Hi Elena, I can confirm that the Google Scholar team still recommends *against* using cover pages for any documents in your DSpace. My understanding is that it can hinder their crawlers ability to match documents to authors (and deduplicate the same documents), which has a side effect of *potentially *harming your coverage in Google Scholar.
That said, I do know that some sites still choose to take this risk regardless. I've heard that some find that the coverage is not significantly changed, but I cannot speak directly to that experience myself. Maybe others can chime in on what they've found. Tim On Wednesday, December 10, 2025 at 6:20:03 AM UTC-6 [email protected] wrote: > Dear all, > > I came across this thread of messages from 2022, and, for the same reasons > outlined by Pranav Vichare at the time, the University of Milan-Bicocca is > interested in implementing a cover page for our full-text PDFs. We are now > wondering what concrete impact, if any, this might have on Google indexing. > > It would be really helpful if you could share any relevant experiences. > Any insights would be much appreciated! > > Best Regards, > > Elena D'Alessandro > University of Milano-Bicocca > > Il giorno lunedì 21 novembre 2022 alle 21:39:51 UTC+1 Pranav Vichare ha > scritto: > >> Hi Marianne, >> >> Thank you for your response!We have a few different reasons for >> considering cover pages: >> >> 1. We know that most users will find a full-text PDF (as opposed to >> the institutional repository record) via a search engine, and we want to >> make sure they are still presented with information regarding the final >> (published) version as well as the permalink associated with the >> repository >> record. We consider this especially important for pre-prints and >> post-prints and for those readers who do not have access to the final >> (published) version. >> 2. We have also found that more publishers are requiring a set policy >> statement directly on the PDF, and we would prefer to incorporate that >> into >> a standardized cover page. >> 3. We also appreciate how Harvard (example >> >> <https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/37364544/WINOTO-DOCUMENT-2018.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y>) >> >> and other institutions have linked to a feedback form on their repository >> cover pages and would like to implement something similar as a means of >> gathering feedback to help demonstrate the value of the repository. >> >> I have reached out to three other DSpace users that have implemented >> cover pages, and so far, two have gotten back to me and confirmed that the >> cover pages have not affected their Google Scholar indexing. I’m reaching >> out to this group in the hope of determining whether any institutions have >> encountered indexing issues recently. >> >> Best Regards, >> Pranav Vichare >> University of Oklahoma Libraries >> On Monday, November 21, 2022 at 12:27:48 PM UTC-6 Reed, Marianne A. wrote: >> >>> Hi, Pranav! It’s also my understanding that having a cover page can >>> affect indexing by Google. Since indexing by Google is something that our >>> faculty very much want for those materials that they have decided to share >>> in KU ScholarWorks <https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/>, we stopped doing >>> cover pages years ago. >>> >>> >>> >>> Would you mind sharing the motivation behind adding cover pages to your >>> repository materials? Is it to make sure that readers know the source of >>> the material? Institutional branding? Providing a copyright statement? >>> >>> >>> >>> Depending on the Libraries’ motivation for doing cover pages, others in >>> the group may be able to suggest other ways to accomplish the same thing. >>> >>> >>> >>> Best regards >>> >>> Marianne Reed >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> Marianne Reed (she/her/hers*)* >>> >>> Digital Publishing and Repository Manager >>> >>> Watson Library, Room 470-G >>> >>> University of Kansas Libraries >>> >>> [email protected] >>> >>> 785-864-8913 <(785)%20864-8913> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> *From:* [email protected] <[email protected]> *On >>> Behalf Of *Pranav Vichare >>> *Sent:* Monday, November 21, 2022 12:03 PM >>> *To:* DSpace Community <[email protected]> >>> *Subject:* [dspace-community] Thoughts on Monica Westin's 2021 >>> presentation on Google Indexing >>> >>> >>> >>> Dear colleagues, >>> >>> The University of Oklahoma Libraries is trying to automate the cover >>> pages for faculty submissions to the DSpace Institutional repository >>> SHAREOK >>> <https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshareok.org%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cmreed%40ku.edu%7Cc1cc76fe68824e2e694e08dacbeaa9a8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638046506915275781%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=m3Ed5UkJBv2R7M3fVw3BOp4vkl07uvahtf4UIdtN4A4%3D&reserved=0>. >>> >>> The Lyrasis DSpace document (inbuilt DSpace Cover page >>> <https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwiki.lyrasis.org%2Fdisplay%2FDSDOC7x%2FPDF%2BCitation%2BCover%2BPage&data=05%7C01%7Cmreed%40ku.edu%7Cc1cc76fe68824e2e694e08dacbeaa9a8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638046506915275781%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=I6XDs0vlCtr2UXmYI2sO2yETrDJLodAorEOXWnGsXb0%3D&reserved=0>) >>> >>> advises that the cover page may affect Google indexing, and Monica Westin's >>> recent 2021 presentation >>> <https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FC-miRaROsaE&data=05%7C01%7Cmreed%40ku.edu%7Cc1cc76fe68824e2e694e08dacbeaa9a8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638046506915275781%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=nD5qIlEfQz%2F5bt3b%2Bu%2FBXiBcz1GIP55toaNGbXw1svo%3D&reserved=0> >>> >>> suggests that "Cover page may affect Indexing repository coverage." >>> Any feedback or thoughts are welcome that will help us get more clarity >>> on Google indexing workflow. >>> >>> >>> >>> Thank you. >>> >>> >>> >>> Regards, >>> >>> Pranav Vichare >>> >>> University of Oklahoma Libraries >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> All messages to this mailing list should adhere to the Code of Conduct: >>> https://www.lyrasis.org/about/Pages/Code-of-Conduct.aspx >>> <https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lyrasis.org%2Fabout%2FPages%2FCode-of-Conduct.aspx&data=05%7C01%7Cmreed%40ku.edu%7Cc1cc76fe68824e2e694e08dacbeaa9a8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638046506915275781%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=5beB4yo%2B4dD4rizhhTcrhfoSPtkpXPBiSzNtd%2F%2BHGIo%3D&reserved=0> >>> --- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "DSpace Community" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dspace-community/076f3b3e-b133-472f-8ead-45e8bf6ce423n%40googlegroups.com >>> >>> <https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgroups.google.com%2Fd%2Fmsgid%2Fdspace-community%2F076f3b3e-b133-472f-8ead-45e8bf6ce423n%2540googlegroups.com%3Futm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dfooter&data=05%7C01%7Cmreed%40ku.edu%7Cc1cc76fe68824e2e694e08dacbeaa9a8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638046506915432007%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=lUbW7V9boQH50BtJeu0VI6wGKW2dgprxfmf6fbyqZk0%3D&reserved=0> >>> . >>> >> -- All messages to this mailing list should adhere to the Code of Conduct: https://www.lyrasis.org/about/Pages/Code-of-Conduct.aspx --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DSpace Community" group. 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