[Nhcoll-l] Tool for annual reporting

[Joe Russack]

Hi Nora,

  We had the same challenge with publications, so we built a tool for tracking them. It pulls data from OpenAlex using a ROR ID and generates CSV reports. it works reasonably well. You can find it here <https://github.com/calacademy-research/publications_finder>. OpenAlex is free with good coverage, and automated ingestion minimizes manual data entry. The main challenge is author disambiguation; institutional affiliations are sometimes missing in the source data, so we supplement with explicit ORCID searches. OpenAlex isn’t perfect - we see overmerges with authors who have similar names, and other data quality problems, but the tool handles about 90% of the rote work in assembling our pub lists. 

-Joe



> On Mar 23, 2026, at 2:51 AM, Battermann, Nora <battermann at snsb.de> wrote:
> 
> Dear colleagues,
>  
> we are currently in the process of reorganizing our annual reporting procedures and would greatly appreciate learning how this is handled in your institutions.
>  
> Our goal is to establish a system for in- and output that allows for a structured and efficient collection and reporting of data.
>  
> In particular, the system should be able to cover the following aspects:
> • Numerical data from collections (e.g. progress in digitization, collection growth, type specimens, loans)
> • Written reports from departments (e.g. research and collection development of sections, museum activities)
> • Figures related to third-party funding, fellowships, grants, etc.
> • Publications produced by departments within the reporting year
>  
> We would be very interested to hear how you approach this in your institutions:
> • Which tools or systems do your institutions use?
> • How is the workflow organized?
> • What has proven particularly effective (or challenging)?
>  
> Any insights, examples, or recommendations would be highly appreciated.
> Thank you very much in advance and best regards,
> Nora
> 
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Joe Russack
Director of Scientific Computing
California Academy of Sciences
T 415.238.2529
jrussack at calacademy.org

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