An open repository or open-access repository is a digital platform that holds research output and provides free, immediate and permanent access to research results for anyone to use, download and distribute. To facilitate
open access
Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre o ...
such repositories must be
interoperable
Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader defi ...
according to the
Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) is a protocol developed for harvesting metadata descriptions of records in an archive so that services can be built using metadata from many archives. An implementation of OAI ...
(OAI-PMH).
Search engines
A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a l ...
harvest the content of open access repositories, constructing a database of worldwide, free of charge available research.
Open-access repositories, such as an
institutional repository
An institutional repository is an archive for collecting, preserving, and disseminating digital copies of the intellectual output of an institution, particularly a research institution. Academics also utilize their IRs for archiving published work ...
or
disciplinary repository
A disciplinary repository (or subject repository) is an online archive containing works or data associated with these works of scholars in a particular subject area. Disciplinary repositories can accept work from scholars from any institution. A ...
, provide free access to research for users outside the institutional community and are one of the recommended ways to achieve the
open access
Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre o ...
vision described in the
Budapest Open Access Initiative
The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) is a public statement of principles relating to open access to the research literature, which was released to the public on February 14, 2002. It arose from a conference convened in Budapest by the Open ...
definition of open access. This is sometimes referred to as the
self-archiving
Self-archiving is the act of (the author's) depositing a free copy of an electronic document online in order to provide open access to it. The term usually refers to the self-archiving of peer-reviewed research journal and conference articles, as ...
or "green" route to open access.
Benefits
The benefits of open-access repositories are:
* Opening up outputs of the institution to a worldwide audience;
* Maximizing the visibility and impact of these outputs as a result;
* Showcasing the institution to interested constituencies – prospective staff, prospective students and other stakeholders;
* Collecting and curating digital output;
* Managing and measuring research and teaching activities;
* Providing a workspace for work-in-progress, and for collaborative or large-scale projects;
* Enabling and encouraging interdisciplinary approaches to research;
* Facilitating the development and sharing of digital teaching materials and aids, and
* Supporting student endeavours, providing access to theses and dissertations and a location for the development of e-portfolios.
Software
The most frequently used repository software for open repositories according to
OpenDOAR are
Digital Commons
Digital Commons is a commercial, hosted institutional repository platform owned by RELX Group. This hosted service, licensed by bepress, is used by over 500 academic institutions, healthcare centers, public libraries, and research centers to show ...
,
DSpace
DSpace is an open source repository software package typically used for creating open access repositories for scholarly and/or published digital content. While DSpace shares some feature overlap with content management systems and document managem ...
and
EPrints
EPrints is a free and open-source software package for building open access repositories that are compliant with the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). It shares many of the features commonly seen in document ...
.
Other examples are
arXiv
arXiv (pronounced " archive"—the X represents the Greek letter chi ⟨χ⟩) is an open-access repository of electronic preprints and postprints (known as e-prints) approved for posting after moderation, but not peer review. It consists o ...
,
bioRxiv
bioRxiv (pronounced "bio-archive") is an open access preprint repository for the biological sciences co-founded by John Inglis and Richard Sever in November 2013. It is hosted by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL).
As preprints, papers h ...
,
Dryad
A dryad (; el, Δρυάδες, ''sing''.: ) is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology. ''Drys'' (δρῦς) signifies " oak" in Greek, and dryads were originally considered the nymphs of oak trees specifically, but the term has evolved ...
,
Figshare,
Open Science Framework,
Samvera
Samvera, originally known as Hydra, is an open-source digital repository software product. Samvera main components are Fedora Commons, Solr, Blacklight, and HydraHead (a Ruby on Rails plugin and gem, respectively). Each Samvera implementation is ...
,
Ubiquity Repositories
Ubiquity is a synonym for omnipresence, the property of being present everywhere.
Ubiquity may also refer to:
* Ubiquity (software), a simple graphical installer made for the Ubuntu operating system
* Ubiquity (Firefox), an experimental extensio ...
and
invenio
Invenio is an open source software framework for large-scale digital repositories that provides the tools for management of digital assets in an institutional repository and research data management systems. The software is typically used for open ...
(solution used by
Zenodo.
See also
*
CORE (research service)
CORE (Connecting Repositories) is a service provided by the based at The Open University, United Kingdom. The goal of the project is to aggregate all open access content distributed across different systems, such as repositories and open access ...
*
Current research information system A current research information system (CRIS) is a database or other information system to store, manage and exchange contextual metadata for the research activity funded by a research funder or conducted at a research-performing organisation (or agg ...
*
Digital library
A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, or a digital collection is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital ...
*
Digital Assets Repository The Digital Assets Repository ( ar, مستودع الأصول الرقمية or ''DAR'') is a system developed at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) by the International School of Information Science (ISIS) to create and maintain digital library coll ...
– at Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt
*
Library publishing
Library publishing, also known as campus-based publishing, is the practice of an academic library providing publishing services.
Concept
A library publishing service usually publishes academic journals and often provides a broader range of publis ...
*
Open-access archives
Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre o ...
*
Open access around the world
*
ROARMAP
The Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR) is a searchable international database indexing the creation, location and growth of open access institutional repositories and their contents. ROAR was created by EPrints at University of Southamp ...
References
External links
*
Open repositories
{{DEFAULTSORT:Open Archive
Online archives
Open access (publishing)
Communication
Academic publishing
Research