OpenAIRE Graph as an Open Research Information Backbone for CRIS Interoperability and Responsible Evaluation
Author(s)
OpenAIRE Non-Profit Civil Partnership
Xenou, Zenia
OpenAIRE Non-Profit Civil Partnership
Amodeo, Stefania
OpenAIRE Non-Profit Civil Partnership
OpenAIRE Non-Profit Civil Partnership
Malaguarnera, Giulia
OpenAIRE Non-Profit Civil Partnership
Issue Date
May 22, 2026
Publisher
euroCRIS
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Current Research Information Systems (CRIS) occupy a central position in institutional research information management and are increasingly implicated in national reporting, funder workflows, and research evaluation. Despite long-standing investments in standardisation, (e.g. through CERIF, DataCite, Dublin Core), research information remains fragmented across heterogeneous systems, inconsistently structured, and frequently mediated through proprietary analytics layers. This fragmentation becomes particularly consequential as organisations seek to implement responsible evaluation approaches that require research information to be transparent, auditable, and reusable across different stakeholders and contexts. These requirements align directly with emerging international frameworks for open research information and responsible assessment.
The Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information empasises that research information used for decision-making, including evaluation, should be open, transparent, and auditable by those being assessed, thereby reducing systemic dependence on closed infrastructures and opaque methodologies. In parallel, the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) has consolidated a broad reform agenda in which evaluation systems are expected to be context-sensitive and supported by trustworthy evidence infrastructures rather than black-box metrics. Within this agenda, the CoARA Working Group “Towards Open Infrastructures for Responsible Research Assessment” (OI4RRA) has articulated principles, characteristics, and practical instruments intended to help the community specify what it means, technically and institutionally, for infrastructures to be fit for Responsible Research Assessment (RRA), with emphasis on governance, transparency, operational robustness, as well as ethical and inclusive foundations.
Description
26 slides.-- Presentation delivered at the CRIS2026 session "Connecting CRIS Ecosystems: Interoperability, Knowledge Graphs, and Open Research Infrastructure".-- Includes extended abstract
In response to these challenges, this paper presents an open integration framework embedded within the OpenAIRE aggregation ecosystem that integrates institutional CRIS systems to the OpenAIRE Graph. The CRIS integration is incorporated into the broader OpenAIRE data ingestion and harmonisation workflow, alongside repositories, journals, aggregators and other scholarly data sources. The contribution is twofold: (i) it describes the technical architecture and the workflow mechanisms that enable institutional CRIS metadata to be harvested, validated, enriched, and integrated into a scholarly knowledge graph, making research information accessible through open APIs for monitoring, evaluation, and responsible assessment (ii) it concludes with an applied demonstration via MyResearchFolio, a researcher-centric profile service built on the OpenAIRE Graph to support Open Science–aware RRA practices, beyond bibliometric indicators.
URI
https://dspacecris.eurocris.org/handle/11366/9797
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Name
CRIS2026_paper-32_Tzouganatou-Principe-Manola_OpenAIRE-Graph_extended-abstract.pdf
Description
Extended abstract
Size
350.84 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Name
CRIS2026_Principe-et-al_slides_OpenAIRE-graph.pdf
Description
Presentation
Size
4.38 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Conference(s)