Design and Implementation of University Research Repository and Innovation Visibility System
Abstract
The University Research Repository and Innovation Visibility System is a web-based platform developed to improve the organization and public discoverability of university research publications and patent records. The project was motivated by the need to bring research information that may otherwise exist across different personal, departmental, scholarly and intellectual property records into a structured platform. The system has two principal areas: a public discovery platform and a private researcher workspace. The public platform allows users to search and browse published publications, patents and researcher profiles without authentication. The private workspace allows authenticated university staff to manage their profiles and create, edit, publish and archive their publication and patent records. The system implements role-based access control with six roles: user, lecturer, department administrator, faculty administrator, IPTTO officer and super administrator. Authentication is custom-built using Argon2id password hashing, server-side sessions with hashed tokens and secure HTTP-only cookies. A major feature is automated publication import from OpenAlex. Researchers can search for and confirm their OpenAlex author identity, retrieve associated works, review the fetched candidates and promote selected works into draft publication records. Imported works are checked against existing records using DOI matching and, where a DOI is unavailable, normalized title and year matching. A staging model prevents external records from becoming publicly visible without researcher review and explicit publication. The system was implemented using React 19, TanStack Router, TanStack Start, TanStack Query, Vite 8, Tailwind CSS v4, Nitro, PostgreSQL and Drizzle ORM, and was deployed to production on Vercel. The completed system provides a focused foundation for university research visibility and researcher-managed research records.
Problem statement
University research outputs are difficult to discover due to fragmented storage across personal, departmental, and scholarly records. Furthermore, researchers face repetitive data entry, lack of integration between publications and patents, and issues with uncontrolled public visibility of records.
Objectives
- Develop a public web platform for searching and browsing university research publications, patents, and researcher profiles.
- Develop a secure authentication system for university staff.
- Provide a private workspace for researchers to create, edit, publish, and archive records.
- Implement role-based access control.
- Develop a structured relational database for research entities.
- Integrate OpenAlex to automate publication data entry.
- Implement duplicate detection for publications.
- Implement controlled publication workflows.
- Deploy the application to a production environment using Vercel.
Methodology
The project adopted an iterative and incremental development approach. The process involved requirements analysis, relational database schema design, implementation of core modules (authentication, profile management, publication and patent record handling, public discovery, and organizational administration), and integration of the OpenAlex API for publication retrieval with manual review staging.
Results
The project resulted in a functional web platform that combines public research discovery with a private researcher workspace. The system features role-based access control, OpenAlex integration for automated publication retrieval, a staging model for quality control of imported data, and secure authentication.
Conclusion
The system provides a functional foundation for research visibility and researcher-managed research records at Obafemi Awolowo University. It successfully addresses core challenges of information fragmentation and repetitive data entry while maintaining researcher control over public records.