News

The Information Technology Department at King Khalid University (KKU) is proud to unveil ePrints KKU, an advanced digital research repository accessible to all faculty members across various departments. This innovative system is designed to amplify the visibility of our faculty's work within their respective disciplines, thereby strengthening the university's academic influence globally.

Introducing ePrints

ePrints KKU is a state-of-the-art research repository that empowers faculty to upload and share their publications for online research and reuse. The platform, initially conceived and developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton (SOTON), has evolved in its latest iteration (ePrints 3) through a collaborative development project between SOTON and KKU.

The Value of ePrints

A research repository like ePrints is an essential component of the digital infrastructure at progressive universities. It serves as a valuable resource for storing and granting easy access to the institution's digital content, facilitating increased use of this information by both internal faculty and external researchers. Universities globally have established robust repositories to bolster their rankings, improve quality, and enhance their capacity to leverage human capital, as detailed by Gibbons (2004).

ePrints KKU will not only be a platform to showcase our capabilities but will also broaden the university's contributions to the evolution and development of pertinent academic fields. Moreover, ePrints KKU aligns with the Kingdom's Vision 2030 national transformation program, contributing significantly to our higher educational goals.

Speaking about ePrints, Dr. Salem Aleyani, Chief Information Officer, states, "These efforts are committed to the progress of King Khalid University specifically and the nation more broadly, steering us towards the realization of Vision 2030." Furthermore, Abdulrahman Ibrahim, Software Engineer, underscores that the citation count of articles published by KKU staff will escalate, thereby augmenting the cumulative impact of KKU. The Deanship of Scientific Research adds that faculty members' active engagement with ePrints is vital to meeting the evaluation parameters of the National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA), particularly concerning General Standard 10 (Research) and its Key Performance Indicators.

How ePrints Operates

ePrints functions in synergy with Google Scholar. Google Scholar utilizes software called "crawlers" to index websites with scholarly articles, including them in search results. Simultaneously, an automated software program, "parsers," indexes the bibliographic and reference data of the publications. The structure of ePrints facilitates optimal crawling and indexing by Google Scholar, extending the reach of knowledge sharing (Yeates, 2003).

Join Us

We invite you to explore eprints.kku.edu.sa and upload your prior publications. We also encourage using ePrints for all your future academic projects. For any inquiries or support related to this repository, please write to eprints@kku.edu.sa.

References

Gibbons, S. (2004). Establishing an Institutional Repository. Library Technology Reports, 40(4), July-August 2004.

Yeates, R. (2003). Over the Horizon: Institutional Repositories. VINE: The Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, 33(2), 96-99.