GEO NETWORK Publications

Management System

INTRODUCTION & OBJECTIVES

Introduction:
GEO NETWORK Publications Management System is a centralized
web-based database application developed for online access, reviewing
and storing of publications produced by ICRISAT Scientific Community
spread across different centers in Africa and Asia connected over internet.
Case Study:
ICRISAT is a research organization having different themes/divisions
working on different projects. The research work done, is documented: the
observations and results are archived/published in organization for future
references and research in the particular subject. Sometimes depending
on significance of the publication or the subject it is to be published in
Journals outside organization for public use. A theme leader is principle
scientist who heads each division.

The theme leader is responsible for

managing publications produced by the scientist(s) of that division. After

publication/document received by theme leader, it is sent to the reviewers
for review or if reviewed is sent to the publisher and a copy sent to library
for archival and reference purposes of the users.
Problems in existing system:

A Publication can have one or more author(s) belonging to same

division or from different divisions; in the later case there will
duplication by each division

Scientists belonging to a division/theme are located across different

centers in different countries, it is difficult for staff and scientific
community outside the organization to have access to the physical
document archived in library at one center

Each Scientist (author) has his own style of adding his signature to
publication, due which a problem may arise in differentiating
scientists having the same name
Developing a web-based application and publishing it over the

Internet can address all the above issues.

Objectives:
To centralize publications database through out the organization
situated in various locations around the world, avoiding duplication
To facilitate one-point and easy online access to publications and
related author information with user friendly web interface
To generate reports either periodically or for suitable requirements
To provide platform independent application to end users working on
different platforms

SYSTEM ANALYSIS
IDENTIFICATION OF NEED
Before developing this system, the various activities are performed
and reports are prepared manually.

The main disadvantages of the

Manual System are:

Laborious work which requires more man power
More prone to human errors
Duplication of work at the Divisional level
Lack of uniformity/conformity in data
Differences in opinions in Rules and Regulations.
Less flexibility and more time consumption
Unnecessary in paper work which reduces the value addition
Lack of accuracy
Decentralized data which increases the time for retrieval
Less transparency as the information is maintained individually
At present, all the application packages in any company maintain
individual registers for their local references. There is mismatch between
the data. Codification present in all the existing packages. This leads to a
state of confusion with the different packages acting like isolated islands.
The integration of these packages can be made possible only through the
design of a centralized database.
Through Computerization, sophisticated technology can be used for
making the information more flexible, accurate, and secure and user
friendly.

Time and manpower can be more effectively utilized.

Online

information can be made easily available at random to any user at the

same time maintaining high level of security.
Every thing is done manually in current system.

A few of the

components are being processed automatically using computers but as

such no specialized application exist to take care of the complete process
Need for Computerization:

Since as we know that the human are prone to errors, the

transactions produced by them may give erroneous results, which results
in wastage of time in trying to locate the error.
The generation of reports is a very lengthy procedure where data has
to be collected from a number of fields. With the advent of computers, all
these operations are made easy.
The operations, such as data entry, processing of data and
generation of reports are done in very less time.

Since all these work are

done faster, a lot of work ca be done every day with out pilling up of work
for the next day as can be seen in the most of the organizations where the
processing is done manually.
Scrutination and maintaining large volumes of records manually is a
time consuming process and there is always a chance of committing
mistakes.
Required information is not reached when needed by the manger for
decision-making.
In manual process, there is not security and unauthorized persons
can utilize data.

PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION

The application allows three types of users depending upon the access
rights.

Administrator

Theme Leader

Normal User

An Administrator has right to perform all the functions of application, thus

he is the first person to log into the system and allots logins to Theme
leaders does the authorization of users
The following table depicts the functional rights of users:

User Type
Normal Users

Theme Leader

Functions/Rights
Search the database for publication or author
information
(All Above functions)
Update information of publications and
related authors of their own departments
Send a publication for review or to the
publisher
Generate Reports concerned to their
departments
(All Above functions)
Add/delete Theme Leaders
Update any information

Administrator

Maintain documents
Generate any reports
Generate user statistics from Weblog

The IPMS can be divided into five modules, they are: Masters,
Authentication, Reviewing, Search and Report Generation modules.

Authentication Module
This

module

provides

interfaces

for

authenticating

users.

Administrators and theme leaders can logon with the username and
password provided to them in order to update access the database. Once
the user starts/enter the application an entry of users IP and timestamp is
logged into weblog table. Normal users need not logon to application, they
can have direct and only access to search module.
Search Module
This module provides interfaces for searching the following:
Publication information
Author information
Journal information
All the above are directly accessible to all users. The information can be
searched on different attributes of the entities.
Masters Module
This provides interfaces to add / modify / delete the details of
publications, authors, journal and user to their respective tables.
theme leaders and administrator have access to these forms.

Only
Before

adding a publication theme leader can check whether the publication

exists in database, if not it is added to database. It also have provision to
upload full-text document to web server. Theme leaders can modify the
existing information of publications and related authors pertaining to their
division only.
Reviewing Module
Once the document/publication is added to database, it can be sent
to the reviewer(s) for review. Only theme leaders and administrators have
access to this functionality.

It provides an interface to add reviewer

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information, reviewer comments and the status (reviewed/In process) of

publication.
Report Generation Module
This

module

provides

interfaces

reports/formats:
Publications Summary by division
Publications Summary by Author
Review Request
Citation Format
Periodical Publications

for

generating

following

SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE SPECIFICATIONS

HARDWARE SPECIFICATION:
This system is developed on the following hardware configuration.

Pentium III processor

128 MB Ram

Hard disk 40 GB

Microsoft Compatible 101 or more Key Board

Scroll Mouse

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATION:
This system is developed using the following software.

Operating System:

Windows 2000 server

With Internet Information Server

Technology:

Data Access Component ADO.NET

Back End:

ASP.NET

MS SQL Server 2000.

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Login Page

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Home Page

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Welcome to user

13

Author Page

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