Institutional repositories in South India: an exploratory study

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate the institutional repositories (IRs) in South India in terms of policy and procedures, technology, content and contributors, promotion and assessment and personnel. Design/methodology/approach A voluntary survey was conducted to assess IRs in South India. The questionnaire was designed according to the study framework, which comprises 64 indicators across five areas: policy and procedures, technology, content and contributors, promotion and assessment and personnel. Furthermore, all of the 23 IRs identified were monitored over one year period (from February 2018 to January 2019) to analyse the content growth. Findings The Research Archive of Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad was found to provide more services to users than other South Indian IRs and it was the sole IR to embed a metadata field for author identification. Almost all the IRs were actively engaged in promotion and assessment activities. IR performance in the technology area was substandard in comparison with performance in the policy and procedures and promotion and assessment areas. For all South Indian IRs, content growth was low. Originality/value Very few in-depth studies have evaluated South Indian IRs across all five of the areas listed above and in recent years, no such comprehensive study has been conducted in India at all.