Library Research Support Services

PEARL PlumX impact dashboard

PEARL is the University's Open Access Research Repository showcasing UoP research, meeting funder policies and enables tracking of altmetric attention for all outputs deposits in PEARL with a DOI.

What are altmetrics?

Citations in traditional scholarly publications can take time to appear in the published record whereas Altmetrics provide insight into who else is reading, sharing, discussing or commenting on your work right now, outside of traditional publication channels.  Altmetrics also DOIs cited in news outlets, patents and policy documents. 

Altmetrics can potentially help identify future academic and non-academic collaborations.  These insights may also help with determining a pathway to wider impact with your research.  There are two main sources of Altmetrics data, PlumX and Altmetric.  Each is available free to individuals at the article level (e.g. embedded into the University's Research Portal) whilst PlumX data at scale is embedded into the PEARL reporting dashboard.  

PlumX is an Elsevier product and is embedded into the Elsevier products purchased by the University: Scopus, Pure, Digital Commons.

Which version of my work is the PlumX data reporting on in PEARL?

Only the DOI is tracked via PlumX - this will be the DOI of the publisher's version for journal articles and is not related to the version you have deposited in PEARL.  When you deposit to PEARL, all the article's published metadata (such as DOI) is deposited with the manuscript enabling PlumX to track.  DOIs of theses, datasets and other outputs which are 'published' in PEARL can also be tracked in this way.

How do I see the PlumX data in PEARL?

Using the PEARL real-time statistics link, you are able to filter open access content in PEARL for PlumX metrics e.g. to identity outputs cited in policy.  This short video shows the filter options for policy citations by output, faculty or school, or discipline:

Database harvesting of repository content

Web of Science and Scopus actively incorporate Repository (or Green Open Access content i.e. Authors' Accepted Manuscripts) and display this to users alongside the publisher DOI enabling those without paywall access to go straight to the full text of your work in PEARL:

If you have you ever wondered if your publications in Pearl are found and accessed then this is one of the ways that ensures we regularly see the downloads of PEARL files in the many tens of thousands every month.

How is my research discovered through PEARL?

PEARL is harvested by repository aggregator services like CORE or the British Library's EThOS for PhD theses (system is currently down following a BL cyber attack), Primo (University of Plymouth Library Search) and Google Scholar for increased visibility and impact of your research. 

Additionally, the Open Access movement has seen several OA finder tools develop in recent years connecting readers to Green Open Access content (repository Accepted Manuscript versions of published work) if the published version is paywalled. 

These tools can be added as browser extensions and will 'pop up' on desktops with links to Green Open Access content (e.g. PEARL content) when someone reaches a paywalled article on the publisher site.  These tools also integrate repository content with academic databases such as Web of Science & Scopus.

• Unpaywall
• CORE
• Open Access Button
• Endnote Click (a Clarivate/Web of Science product, formerly Kopernio)

Digital Commons Network 

In Spring 2024, PEARL and all PEARL content migrated from DSpace to Digital Commons, an Elsevier repository product.  Outputs in PEARL are now indexed in the Digital Commons Network of international open access repositories.  Digital Commons has a large market share in Americas and Asia, furthering the visibility of your research.
 

ISBNs

The Library can allocate ISBNs (international Standard Book Numbers) to any book or report published by the University.  Any book published by the University for sale, must have an ISBN included at the printing stage. 

To obtain an ISBN for your publication, please contact the Library who will provide you with further information:

• isbnrequests@plymouth.ac.uk

If your report/book is only available as an e-publication you may want to allocate a DOI to the publication as well to aid visibility and tracking of your work.

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)

DOIs are minted in Pure for University of Plymouth published digital outputs that Pure sends to PEARL, such as theses, reports, datasets and locally hosted conference or journal publication papers.

A DOI provides a persistent identification for the lifetime of the output.  DOIs are a method of identifying specific objects and works accurately, which will aid in the connection of the outputs to their creators / authors, plus associated metadata and documentation, and will help increase the impact of your work.

Be sure to use the DOI in all digital mentions of your work otherwise it cannot be tracked

ISSNs

The University publishes open access journals which are hosted on PEARL.

Journal editors should request a free of charge ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) which is an identifier given to periodicals with regular new issues.   Editors can apply for a new ISSN via the country desk representing the country the journal is published in.  The British Library operate the UK's ISSN allocation and editors will need to establish that the journal is regularly produced and likely to continue publishing.

Please note the BL is working through a long-term recovery from a cyber attack.  If you need to request an ISSN using hte below links but are unable to do so, please contact the University Library: openresearch@plymouth.ac.uk