Dear DSpace Community,
We know that not every institution is ready to migrate to DSpace-CRIS 9 or DSpace 10 — and that’s perfectly fine. We believe you shouldn’t have to wait for a major upgrade to benefit from the latest innovations in the DSpace ecosystem.
That’s why we’re excited to announce DSpace-CRIS 8 release 2024.02.05: a feature-rich update that backports key capabilities originally developed for DSpace-CRIS 9 and DSpace 10 directly into the DSpace 8 line, along with full alignment with the DSpace 8.5 security fixes.
Whether you’re a researcher depositing your work or an administrator keeping the repository running, this release brings you cutting-edge features — without requiring a major version migration.
Headline Features Backported from DSpace-CRIS 9 / DSpace 10
Matomo Integration: COUNTER-Compliant Statistics & OpenAIRE Usage Counts
This is a game-changer for repositories that want to participate in the OpenAIRE Usage Counts service (OpenAIRE – Research Graph
What does this mean for you?
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Your repository can now track views and downloads using Matomo, the open-source analytics platform recommended by OpenAIRE for COUNTER-compliant usage statistics.
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Once enabled, your usage data can be collected, standardized, and aggregated by the OpenAIRE UsageCounts service, making your repository’s impact visible across the entire European Open Science infrastructure.
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This gives your repository COUNTER compliance — the international standard for measuring the use of electronic resources — which is increasingly required by funders, institutions, and national Open Science policies.
💡 Why it matters: Participating in OpenAIRE Usage Counts means your repository’s statistics are comparable, trustworthy, and visible alongside thousands of other repositories across Europe and beyond. It’s a key step toward demonstrating the real-world impact of your institution’s research output.
OpenAlex Integration
OpenAlex is the open-access bibliographic database covering over 240 million scholarly works, is now integrated into DSpace-CRIS 8.
What does this mean for you?
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Researchers can now import publications and enrich metadata directly from OpenAlex during submission, benefiting from one of the most comprehensive open scholarly databases available.
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Administrators gain access to a powerful, free alternative to commercial bibliographic sources for metadata enrichment and authority lookups.
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OpenAlex labels are now correctly displayed throughout the interface.
💡 Why it matters: OpenAlex is rapidly becoming the reference open infrastructure for scholarly metadata adopted by institutions like Leiden University and Sorbonne University. Having it available in DSpace-CRIS 8 means you don’t need to wait for a major upgrade to leverage this essential Open Science resource.
Jisc Open Policy Finder
The Jisc Open Policy Finder (formerly SHERPA/RoMEO) integration has been backported to DSpace-CRIS 8, complete with the OPF logo in search results and improved performance.
What does this mean for you?
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Researchers see open access and self-archiving policies for journals directly during the submission process — no need to leave the repository to check.
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Administrators benefit from a modern, maintained API replacing the now-retired SHERPA/RoMEO service.
📝 Better Submission & Collaboration Experience
Shared Workspace
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All members of a submission group can now view and manage every item in their collection not just the ones they personally created.
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If you’re listed as an author or co-author, you’ll find a dedicated “Other Workspace Items” menu to track submissions you’re involved in.
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Why it matters: Collaborative submissions become seamless. No more chasing colleagues for access.
Smarter Submission Forms
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A customizable legend can now appear at the top of submission forms, providing clear guidance before you start.
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An info panel for Markdown syntax helps you format descriptions correctly.
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The “Add more” button now works correctly, showing only the relevant label instead of the full string.
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Validation errors on nested fields are now properly updated in real time.
Improved External Source Imports
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The Import from External Sources dropdown now only shows entity types that actually have configured providers no more confusing empty options.
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Keywords imported from external sources are now properly separated (previously, semicolon-delimited keywords were merged into one).
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PubMed imports have been fixed and improved: correct PMID mapping, fixed pagination errors, and better memory handling for large batch imports.
🔍 Searching & Browsing
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Special characters now work correctly in tag search and browse.
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Search results stay consistent page size no longer changes when navigating between pages.
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Search term highlighting now displays properly (bold, italic emphasis no longer broken).
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Lucky search redirect works as expected.
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Global search behavior has been corrected.
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A configurable default display view has been introduced across search pages, MyDSpace, and relation boxes.
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A skeleton loader now appears while browse elements load, giving a smoother visual experience.
📄 Viewing, Sharing & Citing
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Download and view badges are back on item pages and search results see your research impact at a glance.
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APA citation exports have been enhanced for multiple publication types (co-funded by HEP-VAUD).
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Social sharing now works correctly.
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PlumX altmetrics tooltips are fully visible again.
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CORE identifiers are now displayed with a dedicated icon.
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“In workflow since” label no longer incorrectly appears on published items.
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Item page tabs no longer reload when selecting an export format.
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Downloads can open in a new browser tab so you don’t lose your place.
🔐 Security & Login
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Critical security fix: A vulnerability where configuration properties could be exposed without authorization has been patched (donated by SaschaSzott ).
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Aligned with DSpace 8.5 security fixes all the latest patches from the DSpace community are included.
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ORCID login no longer returns errors after authentication.
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Shibboleth, ORCID, and OIDC authentication now support special groups (ported from DSpace community).
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Login flow properly handles exceptions and prevents resource leaks.
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reCAPTCHA protects feedback forms from spam (donated by University of St. Gallen 🎉).
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Logout issue with restricted items in multiple tabs has been fixed.
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Email addresses with uppercase letters are now accepted in user forms.
💬 Our Commitment: No One Left Behind
We understand that migrating to a new major version is a significant undertaking. With this release, we’re making a clear commitment: DSpace-CRIS 8 users continue to receive the most important innovations — including features originally built for DSpace 10 — so you can modernize your repository at your own pace.
The backporting of Matomo (for OpenAIRE COUNTER-compliant statistics), OpenAlex (for open scholarly metadata), and Open Policy Finder (for OA policy lookups) means your DSpace-CRIS 8 repository stays current with the Open Science landscape, even before you plan your next major upgrade.
🙏 Community Contributions
Thank you to our community contributors and co-funders:
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University of St. Gallen (HSG) — reCAPTCHA for feedback forms
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saschaszott — Security vulnerability fix
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kskaiser — Workflow reliability fix
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HEP-VAUD — APA citation improvements
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EuroCRIS — Equipment metadata enhancements
Your contributions make DSpace-CRIS better for everyone!
🔭 Looking Ahead: DSpace 10 Hardening & the Road to DSpace 11
Beyond supporting DSpace-CRIS 8 and 9, the 4Science team and our community partners have been hard at work on two additional fronts: hardening the recently released DSpace 10 and laying the architectural foundation for DSpace 11. Here’s what’s happening and why it matters for your future.
🚀 DSpace 11 The “Merger” Is Underway
Work on DSpace 11 is well underway, with a focus on integrating powerful features from DSpace-CRIS directly into the core DSpace community codebase. This is a historic milestone — bringing CRIS capabilities to every DSpace user.
For Researchers:
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Automatic metadata extraction from PDFs (GROBID) — Upload a PDF during submission and DSpace will automatically extract title, authors, references, and more. No more tedious manual entry.
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Richer relationships between items — A new Unified Relationship Model will allow flexible, powerful links between entities (e.g., Journal → Volume → Issue → Article hierarchies), making it easier to navigate and discover related research.
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Better statistics & metrics — An enhanced statistics framework with better integration with external metric tools and the ability to subscribe to items for usage updates.
For Administrators:
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Configurable layouts & homepage — Customize entity display pages and the repository homepage directly via configuration (even using Excel spreadsheets!) — no custom Angular coding required.
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Authority framework expansion — Missing authorities like ROR (for Organizations) and OpenAIRE (for Projects) are being ported, providing better data enrichment out-of-the-box.
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Log optimization — A “log cleanup” project is identifying and fixing the root causes of recurring warning messages, making it easier to monitor system health.
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Translation quality control — New linting rules for translation files prevent duplicate keys and enforce alphabetical ordering, ensuring higher quality for multi-language repositories.
💡 What’s Next?
As we head into October, the focus remains on the DSpace 11 Implementation Plan specifically moving toward unified read/write paths for relationships and finalizing the homepage configuration options. Stay tuned for more updates!
Upgrade today and enjoy the best of DSpace & DSpace-CRIS. And rest assured: whether you stay on DSpace-CRIS 8, move to DSpace-CRIS 9, or plan for DSpace 10/11 — the community is building a stronger, more unified platform for everyone.
Thank you to all the contributors and community members who provide feedback and testing!