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About

USGS Publications Warehouse

Introduction

As a Federal agency, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a responsibility to make the results of its scientific investigations widely, easily, and promptly available to the public as scholarly publications. These publications include, but are not limited to, USGS publication series, journal articles, books, book chapters, other government and nongovernment publications, cooperator publications, and conference proceedings. The Publications Warehouse is the authoritative catalog and publicly accessible location for accessing USGS peer reviewed scientific publications, as indicated in USGS Survey Manual Chapter 502.4 and the USGS Public Access Plan. Here we describe what the Publications Warehouse is, how it works, and what USGS authors must do to ensure publications are cataloged in the Publications Warehouse.

Details

Scope

  • The Publications Warehouse is the official and authoritative USGS index of USGS scientific publications. The criteria for cataloging and full-text availability of USGS publications in the Publications Warehouse are given below.
Catalog
  • The Publications Warehouse staff catalogs and indexes all USGS scientific publications according to criteria developed by the FSPAC Publications Warehouse Guidance Subcommittee.
  • The Publications Warehouse catalog includes, but is not limited to, citation pages for USGS publication series as described in SM 1100.3, outside publications as described in SM 1100.4 (such as journal articles, books, book chapters, other government and nongovernment publications, cooperator publications, and conference proceedings) prepared by USGS and other authors, and extramural publications.
  • Information products outside the scope of the Publications Warehouse, such as abstracts, posters, presentations, data releases, and software releases, are not cataloged in the Publications Warehouse.
  • The Publications Warehouse only contains information products prepared by authors who are affiliated with the USGS when the work was performed.
Full-text availability
  • Full text information products published by the USGS, such as USGS series publications, are provided for download from the Publications Warehouse.
  • Scientific publications released in the USGS publication series (SM 1100.3) are deposited in the Publications Warehouse by Science Publishing Network staff.
  • The USGS Library digitizes print-only publications published by the USGS and makes them available online.
  • The Publications Warehouse provides links to cooperators' and external publishers’ websites that provide the full text of USGS-authored publications when the links are available.
  • The Publications Warehouse provides links to open access versions of USGS-authored publications if available.

Requirements

Information Product Data System (IPDS)
  • A publication will not be cataloged in the Publications Warehouse if it has not gone through the appropriate Fundamental Science Practices (FSP) reviews and approvals. For publications published in 2012 or after, a disseminated IP number is required to catalog the publication in the Publications Warehouse.
  • The IPDS dissemination task must be completed so that the publication can be properly cataloged in the Publications Warehouse. Until the product is disseminated, it will not be cataloged in the Publications Warehouse.
  • To facilitate cataloging and indexing in the Publications Warehouse, accurate and complete bibliographic information must be entered in the IPDS. A publication cannot be cataloged in the Publications Warehouse if insufficient or inaccurate bibliographic information is provided in the IPDS. If available, the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) should be provided, as required in SM 502.7. If the publisher doesn’t provide a DOI, as much bibliographic information as is available should be provided in the bibliodata (such as final publication title, journal title or conference title, page numbers, etc.).
  • For peer-reviewed journal products and extramural publications, the accepted manuscript (in docx format) must be uploaded into the IPDS before the product can be disseminated and cataloged in the Publications Warehouse.
Cataloging
  • Once disseminated in the IPDS, information product records are sent to the Publications Warehouse cataloging staff, who review, correct, and enhance the metadata that authors (or their designees) submit using the IPDS.
  • Publications Warehouse cataloging staff also catalog pre-2012 USGS publications outside of the IPDS workflow when identified and within the Publications Warehouse cataloging scope.

Responsibilities

Maintaining the Publications Warehouse is a responsibility of the USGS Library, but it is a collaborative effort among many groups within USGS, and compliance with this guidance is incumbent on all USGS employees involved in developing scientific publications.

USGS Library

The USGS Library is responsible for overseeing and coordinating the activities of the Publications Warehouse. These activities include:

  • Creating and enhancing citation pages for new and legacy USGS scientific publications
  • Adding digitized content
  • Responding to inquiries and requests from stakeholders and the public
  • Providing periodic reports on missing publications to appropriate parties
  • Developing and maintaining the Publications Warehouse architecture and data model
  • Maintaining metrics on the system and activities
  • Ensuring applicable requirements referenced above are met
  • Providing Application Programming Interface (API) access to external systems for increased dissemination of publications

USGS Authors, Managers, Approving Officials, and Their Designees

Authors, managers, approving officials, and their designees who are involved in the publishing process are responsible for:

  • Entering complete and accurate bibliographic information into the IPDS
  • Uploading accepted manuscripts for journal products and extramural publications in the IPDS
  • Completing the IPDS dissemination task to ensure proper cataloging and indexing of publications in the Publications Warehouse

Core Science Systems

The USGS Core Science Systems (CSS) mission area is responsible for:

  • The Bureau’s Publications Warehouse activities
  • Maintaining the policies and procedures related to USGS Library activities, including Publications Warehouse guidance
  • Coordinating with other mission areas and Executive Leadership Team members as needed regarding requirements in this guidance

Science Publishing Network (SPN)

The SPN in the Office of Communications and Publishing is responsible for:

  • Publishing digital versions of new USGS publication series products
  • Developing the associated product citation pages in the Publications Warehouse
  • Ensuring accurate web linkages among product components and to companion products
  • Storing and maintaining the digital product files in the file directory (pubs.usgs.gov)
  • Collaborating with Publications Warehouse staff to research and develop new methods for enhancing the visibility and usability of USGS publication series

Listing publications in the Publications Warehouse

How does it work?

Flowchart showing the workflow of publication records through different USGS systems. Description of the workflow in text format is below.

Figure 1 - Simplified USGS publication workflow

  • Authors or their designees create a record for their product in the IPDS, and receive the appropriate reviews and approvals per FSP (See SM 502.4).
  • Authors enter the appropriate bibliodata and add valid ORCID iDs for all USGS authors in the author tab in the IPDS. All USGS authors are required to register for an ORCID iD, use their USGS email address for their ORCID account, set their affiliation to the U.S. Geological Survey, and make their email address and affiliation public on their ORCID profile. Additional guidance about ORCID iDs for USGS authors is available on the FSP Section A frequently asked questions page.
  • Authors or their designees complete the dissemination task in the IPDS when the product has been published, and the IP record moves to the IPDS dark archive where it can no longer be edited by authors or their designees. The IPDS administrators can make edits to archived records if absolutely necessary.
  • The Science Inventory - Proposals to Products (SIPP) service harvests the data from IP records every 24 hours and makes the records available in XML web service that can be easily queried.
  • The Publications Warehouse backend cataloging application, Manager, uses the SIPP web service to identify only IP records that fall within the Publications Warehouse cataloging scope. The bibliodata from the IP record provides metadata for the publication record, and author ORCID iDs are imported into Manager.
  • The Publications Warehouse cataloging staff reviews the metadata from the IP record, confirms, corrects and standardizes given metadata, adds missing metadata, and enhances the record by providing value-added metadata, such as geospatial information for study areas.
  • Data releases that are associated with the publication are automatically added to the publication record if identified by a connection with the USGS Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Tool. Authors can identify associated publications for their data releases when they manage their data release DOIs in the DOI Tool. More information about adding related identifiers in the DOI Tool is available here.
  • The publication record is then published on the public Publications Warehouse website, where it’s indexed and available to the public.
  • Once available in the Publications Warehouse, publication metadata is indexed and used by a number of other services, including but not limited to the USGS Library catalog, ScienceBase, the USGS website Drupal Content Management System (including science center microsites, staff profiles, and Science Explorer search), Google, Google Scholar, science.gov, and GeoRef. Author ORCID iDs in the publication records are used to automatically populate author staff profiles with their publications.

What do authors need to do?

For new publications

  • Receive the appropriate reviews and approvals in the IPDS per FSP (See SM 502.4).
  • Fill in all appropriate bibliodata in the IPDS to help Publications Warehouse catalogers identify and properly catalog the publication in the Publications Warehouse in a timely manner.
  • Fill in all authors on the publication in the IP record and include valid ORCID iDs for all USGS authors. All USGS authors are required to register for an ORCID iD, use their USGS email address for their ORCID account, set their affiliation to the U.S. Geological Survey, and make their email address and affiliation public on their ORCID profile. Additional guidance about ORCID iDs for USGS authors is available on the FSP Section A frequently asked questions page.
  • Complete the dissemination task for the IP record as soon as the publication is published by the publisher to ensure timely cataloging in the Publications Warehouse. Newly disseminated publications are usually cataloged in the Publications Warehouse within 2 business days.
  • Contact the Publications Warehouse team at pubswarehouse@usgs.gov if the publication is not cataloged in the Publications Warehouse within a few days. Remember that only certain publication types are cataloged in the Publications Warehouse (see scope for details).

For other requests

  • Contact the Publications Warehouse at pubswarehouse@usgs.gov to request that the cataloging team catalog missing publications, correct metadata errors in existing records, or add contributing offices or author ORCID iDs to existing records.
    • If more than 10 publications need to be added, corrected, or enhanced, please provide a list of the publications in spreadsheet format.
    • For requests to catalog missing publications, please check that the publication is within the Publications Warehouse cataloging scope and that the IP record has been disseminated from the IPDS.
    • For missing publications published in 2012 or later, please provide the IP number and citation to the Publications Warehouse team in the request to catalog. Publications published in 2012 or later are required to have a disseminated IP number to be cataloged in the Publications Warehouse.