As we move closer to the official launch of our new consolidated Sherpa Services site our development team are busy adding to and improving features of the site in response to feedback we have received.

A new release has been made to the site today, and we are pleased to share the following updates:

• We have updated our OA Book policy records in a number of ways to make them more user friendly and to help present the policy data as clearly as possible, including:
  • Adding & clarifying licence information to help authors make informed decisions
  • Changing some of our labels to more accurately reflect the data
  • Addition of DOAB links to the Publisher Details section
• We have made changes to our search results pages, working closely with our UX designers to make sure the new site is as user friendly and accessible as possible, including:
  • A re-style of the search results to improve the appearance and usability
  • Automatically bringing the record type with the most results to the front (i.e. journals, publishers or funders), to help reduce the number of clicks users need to make, and changes to improve page navigation.
  • Adding more appropriate messaging to help users if no results are found, to reduce the likelihood of reaching a 'dead-end'
• As well as incremental updates to improve overall functionality and security of our system.

As always, please do continue to try out the features of our new site and let us know what you think - your feedback is an invaluable part of the process in creating our new site so we are hugely grateful for all feedback we receive!

Firstly, thank you to all Sherpa users who have been trying our new site and have provided us with feedback - all your comments are incredibly valuable and help us to improve the service we provide.

We've been busy over the last few months reviewing your comments and refining the design and functionality to help make the new Sherpa clearer. We're pleased to finally be able to release some of these changes to you:

• We've improved record pages across the site, making it easier to reach metadata and policy information.
• We've added a new 'Back to Search' link to our records to let you go straight back to your previous search.
• We've added links to our main menu to help you find key information and tools.
• We've improved messaging and notifications to help make the service clearer.
• We've removed repositories from our search on this new version in preparation for a forthcoming standalone OpenDOAR service. In the meantime, repository data can still be found on the existing Sherpa Services website: https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/opendoar/

We hope that these changes will further improve the new Sherpa Services website and we look forward to hearing your feedback. We are continuing to revise and refine as we move towards the full launch in autumn so please keep sending us your comments.

Thanks again for your continued support and feedback!