The Dutch research landscape is about to undergo a significant transformation with the introduction of The Netherlands Research Portal on OpenAIRE CONNECT. This portal, which replaces the long-standing NARCIS, aims to revolutionize the accessibility and visibility of research publications, datasets, and projects from research institutes across the country. By connecting Dutch research to a broader audience of national and international researchers, journalists, policymakers, and companies, the portal seeks to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange on a larger scale.
For nearly two decades, NARCIS has served as the national aggregator for the Dutch repository infrastructure, facilitating the dissemination of Dutch research output to the research community through scholarly search engines. In addition, NARCIS boasted its own portal, widely utilized by journalists and policymakers. However, the decision to retire NARCIS, announced in January, paved the way for a collaborative effort between OpenAIRE, UKB, and SURF to create a brand-new research portal for The Netherlands. This innovative platform officially launched on July 3, marking a new era in Dutch research accessibility.
One of the primary objectives of the new portal is to extend the reach of Dutch research beyond the confines of the research community. Acknowledging the importance of making research output visible to a wider audience, the portal serves as a comprehensive tool for gaining insight into the Dutch research landscape. Universities and research organizations contribute content to the portal, which has garnered support from prominent institutions such as SURF, UKB, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Dutch Research Council (NWO), SHB (libraries of the applied universities), the Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centers (NFU), and Universities of the Netherlands (UNL).
In terms of functionality, the new portal builds upon the foundations laid by NARCIS while introducing several enhancements. Most notably, it provides a vast index of research output, including research projects, publications, datasets, and software. In addition to sources registered with NARCIS, the portal incorporates additional content from OpenAIRE Graph, leveraging affiliation information found in other records. The records are enriched with additional metadata, making it easier than ever to search through the content. While some sources are still undergoing indexing, the latest NARCIS content remains available in the meantime.
The distribution of research content has also evolved with the new portal. In the past, NARCIS distributed Dutch repository contents to various aggregators, such as Unpaywall. Now, the UKB has guided repositories to register their endpoints separately. Aggregators and researchers interested in utilizing data from the Netherlands Research Portal can access it through the API or obtain a data dump of the OpenAIRE Graph, as outlined on the Develop page.
The new portal introduces advanced classification features that enhance the understanding of Dutch research. While NARCIS employed basic classification of researchers by research area, OpenAIRE goes a step further by using artificial intelligence to label publications into several scientific fields. This automated classification enables journalists and policymakers to gain insights into the type of research being conducted in The Netherlands. Moreover, publications are also classified based on their contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, providing a clearer picture of their potential impact on global challenges such as world hunger.
Although the functionality to search for researchers by field of research and projects is not currently available, OpenAIRE has plans to incorporate expert pages in the future. In the meantime, authors can be retrieved by examining current articles within specific fields of science and checking the ORCID profiles of the authors.
The new research portal facilitates improved linking capabilities compared to its predecessor. While NARCIS provided limited functionality to add or correct relevant information, the new portal offers advanced mechanisms for enhancing data quality and sending updates back to the original sources. Users can conveniently log in to the research portal, register their ORCID, and link it to their publications, projects, datasets, and software.
Additionally, the portal introduces a comprehensive monitoring feature that surpasses NARCIS's basic overview of open versus closed content. OpenAIRE's monitor dashboard provides a wealth of information, including the types of Open Access (green, gold, hybrid, bronze), organizations within the set, funders, data sources, and top journals, among others.
The launch of The Netherlands Research Portal on OpenAIRE CONNECT signifies a major step forward in the accessibility, visibility, and collaboration potential of Dutch research. By harnessing the power of technology and collaboration, this new portal promises to unlock countless opportunities for researchers, journalists, policymakers, and companies to engage with and contribute to the vibrant Dutch research community.
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