Tools and Add-ons

PDF-making | SHERPA/RoMEO | OpenDOAR Policy Tool

PDF-Making Software

Although their usefulness is a matter of debate, the most common file format used in Open Access repositories is PDF (Portable Document Format). PDF was originally developed by Adobe, and Adobe Acrobat Professional remains the gold standard package for generating PDFs (n.b. not just the Adobe Acrobat reader). It is expensive, but in a mediated repository service, it is appropriate for mediators to have the full version.

The situation is more problematic, however, with self-deposition. Authors need to be able to create PDFs themselves, and it probably will not be justifiable on cost grounds to give them all the full Adobe Acrobat. Furthermore, some repositories have reported that people having to locate and install their own PDF making software can be a barrier to deposition. Even the adjustment to printing rather than saving documents to turn them into PDFs can be confusing for some authors. And merging separate files and images to form a single document can also be a significant challenge.

Cheaper or free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat are available that may be suitable for institution-wide distribution. A notable example is the MS Office 2007 add-in SaveAsPDF.exe that can be installed locally to allow easy conversion to PDF. Products include:

• Adobe Acrobat
  
  • http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/
• 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in - 'Save as PDF'
  
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/
    
• PDF Converter Pro - Nuance Communications
  • http://www.nuance.com/pdfconverter/
    
• pdfFactory
  • http://www.pdffactory.com/
    
• Gnostice PDFWiz
  
  • http://www.gnostice.com/PDFWiz.asp
    
• Click to Convert
  
  • http://www.clicktoconvert.com/index.html
    

[Comparative table of PDF-making Packages to follow.]

SHERPA/RoMEO Copyright Look-up

It is always important, when depositing a publication in an Open Access archive, to ensure that this is allowed under the publisher's copyright policies - as embodied in the copyright transfer agreement that the author should have signed. The SHERPA/RoMEO database provides worldwide information on publishers' copyright policies - searchable interactively by publisher's name and/or journal title.

There is also a prototype SHERPA/RoMEO API that can be built into the workflow of your repository software to provide automatic look-up of policies.

OpenDOAR Policy Tool

Already mentioned elsewhere in the RSP website, the OpenDOAR Policy Tool can be used to generate a 'Policies' web page for your repository. In the case of EPrints installations, the Policy Tool can also generate the EPrints configuration file code that returns policy information to OAI-PMH 'Identify' requests.