In Research Portal Denmark’s diverse range of services and databases, various methods are used to collect and harvest data. In specific services such as the Local Database and Danish Open Access Indicator, a national exchange format called DDF-MXD is utilized for the harvesting and exchange of metadata related to publications. This format is maintained by the NORA initiative.
DDF-MXD (Danish Research Database Metadata Exchange Format) is a nationally developed format used for exchanging metadata related to publications. In Research Portal Denmark, DDF-MXD is used to retrieve and harvest information about publication data registered in the local systems and portals of Danish research institutions (Danish Data Providers) in a systematic manner.
The format has been developed over a number of years and has a fairly high degree of detail in comparison with other similar exchange formats – especially in relation to obtaining and displaying metadata about e.g. different Open Access versions of a publication record.
The format enables the direct harvesting of data from different systems, allowing for the seamless conversion of data directly into the portal. This eliminates the need to harvest diverse data and subsequently process it within the portal before it can be displayed.
A national format can be shaped by the input of Danish users allowing it to be expanded or modified independently of the commercial data providers and the various systems utilized by different Danish institutions. Additional metadata fields can be seamlessly incorporated into the format as required, enabling users of the portal to actively contribute to the development of information displayed in the Local Database.
Yes. As it is a national format, the DDF-MXD-format can be continuously changed and expanded with new relevant fields to keep up to date. Proposals for modifications and extensions of the format are managed and processed by NORA and approved by The Working Group for Data from Danish Research Institutions. If you haveproposals for changes and/or extensions can be submit them to nora.info@dtu.dk.
Currently, Research Portal Denmark harvests data from several Danish institutions using Elsevier’s research information management system, Pure. It’s worth noting that the DDF-MXD format is only supported if you are on Pure’s Danish data model and not the international data model.
The current mapping between Pure’s Danish data model and its metadata fields and the fields in the DDF-MXD format can be found in Pure’s ‘Help Center’. On the same website, institutions can also find a list of upcoming changes and expansions to the mapping, which are planned for future releases of the Pure system.
The Portal also supports data harvesting from Clarivate’s system, Esploro, which in Denmark is used by e.g. the Danish Defence Research Portal. Other CRIS/RIMS systems may potentially also be harvested in the future, but this requires establishing a mapping from the respective system to the DDF-MXD format.
The DDF-MXD format is well documented and is continuously updated as changes or extensions are added. The latest version of DDF-MXD is Version 1.4.4 (updated on March 4, 2024). See the full and detailed technical documentation of the DDF-MXD in PDF and find the DDF-MXD Schema itself here.
Previous versions of the documentation, as well as examples of the format etc. can be found in the Index of DDF-MXD itself.