Making research accessible to all!

Posted by Dafni Kalatzi Pantera on 2022-09-14

One of my main tasks throughout this year was the digitalization of the ESTRO’s archive. The ESTRO journal was rebranded in 2020 and it was named Essex Student Journal. Although the ESJ is an online multi-disciplinary journal, ESTRO did not have an online presence; hence many published papers did not have a doi (digital object identifier) and there were not easily accessible to the public.

My job was to move the papers online and add them to our journal’s website. We digitalized more than 100 papers and now you can have access to them by clicking this link: https://publications.essex.ac.uk/esj/issues/. Just for giving you an idea of how we managed to upload all these papers online I will try to present the uploading process of one paper.

The first step was to change the format of the paper and create a word, a pdf, and an html version of it. At the same time, we had to make sure that the paper was put on our website by using the journal’s template and by putting the appropriate doi. Then we uploaded the paper to the journal’s system by putting it to the appropriate volume and issue. We uploaded 10 volumes and 15 issues in total.

The task was demanding, and I had to dedicate many working hours for managing to upload all the papers in time. However, the experience was also rewarding since I got the chance of reading some excellent pieces of former Essex students. Additionally, I actively contributed to the journal’s missions to promote open access.

For those of you who do not know what open access is, I will try to explain it in a few words in order for you to understand its importance in the academic world. Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. In other words, to put it simpler, it is a way of making research available to all.

Do have a look on our website and explore the diverse papers that the Essex Student Journal (and former ESTRO) has produced since 2009.