Category Archives: COinS

COinS, question and answer

EndNote, Bibliographies, OpenURLs and COinS

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Another challenging question from a fellow librarian in the Max Planck Society:

How can I add OpenURL links to a reference list created with EndNote?

That is a tough one! Fact is that EndNote itself is OpenURL enabled, meaning the software can be configured to use a specific link resolver for full text linking and more (see the instructions provided by the IVS-BM for details). But it looks like this feature is not available while generating a bibliography with EndNote. Or at least, I haven’t discovered a trick to export references plus OpenURLs with any built-in means.

However, it is possible to customize existing Output Styles, e.g. by adding a COinS to each entry of a reference list created with this style. I tried it, but found the result sub-optimal (see examples below). The major problem is that EndNote’s Output Style Manager does not support URL-encoding of values and that would be required to generate valid COinS. The OpenURL Referrer extension seems to be gentle enough to accept them nevertheless, but Zotero rejects the import. What a bummer!

 

Example Bibliography (with COinS*)

Adam, G., Anke, H., Boland, W., & al., e. (2000). Roempp encyclopedia natural products. Stuttgart: Thieme.  

Adam, G., Schmidt, J., & Schneider, B. (1999). Brassinosteroids. Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products, 78, 1-46.  

Adam, G., & Schneider, B. (1999). Uptake, transport and metabolism. In A. Sakurai, T. Yokota & S. D. Clouse (Eds.), Brassinosteroids: Steroidal Plant Hormones (pp. 113-136). Tokyo: Springer.  

* You don’t see a COinS? Check the corresponding web page for additional information.

COinS, question and answer, sfx link resolver

Bringing MPG/SFX buttons to your reference list?

Two questions from my mail inbox today:

Can I add MPG/SFX buttons to my individual reference list? And if yes: Does this make any sense?

The answer to the first question is straight forward: Yes, you can link every reference to the corresponding MPG/SFX service menu. This requires you to create OpenURL links including all relevant bibliographic information and to add these links to the HTML code of your reference list. Our OpenURL generator (in German) may help you with this task.

But there is no definitive answer to the second question. Obviously, a link to the MPG/SFX resolver is especially helpful to staff of the Max Planck Society because the menu will offer relevant services for this specific target group. But users outside the MPG IP ranges are not assisted in such a comfortable way. The only help provided is a link to OCLC’s OpenURL Resolver Registry which can be used to redirect the request to a local resolver.

If you want to share your reference list with the public, you may consider adding COinS alternatively. COinS (“ContextObjects in Spans”) provide a measure to embed bibliographic information into the HTML code of a web page. Afterwards, the information can been used by your browser to display links to an OpenURL link resolver (such as MPG/SFX) or to download the record into a reference manager.

Further reading:

COinS, sfx link resolver

Are MPG/SFX buttons where the party is?

The vLib team works hard in the background to add MPG/SFX buttons to all the locations where they may be helpful for users from the Max Planck Society (MPG). This includes

  • results list of reference databases licensed within the MPG (e.g. the Web of Science) and MPG library catalogs (e.g. on the Aleph server),
  • eDoc – the institutional repository of the MPG,
  • reference lists published as part of journal articles (e.g. at Cambridge University Press or IEEE Xplore) as well as
  • free available resource like Wikipedia by using a small browser plugIn which interprets CoinS

An overview on MPG/SFX enabled resources is available in the vLib documentation, but we need your help for investigating further locations. Please inform us about those interfaces where you actually missing this option!