Project Plan Post 6 of 7 - WP1: Open/Standardised interface

The objective of work package 1 is to create an interface within the existing Mendeley Desktop software client to deposit records into institutional repositories.  Jason Hoyt at Mendeley is responsible for delivering this work package.

Scientists and researchers use Mendeley for their own reference management. Mendeley offers a feature called “My Publications” where the user can simply drag & drop their own publications (i.e. the articles they have authored) into a designated collection in Mendeley Desktop. These publications (either metadata only or metadata and full-text) then sync to the user’s profile page on Mendeley Web. This work package intends to create an interface between Mendeley and an institutional repository of the university the user is affiliated with to deposit these publications and the respective metadata into the institutional repository. In an example use case, a researcher would click the “sync” button in the Mendeley client. The researcher’s institution would then respond to confirm deposits. In some cases, deposits might additionally be required in a secondary repository, for example the NHS database. In such cases, the institution would also send a request to confirm deposit into the secondary repository. The logic and APIs for this will be developed in work package 3, while work package 1 will manage the user interface requirements.

Task 1.1
Determine the user interface requirements for the authentication form and document selection. Mock ups based on the UI/UX needs will then be created. This task will be performed by the Mendeley project manager and Mendeley’s lead designer. (Partners: Mendeley 2PM, Symplectic 1PM, University of Cambridge 1PM)

Task 1.2
Mock ups from task 1.1 will be used to build the client-side and server-side logic to handle authentication and document selection. (Partners: Mendeley 1PM)

Task 1.3
Finally, the mock ups from task 1.1 will guide the development of the actual user interface in the Mendeley Desktop client. (Partners: Mendeley 2PM)



Deliverables

D 1.1 User interface requirements document (month 2)
This document, based on task 1.1 will be an internal document for project partners and uploaded on the project’s Basecamp account.

D 1.2 Client-side authentication interface (month 9)
The researcher will need to provide appropriate authentication credentials in a securely transmitted form to their IR. To support this, the Mendeley Desktop client will need to be extended to provide an input form for those credentials. The existence of this form and its use will also need to be communicated to the user in line with the current Mendeley Desktop user interface. The actual implementation will occur in project month 9 once WP3 deliverable 3.1 is complete.

D 1.3 User interface for selecting documents to be deposited (month 9)
Not all documents may be appropriate for deposit into the IR. Therefore a simple method is needed to designate documents for inclusion or exclusion. The actual implementation will occur in project month 9 once WP3 deliverable 3.1 is complete.