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Institutional Repository

Understanding Institutional Repositories in Higher Education

An institutional repository is a digital archive that collects, preserves, and disseminates scholarly work produced by faculty, researchers, and students. It supports open access and long-term knowledge storage.

Glossary Terms
Term
Description
Institutional Repository

A digital archive of scholarly and administrative materials produced by members of an institution.

Open Access

Free, unrestricted online access to scholarly outputs stored in the repository.

Metadata Schema

Standardized descriptors used to catalog and organize repository content.

Self-Archiving

Faculty or students uploading their own work to the repository.

Persistent Identifier

A unique code (e.g., DOI) that ensures long-term citation and retrieval of documents.

Embargo Period

A delay imposed before public access to certain materials is allowed.

Evolving Repository Ecosystems

Repositories now support multimedia, datasets, and integration with research networks. Institutions are aligning them with tenure reviews, grant reporting, and global research visibility.