Sometimes, good things take time. This was definitely true for the latest release of InvenioRDM, which was more than a year in the making. But the wait definitely paid off, because the latest release offers quite a few new features that significantly improve the user experience of the system. Some of the features were even contributed by TU Wien!

New features

Concept DOI

Does your record get updated every now and then so that you end up with several versions? Have you ever wanted to simply cite the latest version of the dataset, but found that you can only reference exact versions with DOIs?

If so, then you’re in luck – every record in the system now has a so-called “concept DOI”, which will always dynamically point to the latest version of the record!

Adding datasets to existing communities

So far you had to decide into which community your record belongs before the record was published. What, you don’t know what a community even is? Well, that’s not very tragic because now you can look into this topic after the record has been published!

Preview for audio and video files

Depending on their formats, InvenioRDM supports the rendering of file previews for some of the uploaded files. This makes it easier to determine if the file is relevant before you have to download the entire thing. Up until now, no such mechanism was available for audio and video files. With the latest release, this gap has been filled, and some common audio and video file formats can be streamed directly from the landing page without downloading the entire file first!

Usage statistics

Did you ever wonder about how many lives your research data has improved? You have to wonder no more – with the latest release, the number of landing page views and file downloads for each record are tracked and displayed on the record landing page! Please note that those numbers are only shown for the owners of records – we don’t want others to become jealous of those incredible numbers.

Access requests

Do you want to upload your research data but can’t make your files publicly available for download, e.g. because they contain personal information or trade secrets? Have you wondered if people will ignore this dataset because it’s too much of a hassle to find out your contact information to request access?

Well, hopefully not many, and even fewer in the future! InvenioRDM now has built-in support for requesting access to restricted files on the landing pages of records. Per default, all that users have to do is provide their contact information (not necessary if they’re logged in) and a reason why they would like to have access and send off the request. You can discuss the topic within the system and decide whether to accept or refuse the request based on the discussion. If you accept, the system will automatically take the appropriate action to give access to the requester.

Improved sharing of access

Imagine working on a new dataset together with some of your colleagues. You’d like to share access to the draft with them so that they can give you feedback on what to improve. There is the possibility to create „secret links“ from the REST API, but that’s tedious. Taking screenshots of the preview and sending those around is workable but obviously not a great solution.

Luckily, the situation has improved significantly on this front! In addition to the creation of the „secret links“, there’s now a possibility to share different levels of access permissions with other users and groups inside the system! All through the improved „share“ button on your record’s landing page. And the best thing? It’s available for drafts as well.

New curation workflow: Clearly represented review process

In order to further increase the reusability of your research data, uploads must undergo a mandatory review process before publication. Until now, this workflow required some communication outside of the system. Awkward. Wouldn’t it be better if the entire workflow could go through the system itself?

Well yes, and that’s exactly how it works now! The entire review process is handled in the system itself – no more sending of emails required! Unless you want to.

More information

• TU Wien Research Data Upload Guide
• TU Wien Research Data FAQ

Contact

TU Wien
Center for Research Data Management
Favoritenstraße 16 (top floor), 1040 Vienna

research.data@tuwien.ac.at