Posted on 06 October 2020
In 2003, the European University Institute decided to establish a research depository, a safe space to collect and share all the EUI research outputs.
What better name than Cadmus for it, a king of the Greek mythology, who was said to have adapted the Phoenician alphabet into the Greek one, thus giving the first impulse to the modern alphabet by sharing his acquired knowledge?
The success was immediate: EUI professors, researchers, fellows, all contributed to the constant growth of Cadmus, providing over 1000 new records per year.
The first milestone of 10,000 records was reached on April 2011, and again 20,000 in February 2017. In seventeen years we have accumulated over 25,000 items, whether they be books, book chapters, working papers, theses, articles or techincal reports.
But it didn't stop there: from 2017, a real revolution started in academic research.
On 15 November 2017, the EUI, as European institution, officially adopted its strengthened institutional Open Access policy, which main goal was to support the widest possible dissemination and reuse of EUI research outputs.
In less than three years, the repository has come to occupy a leading position in the European context of Open Science and Open Access, with 10,000 OA publications (about 40% of its whole content). The EUI theses in open access doubled in their number, from 240 in 2014, to 500 in 2016, to 1000 in 2020.
In addition, this last year, two new collections became part of Cadmus: the Covid-19 Pandemic, and State of Union.
They belong to a new community ‘EUI Public Commentary’. This is part of joint efforts to make research more accessible to society, and the first one is themed on the health crisis that has fallen on us. The second one contains the recorded and published material of the State of the Union (SoU) Conference, an annual summit organised by the European University Institute, to bridge the work of academics with policy making at the highest level in Europe.
Both brought new light to the European research, and innovation to the EUI repository. Specifically, new formats: audio-visual material and blogposts. These new introductions have been tested for these collections, and some of these functionalities will also soon be used and enhanced in other collections.
As Charles Darwin once said, "in the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed".
Keep the Science Open, keep the knowledge accessible. Let's prevail all together, and celebrate by browsing Cadmus, to have a look at the EUI Research Output.
Don't forget to check the latest added contributions!
For more info don't hesitate to contact the Library Open Science Office.
Cadmus works in collaboration of ORCID (Open Researcher & Contributor ID), an international directory of unique IDs of researchers. Have a look on the dedicated webpage to set up your account.