Institutional Repository Checklist for Serving Institutional Management

Abstract

This document is a For Discussion draft that came from the Research Assessment Experience session of the EPrints User Group at Open Repositories 2008. Comment is invited from managers of all repository platforms to share experience of the demands of the processes involved in supporting research assessment at an institutional level. The aim of institutional repositories has focused on serving the interests of faculty – researchers and teachers – by collecting their intellectual outputs for long-term access, preservation and management. However, experience shows that in order to attain the engagement of the faculty, it is necessary to obtain the support of the institutional management. But in order to gain management support, a repository has to demonstrate a measureable and effective contribution to current management agendas and concerns – e.g. research management or research assessment. Such contributions are achievable, but only if the repository fulfils a number of criteria that are in addition to its usual library-faculty roles. This document lists the success criteria as distilled from the authors' recent experience.