Only a few more months until JISC will discontinue the old API to their SHERPA/RoMEO services on July 31, 2020! Users of their established policy compliance services will have to make the switch to the new SHERPA API v2 to be able to benefit from them moving forward. The Library Code GmbH supported by Technische Universität Hamburg provides an integration for DSpace that will support the new API v2 for Sherpa/RoMEO. It will be
released as Open Source. Read on to find out everything you need to know about this updated integration!
What’s the deal with DSpace and the new Sherpa/RoMEO API?
DSpace has the ability to pull results from the SHERPA/RoMEO policy database, using its API, when there is a valid ISSN entered during item submission. The results can be shared at the time of file upload, which helps submitters choose the correct article version (e.g. pre-print, post-print, published version) and understand the underlying publisher policy with regards to deposit to a repository, including any requirements or prerequisites.
With the release of SHERPA API v2, the core integration into DSpace needed to be updated in order to support the existing SHERPA/RoMEO functionality. In JSPUI, further changes to the UI were necessary due to changes in the data structure and depth returned from search results.
What to expect from our new SHERPA/RoMEO API integration for DSpace
To make sure DSpace works smoothly with the new API release, a refactored API integration has been written to support the data structure returned in SHERPA API v2 results. This work was developed by The Library Code GmbH with the support of Technische Universität Hamburg.
In XMLUI, this integration performs exactly the same as the previous version, with a link to the SHERPA ROMeO policy page for each result in the File Upload page. Multiple ISSNs may be searched.
In JPSUI, the functionality is very similar in terms of ISSN extraction and search, but the results are now displayed with prerequisites, conditions, allowed locations and licences grouped by each article version, rather than included in a list of “general conditions” for the entire policy. The”Romeo colour” indicator has also been discontinued, as per advice from SHERPA developers.
The Library Code has provided the code as Open Source to the DSpace community with the sincere hope that it will be integrated into the next versions of DSpace as well as DSpace-CRIS in version 5.11 and 6.4. In the meantime you can find the code in our pull request at https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/2739 and further information in the community’s ticket system at https://jira.lyrasis.org/browse/DS-3940. Please don’t hesitate to contact us directly if you have questions using the contact form on our website.
The Library Code is a DSpace Service Provider and Certified DSpace Partner. We are committed to giving back to the DSpace community whenever we can! We do so by organizing user group meetings like the annual DSpace Anwendertreffen in Germany, by serving in DSpace’s project governance and by contributing code.