Improving the discoverability of PhD student work through a CRIS system
| Date | 04 June 2018 |
| Published date | 04 June 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-05-2016-0104 |
| Pages | 471-486 |
| Author | Lidija Ivanovic,Bojana Dimic Surla,Dusan Surla,Dragan Ivanovic,Zora Konjovic,Gordana Rudic |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Improving the discoverability
of PhD student work
through a CRIS system
Lidija Ivanovic
Faculty of Education, University of Novi Sad, Sombor, Serbia
Bojana Dimic Surla and Dusan Surla
Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Sciences,
University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
Dragan Ivanovic and Zora Konjovic
Institute for Computing and Automatics, Faculty of Technical Sciences,
University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia, and
Gordana Rudic
Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Sciences,
University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
Abstract
Purpose – Dissertations from the University of Novi Sad (UNS) are integrated with the research information
system called the current research information system (CRIS) UNS. This paper aims to present a proposal for
an extension of this system to enable the storage of student papers as prescribed by PhD study exam
obligations. The proposed extension enables preservation and improves discoverability of scientic and
technical works produced by students during their PhD studies.
Design/methodology/approach – An analysis of examination modes in accredited PhD study
programs has been conducted. It was noted that students in examination modes verify the obtained results in
the form of scientic and technical work. The main idea of this paper is to enable the preservation of those
student results and to implement electronic services for retrieving those results by current and future PhD
students to empower the development of science.
Findings – The proposal includes an extension of the CRIS UNS to store and publish student papers as
prescribed as a PhD study exam obligation; an extension of the CERIF data model to enable storing of student
papers; cataloguing student papers in the MARC 21 format; and a way to represent student papers in the
Dublin Core format.
Practical implications – This paper can be a starting point for initiatives for the creation of institutional,
regional, national and international Web portals for searching and browsing papers by PhD students.
Social implications – This system offers the improvement of cooperation between PhD students from
different institutions and countries.
Originality/value – The paper presents an extension of institutional, national and international current
research information system (CRIS) systems which will enable the preservation and improve discoverability
of student papers produced during PhD studies. The proposed extension has been veried by its
This work is partially supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological
Development of the Republic of Serbia, through project no. III47003: “Infrastructure for Technology
Enhanced Learning in Serbia”. This research also received funding from the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreements 676247 (VRE4EIC project –
www.vre4eic.eu).
Improving the
discoverability
471
Received 4 May 2016
Revised 23 May 2016
3 October 2016
24 January 2017
14 May 2017
7 August 2017
Accepted 27 August 2017
The Electronic Library
Vol. 36 No. 3, 2018
pp. 471-486
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-05-2016-0104
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
implementation within the CRIS UNS system, which also supports monitoring of the scientic competencies
of students based on an automatic evaluation of published scientic results.
Keywords Professional education, MARC 21, Dublin core, CERIF, CRIS, Doctoral studies,
Bibliographic standards, Education opportunities
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
There are multiple sources of educational content for students pursuing their doctoral
theses. These include scientic results published as journal articles, monographic
publications and proceedings from conferences. Multiple information systems have
been developed to make these items more widely available. The European Union has
adopted a strategy to encourage the development of these kinds of systems based on the
CERIF data model (Common European Research Information Format, www.eurocris.
org/cerif/introduction/). euroCRIS (www.eurocris.org), a non-government organization,
has been tasked with developing this data model, and this organization is responsible
for the term CRIS.
There exists a large number of CRIS systems, and the most signicant of these are
IST World, SICRIS, CRIStin and Pure. IST World (Information Society Technology
World) is a portal that makes scientic results from multiple countries available. The
data model used for this application is a modication of the CERIF model. SICRIS is
an information system for scientic results created in Slovenia. This system is also
based on the CERIF data model. CRIStin is an information system aimed at
researchers at universities in Norway. Pure is a commercial software that can be
installed and adapted to the needs of the scientic institution. This system is used by
many universities, such as the University of Helsinki and the University of
Copenhagen. The software system called the CRIS UNS has been developed at the
University of Novi Sad (UNS).
Higher education institutions are mandated to keep track of work created by
students pursuing a doctoral degree. This mandate is naturally incorporated into the
information system that has been developed to provide access to scientic works.
These systems can be integrated, and they can exchange data at the level of institutions
of higher education, universities, nations and, because of the signicance of doctoral
studies, at the international level. In addition to publishing scientic papers in journals
and conferences, it is important to make student works completed as part of doctoral
studies publicly available. These may include the course project, seminary papers and
similar works. The central contribution of this work is the analysis of doctoral study
programs and the collection of mandatory course work with the goal of gathering this
work in a central repository of the institutional CRIS and making it available to
students and researchers. Basic features of a CRIS extension should include the
following:
�PhD students are registered as researchers in the institutional system software
scientic activities; student papers and published research papers completed during
study are recorded and, through electronic services, made available to other
students.
�Various reports on the results of doctoral studies can be generated.
�Student scientic competence through automatic evaluation of published scientic
results can be monitored.
EL
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