Export to Ebsco

[samkalb]

One of our journals has been approved for indexing by Ebsco. They require that the metadata and the articles be transmitted separately. The basic export function embeds the articles in the metadata xml. How can we fulfill the request from OJS (v.2.3.3.2)? I have attached their spec sheet

[jmacgreg]

Hi samkalb,

There isn't currently a way to export content this way, but there are a few easy ways to accomplish what you want.

Regarding the article metadata: since they aren't picky about what kind of DTD they receive, you should be able to use the Crossref export tool to export article metadata. You can also use the METS XML export process, with the added benefit that the XML file includes pointers to the galley files online as well -- EBSCO may be able to handle the METS XML in such a way that the galleys could be harvested automatically.

Regarding the files themselves: there's no way currently to export files directly via OJS aside from the XML Export plugin. One option would be to archive and download the files directory via FTP, and then manage the files from your local machine. You could also write a script to do this as well, and with a bit of work a plugin could be written to accomplish this (including the file renaming, which looks to be a requirement in the spec sheet). If you have any development expertise on hand, let us know and we can definitely help with pointers etc. If there's enough interest from the community about this, we're happy to consider it as a feature request.

Cheers,
James

[obi]

Hi,
We are interested in putting "export to EBSCO" as a feature request.

Regards
Obiajulu Odu
University of Tromsø

[jmacgreg]

Hi Obi,

We'd be happy to consider this as a feature request. Do you folks at Tromsø have any development or testing resources at hand? Ideally, we'd love to be able to assist you in developing such a plugin; we're happy also to add it as a feature request item for us to tackle, but we have other pressing priorities at the moment and I can't guarantee that we'd be able to get to it in the very near future.

In either case, if you folks (and samkalb) already work directly with EBSCO and have a workflow already fleshed out (especially with regards to how you send your files to EBSCO), please let us know your preferred workflow method and I can work up a more coherent structure for the plugin.

Cheers,
James

[obi]

Hi James,
We do not have any development or testing resources at hand. We received few weeks ago the same information as samkalb from Ebsco. We are just figuring out what to do.
Regards
Obi

[jmacgreg]

Hi Obi, Samkalb,

I just had a thought -- the XML Articles and Issues Export plugin exports everything -- all issue and article metadata, and all galley files (PDF, HTML, etc.) as well, which are embedded within the XML file by base64-encoding them. (See this page for more information on exporting articles and issues from OJS, and see here for the XML DTD.)

Essentially, there's already everything EBSCO needs in one XML file, although in a slightly unusual format. Any chance you could follow up with them to see if they could use this file to import your articles? It'd be great if EBSCO could provide an OJS article ingestion function -- and possibly less problematic than having us develop, ship and maintain a plugin to all users who might need it. If they are unable to do so, please let me know and I'll file a feature request.

Cheers,
James

[jcb]

samkalb,

I find myself in the same situation, needing to send a data feed to EBSCO.
What solution did you use?

[obi]

Hi,
I wrote to EBSCO many weeks ago suggesting that they provide an OJS article ingestion function since many of their articles are coming from OJS platform. I have not heard from them. Could it be possible that PKP prioritise developing a plugin since they are many OJS users asking about it?

Regards
Obi

[jmacgreg]

Hi Obi,

We can certainly look into it. Before doing so, I might follow up with EBSCO myself. Can you point to where I might find information (esp. contact/support information) regarding their data delivery service?

Thanks,
James

[obi]

Hi James,
What is the status now? Or has anyone developed a plugin for Ebsco delivery?

Regards
Obi

[springday]

Hi Obi,

I'm not a PKP developer, but I'd like to help. I'm not sure if I could get a full-blown OJS plugin done. However, if you (and maybe also the PKP team) could answer me a few questions, I'll see what I can do. So here we go:

1) Obi, are you comfortable with running an XSLT transformation on an XML file? (It's rather easy with little GUI tools like e.g. Antilles XML). In this case I'll provide an XSLT file that will transform the OJS article export into something Ebsco could use.
2) Can you get a more detailed specification from Ebsco? The description that was linked here in this discussion ("Data Delivery Information") thread a while ago is extremely unspecific.
3) Would you be willing to share a sample export of one of your journal's issues with me? (Just using the issue export in OJS and send me the xml file or attach it here?)
4) Now something for the developer's team: I'm only comfortable doing the processing in XSLT 2.0, as I would like to write several distinct files and might have to set up some XSL-function for processing the BASE64 encoded PDFs. If I'll get the EBSCO transformation done and would like to try making a plugin out of it, I couldn't reuse it in the realm of php, where libxslt/xsltproc is only supporting XSLT 1.0, right? Do you know a way how to enable PHP to run XSLT 2.0 transformations?

Regards,
Kai Weber