the Animo Repository publications collection. More importantly, with the said new platform, DLSU students, faculty members and researchers gain a seamless platform to freely share their scholarly work and connect with a global audience. This fosters a culture of knowledge production, ultimately strengthening the university's research influence worldwide.

As such, this article particularly aims to achieve the following:

Describe the specific strategies employed by DLSU Libraries and DLSU Publishing House in open access publishing;

Methodology

This study employs a case study methodology to investigate the collaborative efforts between DLSU Libraries and DLSU Publishing House in utilizing the Animo Repository for open access journal hosting and publishing. The case study approach offers a detailed exploration of the various aspects involved in this collaborative venture. The data collection for this study primarily involved a comprehensive review of the project’s documentation. This included scrutinizing the project plans, communication records in emails, task lists, and any other relevant documentation that provided insights into the collaborative process and the steps taken throughout the migration process. The case study covers a timeline of tasks undertaken in the collaboration from June 2022 to December 2023. It is structured to focus on distinct stages of the project deployment process, from the initial planning and preparation to the implementation phase and early outcomes assessment. Each stage is presented in detail, highlighting the strategies employed, challenges encountered and lessons learned along the way.

Discussion and results

The collaboration between DLSU Libraries and DLSU Publishing House began with a preliminary meeting in June 2022. Key milestones included assessing the viability of hosting a journal publication – the Journal of English and Applied Linguistics (JEAL) – on the platform under DLSU Publishing House, defining stakeholder responsibilities and setting a project timeline. The deployment involved six stages: a kick-off meeting, the initial journal set-up, mock-up site testing, demo site availability and testing, going live and final editorial training. Each stage involved extensive stakeholder collaboration and iterative feedback to ensure that the platform met the specific needs and requirements of the journal editorial team. On 14 June 2022, a virtual meeting was held to explore and discuss several key points of collaboration in detail. This was attended by the DLSU Libraries team, the JEAL editorial team, representatives from DLSU Publishing House and a Digital Commons Consulting Services (DC team) representative. One of the main goals was to assess the viability of hosting JEAL in the Animo Repository and determine the platform's capability to support the journal workflow requirements, which was established during the said virtual meeting. Thereafter, a comprehensive project timeline was developed after a thorough evaluation of the project time frame, site going-live prerequisites and deployment phases. This ensured a seamless migration and the timely launch of the journal on the new platform.

The project’s success can be attributed to the early establishment of clear and defined stakeholder responsibilities. This proactive approach ensured that DLSU Libraries, DLSU Publishing House, the JEAL editorial team and other key academic personnel possessed a comprehensive understanding of their roles within the migration and publication process. This ensured that the requirements were met and journal contents would be seamlessly integrated into the Animo Repository. Before going live and the official launch, an editorial training session was conducted to acquaint the JEAL editorial team with the features and tools available in the Animo Repository. The official launch of JEAL for the DLSU academic community was on 5 October 2022. The event was attended by prominent academic figures, members of the JEAL editorial team, and the featured authors of the first issue of JEAL.

Subsequent journal deployments have also been carried out and, as of December 2023, four journals had been launched on the Animo Repository: the Asia-Pacific Journal of IP Management and Innovation, Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance, the Journal of Computational Innovations and Engineering Applications and Malay. These journals can be accessed under the DLSU Publications Collections section of the Animo Repository. ²

Regarding its global reach, as of December 2023, the repository hosted 132 works accessed in 125 countries, cited 19 times and downloaded 17,282 times. The overall download numbers and citations indicate growing global engagement, suggesting that the platform is effectively disseminating scholarly work. The assignment of digital object identifiers to all published articles since July 2023 has enhanced accessibility and permanence, which further contributes to the repository's growing influence.

Journal publishing in the Animo Repository

Journal publishing on the digital commons platform entails a two-to-three-month project deployment process, which involves the stages shown in Figure 1.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 1.

Project deployment stages.

Stage 1. Kick-off meeting

The kick-off meeting marks the initiation of the journal deployment process. To ensure a smooth deployment, a comprehensive project timeline and milestones must be established. A detailed project timeline and clear milestones are essential for ensuring a smooth deployment. The Animo Project core team will lead this initiative, comprising members from the DLSU Libraries' Director's Office, Media and Systems Services, and library coordinators. They will present the project's background, platform capabilities, and proposed timeline milestones to the journal editorial team and the DLSU Publishing House. During this stage, the key tasks for each stakeholder are thoroughly discussed to delineate specific responsibilities.

The experiences during the kick-off meetings are generally positive, with all stakeholders actively involved in the discussions, which set the groundwork for the entire project deployment. The discussions during this stage usually involve establishing roles and responsibilities, expectation management, an overview of the platform (including its features and workflow capabilities) and how to accomplish the Journal Set-up Form, as well as the expected project timeline and completion.

Stage 2. Initial journal set-up

Following the kick-off meeting, the journal editorial team is given a Journal Set-up Form provided by the DC team to commence the site set-up and configuration. This form outlines essential information about the journal, editorial and peer review requirements and workflows, and general journal layout and design. The editorial team is usually given a week to complete and send back the form to DLSU Libraries. Remarkably, most editorial teams have demonstrated readiness and enthusiasm, as they have been able to submit the form within the given time frame. While there have been instances where some items in the form were initially overlooked, these were quickly addressed and corrected in the subsequent resubmissions. Nevertheless, this stage or process is generally smooth, with editors providing the required information on the submitted form.

Stage 3. Mock-up site availability and testing

At this stage, DLSU Libraries assesses and reviews the completed form. Once done with the vetting process, the form is forwarded to and endorsed by the DC team for the preliminary site set-up. Within two to three weeks, the DC team creates multiple mock-up sites or iterations for the editorial team's selection, revision and approval. As a liaison, DLSU Libraries facilitates communication between the editorial team and DC team, ensuring support and project oversight. The final approval of the mock-up site comes from the journal editorial team, making it a crucial stage in the overall project timeline. This is where alterations and reconsiderations begin to surface to accommodate specific journal requirements, which will slightly affect the turnaround time.

Stage 4. Demo site availability and testing

Upon mock-up site completion and approval, a demo site is provided for collaborative testing and refinement. This is made available by the DC team within a week of the mock-up site approval. This stage involves various tasks such as updating journal information, designing the home page, training on editorial processes, configuring workflows and testing the platform capabilities. The extensive collaboration between the stakeholders, averaging two to three weeks, especially in fine-tuning the layout and design, involves a back and forth of ideas or trade-offs, which can affect the project timeline.

The updating of the various journal pages, including the site home page and journal information pages, is also done during this stage. Basic knowledge of Hypertext Markup Language, Cascading Style Sheets and JavaScript is needed to revise and add content to these pages and, in a few instances, the editorial team may request help from DLSU Libraries. It is also at this stage when the editorial training meeting, facilitated by the DC team, is held. As journal publications have their own workflow requirements, the main purpose of the editorial training meeting is to address and resolve any exigencies the editorial team or the Animo Project core team may encounter before proceeding to the final stages.

Stage 5. Going live

Following the approval of the demo site and the editorial training meeting, the sandbox site transitions to the production phase. This involves further configuration by the DC team, which typically lasts for one to two weeks. Once the configuration is done, the live site can be finally launched online, reflecting all approved contents and configurations. In order to reach this stage in any project deployment, it is important to cultivate open and effective communication among stakeholders. One will realize that the process of scholarly publishing innately requires a strong meeting of minds from diverse backgrounds.

Stage 6. Final editorial training

After going live, the DC team conducts final editorial training as required, covering workflows such as batch uploading, content editing, reviewer management, decision registration and issue-posting. While some topics may have been previously addressed, these are again discussed and reiterated to empower the editorial team to manage processes in the post-implementation phase independently. Any questions and clarifications that the editorial team may have will be continuously addressed and coordinated by DLSU Libraries with the DC team after going live. Clarifications often revolve around the editorial workflow, editorial permissions and site updating, as well as feedback about the platform's features and inquiries about future platform development.

Conclusion and recommendations

The collaboration between DLSU Libraries and DLSU Publishing House highlights the adaptability and resilience of the Animo Repository in accommodating diverse journal workflows. Utilizing digital commons for both hosting and publishing, while innovative, requires a clear differentiation between these functions. This case study emphasizes the significance of analytical evaluation, offering insights into best practices for integrating repository and publishing functionalities.

The Animo Repository's success in integrating varied journal workflows underscores its flexibility and robustness. Throughout numerous deployments, the platform effectively meets each journal's specific requirements, whether through migrating published content, uploading manuscripts in review or implementing customized editorial procedures. This capability highlights the platform's value as a comprehensive solution for academic institutions aiming to enhance their open access publishing endeavours.

Regarding the project deployment timeline, the average duration of four months exceeds the suggested two-to-three-month period. However, based on project monitoring and task checklists, all stakeholder responsibilities have been completed within the ideal time frame. Extended deployment time has primarily resulted from the site design, customization and editorial training needs.

Successful collaborations and journal deployments have elevated DLSU Libraries’ influence within the academic community, prompting inquiries from other departments and centres about hosting their content in the Animo Repository. Throughout these deployments, librarians and library staff have showcased expertise in areas such as open access, library publishing, project management and digital scholarship, highlighting the essential competencies for future migrations.

The successful collaboration between DLSU Libraries and DLSU Publishing House demonstrates the potential of utilizing integrated platforms like the Animo Repository in the promotion and enhancement of open access publishing in the region. To further this initiative, the authors recommend the following:

Encourage other DLSU departments and research centres to utilize the Animo Repository for depositing and hosting their diverse academic outputs, further promoting a culture of open access within the university;