The versatility of EPrints v3 plugins to support new applications is already becoming evident, as this enquiry from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, shows. I am grateful to Michel Avital of Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western and Tim Miles-Board from the EPrints team for permission to reproduce this dialogue.
Q (MA) We're in the process of setting up a working paper journal. The journal is set to be OA and peer-produced.
We found ePrints impressive and would like to use it for the management of our journal....However, ePrints treats an uploaded document as a black box or a fixed object and (to my understanding) lacks any way of changing it. We found this a limitation in our instance because we'd like to have some control over the layout of the uploaded papers. At minimum, we'd like to add a cover page that includes a masthead, keywords, and a copyright notice....
The latest version of EPrints, v3.0 introduces a plugin architecture for many types of plugin, including conversion plugins....
I see your requirements being met by a PDF-to-"SpecialPDF" conversion plugin which utilises one or more of [the existing PDF manipulation] tools (or other conversion plugins!) to produce a PDF that includes a cover note, header/footer and page numbers....
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
