The OAPEN Library has become a highly connected resource for full text open access books and chapters: used by the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB); libraries; data aggregators and search engines – for instance Google Scholar.
Consequently, the quality of the metadata is important to us and when it came to our attention that not all authors and editors were listed in the correct order, we started looking for a solution. This is not a trivial matter: at this moment the OAPEN Library contains over 12,000 books and chapters.
To complicate matters, the metadata – collected for a decade – describing these publications come from a variety of sources. A manual check was not an option, so we searched for a resource that would enable us to check the author and editors listed.
We decided to use the freely accessible CrossRef API. OAPEN is a member of CrossRef – and has deposited hundreds of DOIs – but more importantly, the CrossRef metadata database lists over 1.4 million books.
First, we made a selection of over 2,200 books and chapters with more than one author or editor. Using the DOI connected to these publications, we retrieved the ORCID metadata. Then we checked the metadata found against our own records, resulting in a correction of over 1,000 title descriptions.
Every now and then we will perform this and other metadata checks, to make sure that everything remains… in order.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Ronald Snijder (June 23, 2020). Order! Order! OAPEN - Online library of open access books. Retrieved April 21, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/sh3q