In addition to LMU Munich, the Technical University of Dortmund is the second pilot institution to implement the Practice-Oriented Guidelines for Suppliers of DataCite DOI Metadata as part of the implementation phase. The TU Dortmund University is working closely with the DSpace service provider The Library Code to implement improvements in the transmission of metadata from repositories to DataCite.
The work focuses on improving the quality and structure of metadata transmitted from DSpace repositories to DataCite. Since DSpace is used by many research institutions worldwide, improvements in this area can have an international impact far beyond TU Dortmund University.
A central approach of the pilot project is to feed technical improvements directly back into the DSpace community. Several enhancements and adjustments are therefore being developed and submitted as pull requests for DSpace 10. These include improved support for persistent identifiers (e.g., ROR for organizations/organizational units) and more precise structuring of metadata fields that are relevant for registering and linking research outputs.
These contributions strengthen the local infrastructure of TU Dortmund University and lay the foundation for other DSpace installations worldwide to benefit from the improvements.
In addition to technical implementation, the next steps in the collaboration include documenting the new possibilities in the DSpace manual and advising TU Dortmund University on further implementation.
The pilot project with TU Dortmund University is a strong example of how recommendations from guidelines can be combined with the further development of central open-source infrastructure. This results in improvements that benefit not only a single institution but the wider community as a whole.
