Hosted evidence library
Most large-scale development programmes set up their own websites. Typically, you would use a readily available ‘web content management system’ (‘CMS’) such as WordPress to host your website. It would be unusual to build a website without such tools. Discovery of your website in search engines, such as Google, relies on ‘search engine optimisation’ (SEO) — which is an area well understood by web developers; most content management systems have excellent tools and plugins for search engine optimisation.
Most large-scale development programmes set up their own websites. Typically, you would use a readily available ‘web content management system’ (‘CMS’) such as WordPress to host your website. It would be unusual to build a website without such tools. Discovery of your website in search engines, such as Google, relies on ‘search engine optimisation’ (SEO) — which is an area well understood by web developers; most content management systems have excellent tools and plugins for search engine optimisation.
Publications — your journal articles, preprints, reports, research briefs, conference presentations — and their discovery follow similar rules. They need to be optimised for discovery in publication search engines, using tools such as Google Scholar. However, in contrast with general websites, the ‘content management systems’ and ‘search engine optimisation’ for publications are usually poorly understood by web developers and remain the purview of specialists working for journals or in the field of bibliometrics.
Consequently, many publications from major research programmes remain undiscovered, even when significant investments are being made. Moreover, even if publications are discovered, they are not cited uniformly. This makes it difficult to track the publication back to the original research programme, making it difficult for the research programme to measure impact.
In summary, you may struggle with the following issues:
- My publications don’t get discovered by search engines.
- My publications aren’t citable.
- I can’t track the use of my publications.
A robust content management system like an evidence library goes beyond simply meeting web standards. It is about enhancing the research discoverability of your work, gauging your impact and reach, increasing the accessibility of your evidence, and fostering a more collaborative environment. This comprehensive approach is vital for successfully sharing evidence with the public and the global community.
Our offer
Open Development & Education, a consortium member of EdTech Hub, offers a turnkey solution for tailoring and deploying evidence libraries. The approach uses Zotero and Kerko. In line with the Principles for Digital Development on open source, note that there is no lock-in: All data and infrastructure can be migrated to a self-hosted solution anytime. Open Development & Education also provides training on all aspects for managing your library.
Contact us
To find out more, send an email to enquiry-evlib@opendeved.net