RIOXX is a new project aimed at making it easier to track research outputs and attribute them accurately to funding streams. Better metadata – information about the books, papers and articles produced by researchers – is needed to make tracking research easier. This could benefit researchers looking for collaborators or commercial partnerships, as well as help funders demonstrate the reurn on their investments. Publishers, data archives and repositories would also be able to offer improved services.
Various metadata models have been proposed but until now none has emerged as a preferred candidate. Nor has it been clear how to make scholarly systems compatible with other systems used by univesities and funders.
In April 2013, JISC and UKOLN launched RIOXX as a possible solution.
The RIOXX Metadata Application Profile and Guidelines provide a mechanism for institutional repositories in UK Higher Education to comply with the RCUK policy on open access. The first release of RIOXX focuses on applying consistency to the metadata fields used to record research funder and project/grant identifiers.
The aim is that RIOXX will support the tracking of research outputs across scholarly systems. RIOXX has been developed to be compatible with the EThOS metadata schema for electronic theses and the OpenAIRE metadata guidelines for open access publications. Universities are increasingly developing or using Current Research Information Systems (CRISs), while funders are developing systems like the RCUK’s Research Output System. Work is now underway to ensure that the RIOXX application profile can be expressed in CERIF, the standard for data interchange between CRISs.