Analysing the current status of open access patent repositories: a global perspective

Abstract

Purpose Access to patent-related information is facilitated in large part by repositories of patents. Additionally, patent repositories support transparency and knowledge exchange, both of which can spark new alliances and collaborations. In addition to serving as a source of inspiration for future inventions, they allow companies, researchers and inventors to look up current patents and prevent infringement. Globally, the scientific and academic communities are becoming increasingly interested in open-access repositories. Countries throughout the world have kept up their repositories because of their significance. A directory of open access repositories (OpenDOAR) is a reliable source with minimally inaccurate or dubious content, having been meticulously chosen and validated. It acts as a global registration hub, enabling the visibility and accessibility of research contributions. Hence, this study aims to look into the current status of open-access repositories for archiving “Patents”, at the global level in OpenDOAR by analysing the different characteristic features of repositories. Design/methodology/approach The advanced search strategy of the directory of open-access repositories (www.opendoar.org/) is used to extract the data. The data extraction process was carried out on 28th March 2023. The study limited its search to “Patents” only, among the different content types listed in it. A total of 253 repositories were retrieved that contained the selected content type. However, the advanced search feature was combined one by one with other available parameters to retrieve the data. The gathered data was saved in MS Excel for further analysis. Moreover, the open access policies, open archives initiative protocol for metadata harvesting (OAI-PMH) and language interface of repositories were manually looked up from each repository/record information. To present the findings, charts and tables were used to visualize the gathered data effectively. Findings The study shows that repositories have increased over the years, with the highest number established in 2022. The UK has emerged as the most prominent country contributing to the development of repositories for archiving patents. The majority of the repositories are institutional, and DSpace is the most commonly used software for their creation. While Web 2.0 tools are not widely used, however, a significant number of repositories have incorporated RSS feeds, Atom and social media. Open access policies play a vital role in managing the content archived in the repositories, and only a small percentage of the repositories were found to be following them. However, the majority of the repositories have shown OAI-PMH compliance. English is the most commonly preferred interface language by repositories for archiving patents. These findings suggest that there is still significant room for improvement in the development and management of repositories, and adherence to open-access policies could play a crucial role in ensuring their sustainability and usefulness in the future. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, the study is the first of its type that examines the global landscape of open-access patent repositories.