Professionalising Open Access Repositories in Germany and Beyond - OpenAIRE Blog

"The project "Professionalization of the Open-Access Repository Infrastructure in Germany" (Pro OAR DE), launched in October 2023 at the Berlin School of Library and Information Science, aims to support institutional repositories in advancing systems based on the current needs of the research community. Initially, these repositories focused on storing electronic documents and ensuring their long-term availability. Today, they are integral components of the scientific information infrastructure, evolving significantly since the first institutional repository was introduced at the Technical University of Chemnitz in 1995.

In 2003, the German Initiative for Network Information (DINI) established the DINI certificate, a standard for Open Access repositories that enables the networking of document and publication servers based on international standards. The current version 7.0 of the DINI certificate reflects the expanded range of services offered by Open Access repositories. DINI now lists 540 publication services, 224 of which are classified as institutional Open Access repositories. However, these repositories face the challenge of evolving to support the scientific workflow and offering various services.

Marcel Wrzesinski and his research group have conducted interviews and workshops to identify current issues and provide practical recommendations to advance the Open Access culture and professionalise the repositories. We interviewed Marcel Wrzesinski and discussed the challenges and strategies associated with the professionalisation of repositories...."