Help with Infoscience

Infoscience is the institutional repository of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Since its launch in 2004, the platform has received one major update in early 2018.

Accessing publications

Infoscience is freely accessible to every interested reader and allows viewing and downloading the fulltext resources of all Open-Access publications stored in the database, provided the files are not under embargo. The metadata of all stored publications can be extracted in the interface or by using the API.

Disseminating publications

Authors affiliated with EPFL may deposit and disseminate their academic publications and teaching resources through the repository. As part of the EPFL Open Science strategy, Infoscience allows accessing the fulltext resources of many referenced publications. By disseminating their research articles through the repository, EPFL research scientists can easily comply with their funders’ requirements and with the Swiss national strategy on Open access. according to the latter, 100% of the EPFL’s academic publications originating from public funding be available in Open Access by 2024 at the latest.

Using Infoscience

The following sections provide general instructions about how to use the repository. More in-depth information and concrete examples can be obtained from our knowledge base; the sections below contain links to the relevant articles. To access the knowledge base, you are required to log in with your EPFL account.

Search interface

Infoscience’s main interface allows you to retrieve several kinds of publications in its database. There is no need to log in to perform a search. For a quick search, simply enter an author, a publication title or a topic into the main search field and browse the results.

For a better targeted search, however, we recommend using certain indexes and/or keywords which we describe in the knowledge base article about searching records. This is especially important when constructing publication lists (see below), whether for a “People” page or for the website of a lab or unit.

Results display

In the results display, you may sort and filter the search results and also export your retrieved list of records into various formats. The facets on the left provide several options to restrict your search results to e. g. a particular type of publication or a particular year. You may use several facets at the same time but cannot choose more than one field per facet.

Detailed record view

A click on the title of a record will show its detailed information, i. e. its bibliographic metadata such as all of its authors and corresponding EPFL units. The record’s bibliographic data may be downloaded in several formats, e. g. as BibTeX file (under “Formats”). The detailed view also offers download links to file attachments and displays a preview of attached pdf files and file download statistics (not shown in the screenshot).

 

Downloading files

General downloads

While Infoscience contains many Open Access publications, certain files are not publicly accessible:

  • In many cases, e. g. for pdf files of a Green Open Access publication, an embargo period must be respected before publicly releasing the file. The embargo’s expiry date is displayed in the “Files” section and the file will become automatically available.
  • In some cases, the access to a file is generally limited to EPFL members who need to log in with their credentials in order to start the download.
PhD theses

Non-EPFL visitors who wish to download an access-restricted PhD thesis from Infoscience may obtain a copy through the inter-library loan system by using the document request form on the EPFL library website.

In order to perform the actions described below, please log in with your Gaspar credentials first.

Creating records

A click on “Submit” in Infoscience’s main interface offers you a choice of document types for which you can create a record in Infoscience. Enter the metadata in the form, attach a file if you wish to and click on the green “Submit” button.

The video below explains how to create an Infoscience record by entering the bibliographic information by hand:

If your publication was assigned a DOI, you can import its bibliographic data into the submission form and thus accelerate the procedure, as explained by the following video:

Once the Infoscience team has checked your record (usually within 48 hours after submission), it will be publicly visible in the repository.

You’ll find further information in our corresponding knowledge base article. Our advice on Open Access may be useful as well.

Editing records

If you’d like to correct one of your Infoscience records, e. g. because you have discovered a small mistake, you may click on the editing link in its detail view. Your unit must be mentioned there as well, since this will determine if you are authorized to edit the record. Our knowledge base explains this function in a more detailed manner.

While deleting records is not possible as user, the Infoscience support team will readily lend you a hand in certain situations. Please contact us at [email protected].

Managing files

Infoscience allows you to add files to your records in order to disseminate them through the platform. You may also modify file attachments by updating the files themselves or their associated information (e. g., their licence, visibility etc.), or even delete them.

Learn more about this in our knowledge base.

Infoscience offers the possibility to automatically create your publication lists on your “People” page or your unit’s website. While both these lists are based on an Infoscience query (i. e., they extract data from Infoscience), the exact manner of adding them is quite distinct and rely on plugins of the EPFL’s wordpress system. We’ve outlined this process in detail in our knowledge base. This requires logging in with your Gaspar credentials.

While DOIs are attributed automatically and systematically to all EPFL theses, this is not the case for other EPFL publications. The following conditions must be fulfilled in order to receive a DOI for a given scientific work:

  • The publication must not have a DOI yet. If it is disseminated by its editor or the organiser of a conference, they must attribute the DOI themselves.
  • The work must have been conducted at EPFL and at least one of its authors affiliated with EPFL. In case of the proceedings of a conference organized at EPFL, at least one of the editors must be affiliated with EPFL.
  • The fulltext of the publication must imperatively be uploaded to Infoscience and disseminated in Open Access with a compatible licence. It is possible to attribute the DOI before uploading if it is supposed to be integrated into the document.

If you’d like to request a DOI for your publication and/or would like to learn more about the conditions mentioned above, please contact the Infoscience support ([email protected]).

Support

In case of questions about Infoscience or any of the procedures outlined above, feel free to contact the Infoscience support team at [email protected].

Training

Aside from answering concrete questions, the Infoscience support also conducts practical training sessions and gives a detailed, hands-on introduction to any of the topics listed above, for example:

  • General introduction to using the platform
  • Effective search queries: How (not) to find certain data
  • Creating and maintaining publication lists

Training sessions will be announced on EPFL Memento. If you’re interested in participating in such a session, even though none are scheduled, please contact us at [email protected] – feel free to propose a subject you’re particularly interested in.

Workshops

Whenever a new version of Infoscience is released, we offer workshops with the aim to help you to quickly familiarize yourself with the new functionalities.

The platform will continue to be improved in the coming months and our development efforts would considerably benefit from users’ experience. Therefore, feel free to send your comments and suggestions to [email protected].

Lab manager

When submitting a publication to Infoscience, all EPFL units whose members are listed as authors need to be specified in the entry form (see our knowledge base article about creating records for further details). This attribution is initially tentative and it is the responsibility of the lab manager of any of the concerned units to confirm or reject this attribution. In the latter case, the Infoscience support team will take care of the record. If the attribution is confirmed, the record will appear on that unit’s publication list before long.

New laboratory

Have you recently arrived at EPFL as a PI and created your own unit? Please contact us at [email protected] to add your new lab to Infoscience and benefit from training and services supporting your publishing process.

EPFL PhD theses

All theses written at EPFL are added to Infoscience by the EPFL Library as part of its official duty for the legal filing and distribution of EPFL theses. They are automatically assigned to the doctoral students’ laboratory and no further action is required on the part of the units.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the thesis management team at the Library at [email protected].

Latest Infoscience publications

Forestscapes and the Plantation.The Longue-durée of Swiss Coloniality Shaping Brazilian and Swiss Land

D. Bertschi 

INSERT. Artistic Practices as Cultural Inquiries. 2024-02-13. Vol. 5.

Changes in spatial self-consciousness elicit grid cell–like representation in the entorhinal cortex

H-J. Moon; L. Albert; E. De Falco; C. Tasu; B. Gauthier et al. 

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2024. Vol. 121, num. 12. DOI : 10.1073/pnas.2315758121.

Film: Concrete: Cosmetic and Care

S. Nichols; M. Moutal; A. Gajjar 

2023-10-13.

Company towns: un’introduzione. Il caso Dalmine come palinsesto delle politiche industriali

A. K. De Almeida Santos 

052991 – Laboratorio di Conservazione dell’Edilizia Storica (ICAR/19), Politecnico di Milano, Milan , 12 October 2023.

Big company, Small town. Spatial and Social Capital in a Persistent Company Town.

A. K. De Almeida Santos 

HRC International PhD Summer School. 2nd Post-extraction territories in transition. Unveiling palimpsests of exploitation: towards a new alliance between ecology and economy in marginal regions, Charleroi, Belgium, 2 to 5 September 2023.

Contact

The Infoscience support team will get back to you within two business days.

[email protected]


Browse Infoscience: https://infoscience.epfl.ch


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