You can’t standardise what you don’t capture: The openCost internal format and a MyCoRe implementation demo

Neumann, Kathleen; Stein, Lisa-Marie

Conference Presentation

PUBDB-2026-01330

You can’t standardise what you don’t capture: The openCost internal format and a MyCoRe implementation demo

Neumann, K. ; Stein, L.-M.DESY*

2026

openCost: Navigating Cost Transparency, Hamburg, Germany, 17 Mar 2026 - 19 Mar 2026 [10.3204/PUBDB-2026-01330]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.3204/PUBDB-2026-01330

Abstract: One key focus of the second phase of the openCost project is the development of a generic openCost “internal format”:A prerequisite for using and integrating the openCost exchange format is to record publication cost data systematically within the institution. The information must simply be available in order to be processed further. However, many institutions are not yet able to record the necessary cost data adequately. On the one hand, this is related to existing workflows and processes, which may need to be restructured, and on the other hand, there is a lack of suitable user interfaces for cost data recording in the respective systems.The internal format requires additional metadata fields due to the specific requirements of the institutional context. The difference between the exchange format and the internal format lies in particular in the fact that internal management requires richer and more granular contextual information that is not necessarily intended for external communication and data exchange.The internal format will help institutions to set up a comprehensive local cost monitoring, which is necessary for establishing an information budget.Initial results of the development of this internal metadata schema for cost recording will be presented and discussed. We will be hosting stakeholders from various institutions that either already manage their cost data in the same system environment, or intend to organise it there in the future (e.g. FOLIO, ALMA, DSpace, MyCoRe, etc.) and who could benefit from a common standard. Instead of developing individual solutions, the aim is to provide the conceptual basis for the necessary content in the form of the openCost internal format, while also offering space for system-level networking and putting the content into practice.Thus, the session begins with an explanation of the definition of the internal format: What is its function and how does it differ from the openCost exchange format? This is followed by an overview of the format’s development and content before its implementation is presented using the practical example of the MyCoRe framework. A demo system will be used to provide insights into initial implementations. The cost recording module can be tested collaboratively.As a modular system for institutional repositories and other library applications, MyCoRe will provide a publication cost building block. Based on the MODS data model, it can be implemented in or synchronised with the respective MyCoRe instance. The implementation embeds the internal openCost format in MODS, provides web forms and output options, and delivers various transformations, e.g. into the openCost exchange format or an extended Datacite XML. A format and set configuration for the OAI PMH 2.0 interface are also part of the MyCoRe openCost module.Alongside the presentation of the latest results by MyCoRe and openCost, this conference session is deliberately designed as an interactive, workshop-oriented format. The plenary is invited to share their perspectives, needs and usage scenarios to help further develop the openCost internal format and validate the current draft.Biographies:Lisa-Marie Stein (M.A.) studied linguistics, media studies, and German at Christian Albrecht University in Kiel. She has been working in the field of scientific publishing since 2020 and is currently employed as a research assistant in the “openCost” project at the DESY research center in Hamburg.Kathleen Neumann is a computer scientist (Dipl. Inf.) and has been working in the Digital Library department at the GBV (VZG) headquarters since 2011. There, she played a key role in setting up the MyCoRe-based repository service VZG-Reposis. Today, she is deputy head of department and primarily coordinates projects and technical developments in the field of digital library and publication infrastructures.Her work focuses on online publication, the implementation of FAIR data principles, and the further development of the open-source framework MyCoRe, whose community she has been an active member of since 2003.

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