The Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), and Jisc’s OpenDOAR service which is a global directory of academic open access repositories, today released a joint roadmap for the further development for OpenDOAR as an international, community-driven repository directory.

The roadmap for sustainability and community governance for OpenDOAR lays out the steps for expanding OpenDOAR’s service and its functionalities over the coming 12 months.

Liz Bal, director of open research services at Jisc says:

“As open research advances and repositories continue to expand their role in managing and sharing research outputs, an international directory for repositories will become even more crucial. For 15 years, OpenDOAR has played this important role in the preservation community and its data is increasingly used to inform and support other services and initiatives such as CORE, OpenAIRE, and Plan S.”

The roadmap was developed after COAR convened a working group together with OpenDOAR’s participation, to investigate measures needed to ensure the long term sustainability and community oversight of an international repository directory and published a number of recommendations. This included a community governance model, integration of operations with regional networks, and a proposal for broader external funding of services.  As a result, COAR and Jisc have agreed to work together to implement these recommendations on OpenDOAR.

Eloy Rodrigues, COAR Chairman says:

“This is a great development. The services provided by OpenDOAR are critical for our members and the adoption of these recommendations will ensure OpenDOAR is supported and governed by the international repository community”.

View the roadmap for sustainability and community governance for OpenDOAR.