This document provides an overview of VIVO, an open-source semantic web application for discovering research and scholarship across disciplines within an institution. It discusses current challenges in research networking and how VIVO addresses them by aggregating institution-wide data using linked open data standards. VIVO harvests information from internal and external sources to create profiles of researchers, projects, and publications. It allows for customization and visualization of research activities and connections. The document also describes the VIVO community and opportunities to get involved through various working groups and events.

1. A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF SCHOLARSHIPAT
THE INDIVIDUAL, INSTITUTION-WIDE,
AND GLOBAL LEVELS
Kristi L. Holmes, PhD
VIVO - @VIVOcollab
March 10, 2014

2. Current challenges
• Research is increasingly more interdisciplinary
• How can you find collaborators, track competitors, and stay abreast of current
research inside large institutions, at other institutions, and globally?
• How can you find others with shared interests or expertise?
• How can you build diverse teams? Find mentors? Be identified as a partner
by community groups?
Faculty
• Library administration or directors of core facilities want to align their strategic
plan with the evolving research needs of their clientele.
• Identifying growth areas of research through increasing publications, focused
areas of research and grant dollars enables this task to become more
evidence-based.
Support: facilities and personnel
• Research institutions can be extremely large and diverse
• How can administrators showcase and monitor research activity, track
competitors, and stay abreast of current research inside large institutions, at
other institutions, and globally?
• How can you enhance visibility and present a unified picture of an institution?
Administrators

3. Building a web of data
Data Creators, Data
Aggregators, & Data
Consumers
Repositories. Tools.
Applications. Workflows

4. Research Networking
Information about scholars is optimized using a Web-based
infrastructure of standards and technologies which allows for a
distributable, machine readable description of data that allows for
stronger data and smart web application linkages across many
universities, agencies, societies around the world.
Why is this important?
Linked data infrastructure allows for
• Visualizations, research and clinical data integration,
and deep semantic searching across multiple types
and sources of data
• By breaking data out of traditional database silos,
research networking platforms promote a network
effect within a single site and across multiple sites
– The value of the network increases with the amount of
linked data and applications that are available to
consume the linked data.

5. What is VIVO?
1. Software: An open-source semantic-web-based
researcher and research discovery tool
2. Data: Institution-wide, publicly-visible information about
research and researchers
3. Standards: A standard ontology (VIVO data) that
interconnects researchers, communities, and campuses
using Linked Open Data
4. Community: An open community with strong national
and international participation

6. Software

7. The VIVO/Vitro Software
• Ingest tools – getting batch data in
• Ontology editing tools – change what is being described
and represented
• Instance editing tools – Edit instances of any of the things
represented in the ontology (people, publications,
organizations, etc.)
• Template/display system – Display instances and sets in a
useful way

8. Software Release History
• 0.9 – Jan 2010 – 1st multi-institutional development
release
• 1.0 – April 2010 – Feature complete release
• 1.1 – July 2010 – Visualizations, ontology
• 1.2 – Feb 2011 – Templating, storage model
• 1.3 – July 2011 – Search, authorization
• 1.4 – Dec 2011 – Proxy editing, external vocab.
• 1.5 – July 2012 – Extensibility, OpenSocial

9. Latest 1.6 Release – Dec. 2013
• VIVO-ISF ontology
• Web service for the RDF API
• Multi-language support and repository
• HTTP caching headers
• Search indexing
• Landing page improvements
• Highlighted content
• Geographic research focus map
• Developer tools

10. VIVO
An open-source semantic web application that
enables the discovery of research and scholarship
across disciplines in an institution.
VIVO harvests data from verified sources and
offers detailed profiles of faculty and researchers.
Public, structured linked data about investigators
interests, activities and accomplishments, and
tools to use that data to advance science.
VIVO enjoys a robust open community space to
support implementation, adoption, &development
efforts around the world.
See http://wiki.duraspace.org/display/VIVO

11. Data is available for reuse by web pages, applications, and other consumers
both within and outside the institution.
Data stored as RDF triples
using standard ontology
Internal data sources (I):
• HR Directory
• Office of Sponsored Research
• Institutional Repositories
• Registrar System
• Faculty Activity Systems
• Events and Seminars
• Courses
External data sources (I):
• Publication warehouses-
e.g. PubMed, Scopus, and
Web of Science.
• Funding databases:
e.g. NSF/ NIH
• National Organization data:
AAAS, AMA, etc.
• ORCID data exchange
Faculty and unit
administrators can add
additional information
to their profile. (M)
A bit more about data in the RN
systems…

12. A VIVO profile allows you to:
Showcase credentials, expertise, skills, and professional
achievements for individuals and campus groups.
Connect within focus areas and geographic expertise.
Simplify reporting tasks and link data to external
applications – e.g., to generate biosketches or CV or for
reporting purposes.
Publish the URL or link the profile to other applications.
Discover potential colleagues or campus resources by
work area, authorship, & collaborations.
Display visualizations of expertise areas or complex
collaboration networks and relationships.

13. http://vivo-vis.cns.iu.edu/vivo1/vis/map-of-science/CollegeofLiberalArtsandSciences

17. Customization

20. Structured Data using
a Standard Ontology

21. Why is VIVO data important?
• It is the only standard way to exchange information about
research and researchers across diverse institutions
• It provides authoritative data from institutional databases
of record as Linked Open Data
• Structured VIVO data supports search, analysis and
visualization across institutions and consortia
• The ontology is highly flexible and extensible to cover
research resources, facilities, datasets, and more

22. VIVO Normalizes Complex
Inputs
People
Grants
Data
Google
Scholar
Center/
Dept/
Program
websites
Research
Facilities
&
Services
Courses
Tech
transfer
Publications
VP
Research
Univ.
Communi
cations
HPC
HR data
Faculty
Reporting
Grad
School
Pubmed
Cross
Ref
Researche
r.gov
arXiv
other
databases
NIH
RePorter
Self-
editing
Other
campuses

23. Compatible with VIVO-ISF
• Harvard Profiles – Biomedical focus, with over 40
installations
• VIVO – University focus, all disciplines, at least 70
installations in progress
• Loki – Univ. of Iowa, home of CTSAsearch
• SciVal Experts with VIVO extension module, Elsevier is a
VIVO Corporate Founding Sponsor

24. VIVO search scenarios
• Multiple campuses of one university
• Regional connections
• e.g., Illinois ties with regional federal labs
• Consortia – 60 CTSAs, USDA plus land grant universities
• International
• 13 Netherlands universities and the National Library
• German Universities
• AgriVIVO – UN FAO

25. http://vivosearchlight.org/
@mileswortho
http://vivosearch.org/

27. Community

28. VIVO Community
https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/VIVO
• DuraSpace wiki
• Calls and listservs
• Ontology
• Development
• Implementation
• Outreach
• Tools and Apps
• Social Media
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Events
• Annual conference
• Implementation Fest
• Workshops
• Hackathons

29. The VIVO Community is now over 100
institutions worldwide

30. Getting Involved with VIVO
• VIVO implementation Fest March 19-20
• VIVO Hackathon March 18
• Regular working group calls
• Listservs
• Meetups at other events like CNI, Force 11
• Advocacy for open standards and persistent identifiers
• Related DuraSpace and Hydra initiatives
• Annual VIVO conference

31. VIVO working groups
Working Group Lead Co-Lead
Apps & Tools Chris Barnes, University
of Florida
Ted Lawless, Brown
University
Implementation Alex Viggio, Digital
Science
Paul Albert, Weill Cornell
Medical College
Engagement Kristi Holmes,
Washington University in
St. Louis
Julia Trimmer, Duke
University
Ontology Melissa Haendel, Oregon
Health & Science
University
Brian Lowe, Cornell
Development Jon Corson-Rikert,
Cornell
Jim Blake, Cornell
New: Catalog of tools & maintainers at https://wiki.duraspace.org/x/xusQAg
Getting Involved with VIVO

32. 5th Annual VIVO Conference
August 6-8, 2014
Austin, TX
www.vivoconference.org

33. Acknowledgements
VIVO/DuraSpace:
http://duraspace.org/vivo-join-duraspace-
organization-incubator-initiative
Questions/Follow-up:
• Twitter: @kristiholmes
Colleagues at Cornell, Florida, WCMC for
images and information
Thank you!
For More Information:
http://vivoweb.org
@VIVOcollab