Repository

A repository ( Latin repositorium , warehouse) is a managed place for the storage of organized documents that are publicly accessible or accessible to a limited group of users. Out of date, a repository also means a cupboard for storing official books and files .

Repositories are often set up in the scientific field in order to make scientific work transparent and thus comprehensible.

In an archive (Latin: archivum 'filing cabinet'), on the other hand, mainly historical documents and records are stored in analog or digital form, which on the one hand are no longer required for the current task of the registrar in the area of responsibility and on the other hand must be kept long-term or permanently for legal or historical reasons .

Today the most common use of the term can be found in the English language translation repository . Colloquially, this stands for the storage of data and documents in IT and on the Internet .

Online repositories

Online repositories are used to make various publications accessible to the public without restricted access ( open access ). Often it is gray literature , i.e. research reports, conference reports, theses, etc. These documents are given a permanent address (e.g. PURL or DOI ) by being saved in the repository , which increases the ability to cite them. In addition, numerous repositories allow the stored documents to be identified using library search services or online search services (e.g. Google Scholar) and they allow bibliographic data to be downloaded for import into reference management programs. Some repositories are run institutionally (e.g. by a university library) others are cross-institutional and bundle publications on a disciplinary basis. The German Initiative for Network Information (DINI) endeavors to standardize the services and interfaces of repositories with the DINI certificate for Open Access publication services .