In July 2025, COAR will officially launched the COAR International Repository Directory (IRD). The IRD will act as an authoritative source of information about repositories, providing the community with an accurate and timely record of the current repository landscape.
Why launch another directory?
A comprehensive and accurate directory of repositories has become increasingly important in the current scholarly communications landscape to support compliance with a growing number of open science policy requirements and to enable the development of value added services on top of repositories. However, the existing directories – either due to their limited scope or their curation models – do not provide an accurate picture of the repository landscape, meaning we cannot use the data to fulfill a number of uses, or to have a complete understanding of the repository landscape. And for the repositories that are included in existing directories, the information is often obsolete and not maintained as the repository evolves.
The difference between the COAR IRD and other registries / directories is that it is community curated. Rather than relying on a centralised staff based at the directory to update records, the responsibility for curation of the IRD is distributed to responsible organisations. These organisations, in many cases – national entities, typically have a vested interest in maintaining up-to-date information about repositories within their purview. COAR believes that this approach will address many of the issues found elsewhere of out-of-date information about the repository ecosystem.
Roles and responsibilities
Responsible Organisations (RO) assume the responsibility for curating the data (making sure the data is correct) and are entities with an interest in maintaining the records of a certain subset of repositories. It is anticipated that the way each responsible organisation undertakes and organises the data curation will be determined locally. The IRD will communicate with the Responsible Organisation when there is an issue with the relevant records or updates are pending.
Authorised Users are individuals who have been delegated by a RO to undertake the curation job of an individual repository record or group of records. This person will have an account on the IRD that allows them to edit records for which they are authorised. The Authorised User may belong to the RO or be delegated by them, depending on the curation model chosen. In some cases, the Authorised User may be the manager for a particular repository.
Advisory Board will be populated by 6-8 people from Responsible Organisations. The Advisory Board will provide input to COAR on the current and future functionality of the directory.
COAR will manage the IRD service, fund its basic operations (and possibly look for fundraising opportunities), and provide staffing to respond to inquiries from the community and from Responsible Organisations. In addition, COAR will act as RO for the records that do not belong to another responsible organsation.
How can I become a Responsible Organisation for a group of records?
Responsible Organisations must have a strong interest in maintaining the records of their community. To volunteer as a responsible party, please contact [email protected]
Responsible Organisations – instructions for how to curate your records.
FAQs
Coming soon