IR Plus is a new, open source platform for institutional repositories. Based on several years of user research, IR Plus was written to support faculty and grad students in the creation phases of their research, rather than just being a receptacle for finished work. For social scientists, the format-agnostic personal workspace supports storing and sharing large datasets, allowing them to collaborate with colleagues all over the world. When the work is ready for "publication" into the repository,

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... a controlled but flexible approach to metadata allows easy addition of new types while keeping the overall metadata clean. Bringing the repository closer to social networking systems, users of the system can showcase and provide access to their work through Researcher Pages, which are easy to create and maintain. Users can now also feature "personal publications" on their Researcher Pages: material from the workspace that has not been added to any of the collections in the repository. While IR Plus was not created just for data users, we feel IASSIST members will find a number of its features interesting and useful, and it provides a study of a formal, institutional system edging into the world of social networking and collaboration.