AGRIS - from a bibliographical database to a web data service on agricultural research information. (Special Issue: Repositories.)

摘要

AGRIS provides a large collection of bibliographic references, such as research papers, studies and thesis, each including metadata such as conferences, researchers, publishers, institutions, and keywords from different thesauri such as AGROVOC. With the rise of the full text search and online availability of more research material, the role of bibliographic metadata appears redundant. When it is considered as a form of modeling that emphasizes relationships, connections and links, bibliographic metadata grows in value as the Web grows in connectivity. It can provide researchers with a map of the global research community, linking formal outputs (papers, data) with a wider grey literature (preprints, drafts) and with communication platforms (blogs, forums) that help researchers put formal findings into a wider context. This paper describes the evolving role of the AGRIS bibliographic database into becoming a hub of agricultural research literature. The large database of 3 million agricultural resources, collected by more than 150 institutions over the last 35 years, becomes the starting point to access the diverse knowledge in agricultural science and technology available globally on the web.