It is not a discrete, institution-specific undertaking; the full potential is achieved when “the network” enables services spanning multiple repositories, such as discipline portals.

It contains all an institution’s research outputs; it may contain research outputs of non-aligned scholars (those not based at an institution).

It conforms to the http://www.openarchives.org/ Open Archives Initiative Protocols for Metadata Harvesting. Each work has a corresponding metadata record that an external process can harvest.²

It is not limited to the outputs of academic researchers; private scholars and others will also submit their research outputs.

Scope typically includes…

An [IR|Institutional Repository] is a repository of research outputs.

An institution may operate several discipline-based IRs or one institution-wide repository. It may join with others to operate a community IR.

It contains electronic copies of research outputs, rather than pointers (links) to copies held elsewhere.⁵

It contains all an institution’s research outputs; it may contain research outputs of individual scholars (not based at an institution).

It sets rules for supported file formats and standards, such as [XHTML|eXtensible HyperText Markup language], other XML-based standards such as [TEI|Text Encoding for Interchange], and [PDF|Portable Document Format]. It may support additional specialist formats such as L^^A^^T__E__X.

Scope typically excludes…

An [IR|Institutional Repository] is not a repository for digital learning objects.⁷

It is not limited to the outputs of publicly-funded research, although the initial focus is likely to be on publicly-funded research.

It is not limited to the outputs of academic researchers; private scholars and others will also contribute research outputs.

It is not a repository for research data-sets, although these may potentially be added as a future stage of work.

In keeping with http://www.soros.org/openaccess/ Open Access principles, it usually does not contain documents in proprietary file formats such as doc.⁸

It is not a discrete, stand-alone undertaking; the full potential is achieved when “the network” enables services spanning multiple repositories, such as discipline portals.

It sets rules for supported file formats and standards, such as [XHTML|eXtensible HyperText Markup language], other XML-based standards such as [TEI|Text Encoding for Interchange], and [PDF|Portable Document Format]. It may support additional specialist formats such as L^^A^^T__E__X. In keeping with http://www.soros.org/openaccess/ Open Access principles, it usually does not contain documents in proprietary file formats such as doc.¹⁰

An [IR|Institutional Repository] is a repository of research outputs, not a repository for digital learning objects.¹²

An [IR|Institutional Repository] is a repository of research outputs, not a repository for digital learning objects.¹⁴

An institution may choose to associate selected research data with some research outputs, or may set an outputs-only policy.

IR content is normally open access, viewable by anyone on the Web.¹⁵

It contains all an institution’s research outputs; it may contain research outputs of individual scholars (not based at an institution). It is not limited to the outputs of publicly-funded research.

It contains all the digital objects associated with a research output, such as image and sound files, as well as the text.

• theses and dissertations
• selected content from books and monogaphs

An [IR|Institutional Repository] is a repository of research outputs, not a repository of research data or digital learning objects.¹⁶

It conforms to the http://www.openarchives.org/ Open Archives Initiative Protocols for Metadata Harvesting. Each entry has a corresponding metadata record that an external process can harvest.¹⁷

It holds an institution’s digital research outputs in perpetuity.

An HomePage Institutional Repository? contains one and usually more types of scholarly digital research artefact, including:

It contains electronic copies of research outputs, usually not pointers (links) to copies held elsewhere.¹⁸

It sets rules for supported file formats and standards, such as [XHTML|eXtensible HyperText Markup language], other XML-based standards such as [TEI|Text Encoding for Interchange], and [PDF|Portable Document Format]. It may support additional specialist formats such as L^^A^^T__E__X. In keeping with http://www.soros.org/openaccess/ Open Access principles, it usually does not contain documents in proprietary file formats such as doc.¹⁹

It conforms to the http://www.openarchives.org/ Open Archives Initiative Protocols for Metadata Harvesting.

It can be searched using any web browser on any operating system. Some documents may be viewed in any web browser; others may require use of special viewer software, such as a PDF reader.

¹ for example, each page of this wiki has an (follow the link and View Source) based on the http://dublincore.org/documents/dc-xml-guidelines/ Guidelines for implementing Dublin Core in XML (↑)

² for example, each page of this wiki has an (follow the link and View Source) based on the http://dublincore.org/documents/dc-xml-guidelines/ Guidelines for implementing Dublin Core in XML (↑)

³ although common standards can allow eLearning systems to draw on repository content (↑)

⁴ although some repositories may contain links to articles in open access online journals (↑)

⁵ although some repositories may contain links to articles in open access online journals (↑)

⁶ although the underlying software may support these and some institutions may choose to use them (↑)

⁷ although use of common standards can allow eLearning systems to draw on repository content (↑)

⁸ although the underlying software may support these and some institutions may choose to use them (↑)

⁹ although the underlying software may support these (↑)

¹⁰ although the underlying software may support these and some institutions may choose to use them (↑)

¹¹ although common standards can allow eLearning systems to draw on repository content (↑)

¹² although common standards can allow eLearning systems to draw on repository content (↑)

¹³ although common standards can allow eLearning systems to draw on repository content (↑)

¹⁴ although common standards can allow eLearning systems to draw on repository content (↑)

¹⁵ although some institutions may choose to deposit materials over which they set and manage access restrictions (↑)

¹⁶ although common standards can allow eLearning systems to draw on repository content (↑)

¹⁷ for example, each page of this wiki has an (follow the link and View Source) based on the http://dublincore.org/documents/dc-xml-guidelines/ Guidelines for implementing Dublin Core in XML (↑)

¹⁸ although some repositories may contain links to articles in open access online journals (↑)

¹⁹ although the underlying software may support these (↑)

HomePage InstitutionalRepositories? may contain many types of digital research artefact, including:

An [IR|Institutional Repository] is a repository of research outputs, not a repository of research data.

It can be searched using any web browser on any operating system. Some documents may be viewed in any web browser; others may require use of special viewer software, such as a PDF reader.

An institutional repository may contain many types of digital research artefact, including:

• journal articles
• conference papers
• article pre-prints
• theses
• dissertations

It is a repository of research outputs, not a repository of research data.

It contains electronic copies of research outputs, not pointers (links) to copies held elsewhere.

It contains all an institution’s research outputs; it may contain personal research outputs. It is not limited to the outputs of publicly-funded research.

It sets rules for supported file format standards, such as [XHTML|eXtensible HyperText Markup language], other XML-based standards such as [TEI|Text Encoding for Interchange], and [PDF|Portable Document Format]. It may support additional specialist formats such as L^^A^^T__E__X. In keeping with the Open Access principle, it does not support proprietary file formats such as doc.

It conforms to the Open Archives Initiative Protocols for Metadata Harvesting.

It can be searched using any web browser on any operating system. Some documents may be viewed in any web browser; others may require use of special viewer software, such as a PDF reader.