Over the coming weeks, we will be featuring some of the systems that will form Macquarie University’s new Research Hub and how they support different aspects of research management across the University.

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What is the Pure Research Management System?

It is one of the many systems that will be part of Macquarie’s new Research Hub

The system will be used by researchers or research administrators to create a public profile, track and manage published research, apply for funding, process awards, record research outputs, prizes and other activities and create CVs for showcasing on the Macquarie University Research Portal.

The Information Technology (IT) department at Macquarie University regularly reviews its infrastructure and systems to ensure alignment to priorities in A Framing of Futures. A new Research Management System was a priority because of the new and exciting research performance targets set by the University.

The University chose the Pure system as one of the many systems to support the delivery of the Research Hub. Many institutions in Europe, the US and Australia use this system to support researchers’ publications, applications and awards data and to facilitate reporting across our research community, aligning research information management to contemporary practices.

Upon completion of the Research Hub in 2018, Macquarie will have a centralised Research Information Management System resulting in the following benefits:

• a single unified source of research information that connects all of the University’s faculties, research centres, clinics and the hospital on a single platform making it easier to understand the full scope of University research activity
• a useful tool for understanding existing research expertise at the University to assist in finding research collaborators and supervisors
• increased international visibility which helps the University attract high-profile collaboration opportunities
• research data that allow the University to make data-driven strategic decisions
• greater transparency of funding applications during the approval process
• more streamlined information to meet the policy requirements of grant funding bodies such as the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
• integration of additional component systems in the Research Hub including systems to support intellectual property and commercialisation, animal and human ethics, biosafety management, contracts and legal and online forms.

Research Publications

Over 100,000 publications were imported into the system which created the foundation of data that populated the system. Best practice review has confirmed that we have possibly the best repository of research publication data across the approximately 200 universities that are using the Pure system around the world.

Why are research publications so important to Macquarie University?

The Research Portal offers the ability to showcase Macquarie University’s outstanding research and one of the outputs showcased are publications.

Having an accurate record of publications authored by the University community enables confident and high-quality reporting to Government and funders and enables researchers to be able to showcase their research efficiently. It also helps with the discovery of research undertaken at the University, which can assist in attracting new connections and collaborations with researchers around the world. Making publications openly accessible for download (Open Access) increases the impact of Macquarie’s research on wider audiences and helps increase citation rates for our researchers.

What is the Library’s involvement?

The Library is working to ensure that the data quality of Macquarie University’s publication records is of the highest standard and facilitates the discoverability of all publications authored by staff and students at our University.

Researchers are now able to add or import their own publications into the system and as part of that process, attach the author manuscript (version of paper after peer review, as it was accepted for publishing by the journal) to the publication record in the system. Adding the author manuscript enables the Library to make research publications Open Access as allowed by publishers’ policies, so this step is very important.

The system also enables authors to link their publications to the grants that helped fund them and thus meet funder requirements. The applications and award functionality will go-live in the system over the coming weeks.