Three major regional open access repository networks and aggregators (OpenAire, LA Referencia, and SHARE), along with the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) and Center for Open Science (COS) met in Charlottesville, Virginia, to discuss synergies and potential areas of collaboration on July 9 and 10, 2015.
Open access repositories are being adopted around the world to support and promote open science, a trend that maximises investments in research by making research outputs freely available to the world. Many of these repositories are connected via regional aggregators, which form sustainable, distributed repository networks that provide access to and preservation of the valuable content created through research and scholarship.
However, research is international, with researchers collaborating across regions and continents to solve the world's most critical problems such as climate change, health, and economics. The aim of this meeting was to ensure that regional repository networks are complementary, more integrated, and working together to create a seamless global network.
The meeting revealed that the objectives, technologies and use cases for all three networks are highly aligned and that there is a strong willingness to work together. In particular, a number of specific areas were identified in which the networks commit to collaborate on. These include regular data exchange; common metadata and vocabularies; common technological services; and ongoing dialogue.
Over the next several weeks, the groups will develop a more detailed plan for achieving specific outcomes.
