![\"Icon:](\"/assets/images/icon.svg\"){kind=icon}
icon shows the various colors of Open Access with an I, for\nidentifier. The user would then login on the ISAAC database, open their project\ngrant page, and navigate to the Product tab:In 2022 I had my first experience with the ISAAC database\nby the Dutch NWO research funding organization. ISAAC is\nwhere you apply for funding and where grants get tracked. As such, research output\nis recorded in this database.
\n\nThe list of supported research output types in ISAAC is a bit dated, but includes\nscientific articles, books and monographs, book chapters, PhD theses, conference\nproceedings papers, professional publications, publications aimed at a broad audience,\npatents, contracts, and other. With Recognition & Rewards\nin mind, this list should\nbe more diverse. And clearly missing are software and data, because these are\nalready supported by global unique identifiers and dedicated efforts for\nsoftware citations and data citations. FAIR has progressed a lot for these two\ntypes.
\n\nWhen entering new research output to a project in ISAAC, you get asked to fill\nout various HTML forms. For articles, each author is a separate HTML form. All\nin all, quite a bit of work. But with unique identifiers and open APIs, it is a\nwaste of research funding to have to enter this all by hand. Some time earlier\nI heard of browser plugins in the USA that automagically filled out those forms,\nand realized I wanted that too.
\n\nFortunately, Lars Willighagen had done much of the work already with\ncitation.js (doi:10.7717/peerj-cs.214),\na JavaScript library that can convert formats like BibTeX into formatted references\n(with Citation Style Language and\nciteproc-js), but also can support various\nidentifiers to fetch bibliographic metadata. All we needed is to integrate that.\nAnd so the ISAAC Chrome extension\nwas born. But the history, technology, and use has not been written up, while we\nhave a solid base of some 50 users who regularly use it. And one user wrote:
\n\n\n\n\nWerkt geweldig. [..] dit de enige manier waarop publicaties redelijk ingevoerd kunnen worden.
\n
Actually, maybe we should rename the extension to ISAAC Browser Extenaion,\nbecause it also works in Brave and Edge.
\n\nThe last update had been a while, and we got reports of some changes on the ISAAC\ndatabase side, and we could confirm at least one of the HTML form identifiers had\nchanged, so we fixed filling out the Open Access status of output. This is released\nas version 1.5.0\n(doi:10.5281/zenodo.14562484).
\n\nAnother change is that the ISAAC database now supports listing the ORCID\nidentifier of authors, and this metadata is increasingly available from research\noutput metadata, and a single line change was enough for Lars to update the extension\nto automatically fill that out too. This is FAIR in action. This version is released\nas version 1.6.0\n(doi:10.5281/zenodo.14562504) and should\nbe available from the webstore soon.
\n\nWhile the ISAAC database does not have an API, at least we found sufficient hooks\nin the HTML to get a reproducible workflow. The foundation of the browser extension\nis global unique identifiers, and it supports DOIs, ISBNs, and PubMed identifiers\nfor research output. For authors, it supports the ORCID. To fetch the metadata,\nit uses online resources Crossref, DataCite, and mEDRA, Google Books and OpenLibrary,\nPubMed and Unpaywall. The first three to fetch metadata for DOIs, the next two for\nISBN numbers, and PubMed for, well, PubMed identifiers. Based on the retrieved\nmetadata it determines which type of research output it should fill out the HTML\nfor.
\n\nUnpaywall is used to see if the output is, for example,\npublished in a purely open access venue (like a CC-BY-only journal like eLife\nor Nature’s Scientific Data), or published in a\nhybrid journal. The ISAAC database does not have the option to drop a URL (which\ncould be automated with Unpaywall too), but does allow uploading documents into\ntheir database. This last is left to the user.
\n\nUsers would install the browser extension and this would add an add-on icon to\nthe toolbar. The icon shows the various colors of Open Access with an I, for\nidentifier. The user would then login on the ISAAC database, open their project\ngrant page, and navigate to the Product tab:
![\"\"](\"/assets/images/isaac2025_1.png\")
To use the extension, the user would take the following steps.\nFirst, click the “Toevoegen” button, green-blue with white letters in the above\nscreenshot. This would give a page like this:
\n\n![\"\"](\"/assets/images/isaac2025_2.png\")
Second, and optionally, click one of the types. The metadata retrieved by the extension\ncontains sufficient information to make the right guess, so that this step is optional.\nIf you find that the metadata is wrong and the wrong guess was made, in this step\nyou can first manually indicate the research output type.
\n\nThird, one the page with the above screenshot (or, optionally, after indicating\nthe output type), click the ISAAC Chrome Extension icon in the browser toolbar\nto give a popup dialog:
\n\n![\"\"](\"/assets/images/isaac2025_3.png\")
Fourth, select the identifier type (DOI, ISBN, or PubMed) and give the identifier\nitself, and then click Search. For example, for a DOI, it would look like this:
\n\n![\"\"](\"/assets/images/isaac2025_4.png\")
Fifth, the plugin will then guide you through the ISAAC HTML forms, just like you\nwould do manually, but with the important difference that some forms show in different\norder. But rest assured, it will not submit anything before your final approval.\nFor example, for a journal article I would immediate fo to the HTML form for the\nfirst author, which, for a random article, could look like this:
\n\n![\"\"](\"/assets/images/isaac2025_5.png\")
By clicking “Verder”, the browser extension allows you to add missing metadata\n(for example, the ORCID is not listed for this author in the CrossRef metadata\nand the gender is not shared by the publisher), and sometimes you may find yourself\nneeding to correct metadata.
\n\nSixth, after going through all author pages, you will return to the main product\nform, which will look something like this (for a random paper):
\n\n![\"\"](\"/assets/images/isaac2025_6.png\")
Here you can add the final missing information and upload additional files, like\na PDF of the article. In the above screenshot we find some required (red asterix)\nmissing. In this case, the DOI referred to an article published as “as soon as\npublishable” and the page numbers and issue is simply not known yet. You can also\nsee the Unpaywall metadat in action here.
\n\nSeven, like before, the final submission of this new output is done manually.\nThe ISAAC Chrome Extension requires that manual step; on purpose: you are in control.
\n\n