Open archives: Finding open archives
Growing numbers of institutions are setting up their own repositories to archive and disseminate their researchers’ scientific output. This guide explains what is an open archive, what it is used for and how it can be improved.
ROAR
The aim of ROAR (Registry of Open Access Repositories) is to further the development of Open Access by providing updated information on the growth and state of OA repositories worldwide.
Querying the content of archives
To query the content of open archives, you can use engines known as harvesters.
- OAIster: "OAIster is a united catalog of millions of records representing open access resources that was built by harvesting from open access collections worldwide using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). " (source: OAIster - OCLC)
- ScientificCommons: project developed by the Institute for Media and Communications Management of the University of St. Gallen
OpenDoar
The Directory of Open Access Repositories is an authoritative directory of academic Open Access archives.
In addition to providing a repository list, OpenDOAR lets you search for repositories or search repository contents.
Users can run searches on platforms around the world and locate useful and relevant information more quickly.