Open Access Primer

Repositories are committed to long-term access

Institutional repositories allow authors to contribute the content they produce while at their institution into a database based on open standards so their content is interoperable and widely disseminated on the web.

Most are committed to sustainability and long-term access to their content.  

Repositories may host articles, books, conference presentations, research data, theses and dissertations, working papers, blog posts, posters, videos, images, and more.  
 

The free and open-source repository software movement was instrumental in the move to change the existing scholarly ecosystem. DSpace and EPrints were two early examples, 2002 and 2000 respectively, with widespread adoption and robust user groups, but there are many others.

• ROARMAP: Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies
  Over 760 policies are registered in ROARMAP.
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• OpenDOAR: The Directory of Open Access Repositories 
  A mega-, award-winning directory of repositories worldwide. The growth in numbers is impressive. OpenDOAR was launched in 2005 with 89 repositories. As of August 2023, there were 5,982.

Versions you can deposit

• SHERPA/RoMEO
  Use this site to see what version you can deposit in the institutional or subject repository of your choice,
  For example:
  • pre-print (pre-refereed)
  • post-print (final draft, post-refereed, but prior to publisher formatted, final version)
  • publisher version/PDF (final version). 

Subject or disciplinary repositories and general purpose repositories have a long history. These repositories are tailor-made by experts in a field and are targeted for a specialized group of users so features can be developed accordingly.  

Some repositories are general purpose or format-based like Dataverse (Harvard), an open source research data repository. They are generally open to authors with any or no institutional affiliation.
 

Examples

• CEU Open Research Repository – launched in 2023 to showcase the Open Access publications produced by CEU faculty and affiliated researchers.
  Preferred subject areas: Any subject area
  Preferred publication type: journal articles, book reviews and editorials, monographs, book chapters, working papers, theses and dissertations
  Maintained by: CEU Library

• arXIv.org - founded in 1991

  Preferred subject areas: Computer science, economics, electrical engineering, mathematics, physics, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics
  Preferred publication type: Preprint
  Maintained by: Cornell University Library

• Figshare
  Preferred subject areas: All fields of humanities
  Preferred publication type: interdisciplinary
  Maintained by: Digital Science (Company)

• Humanities Commons -  (CORE Repository)

  Preferred subject areas: All fields of humanities
  Preferred publication type: n/a
  Maintained by: Michigan State University

• PhilArchive - founded in 2009

  Preferred subject areas: Philosophy
  Preferred publication type: Articles
  Maintained by: Western University, Canada

• Research Papers in Economics (Repec)
  Preferred subject areas: Economics and related fields
  Preferred publication type: Bibliographic data about: Books, book chapters, journal articles, software components and working papers
  Maintained by: Feral Reserve Bank, St. Louis

• Social Science Research Network (SSRN) - founded in 1994 (now owned by Elsevier).

  Preferred subject areas: Social sciences, humanities, life sciences, health sciences
  Preferred publication type: Preprints
  Maintained by: Elsevier

• Zenodo
  Preferred subject areas: Any subject area.
  Preferred publication type: Any type: research papers, data sets, software, reports, and other related digital materials.
  Maintained by: CERN