What are Open Access repositories?

OA repositories are freely accessible online digital archives of research outputs that have been deposited by the authors. This is also known as self-archiving. Institutional repositories archive research publications from e.g. a specific University or organisation whereas subject-based repositories collate publications for a given discipline. Bradford Scholars is an example of an institutional repository. There are numerous subject repositories available online like Arxiv.org for Physics and Mathematics.

These repositories are designed to store, preserve and disseminate research outputs in perpetuity. To comply with the Green route Open Access requirements these repositories must make their full-text content and metadata harvestable by search engines, like Google Scholar, and other discovery services. In addition to this, repositories must apply robust digital preservation policies to ensure long-term preservation and usability of the archive content. Bradford Scholars is fully compliant with Open Access requirements.