Synonym for discipline-specific repository: a repository whose scope is a particular research domain (or domain-sub-area), with curation practices and metadata tailored to that domain.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 10 Jul 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
The Protein Data Bank (PDB) as a domain repository for macromolecular structures.
Is an instance
ArrayExpress as a domain repository for functional-genomics experiments.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A generic data archive accepting any topic is not a domain repository.
Not an instance
An institutional repository scoped by institution rather than by discipline is not a domain repository.

Editorial commentary

The term ‘domain repository’ is used interchangeably with ‘discipline-specific repository’ in much of the literature. Some communities differentiate them — ‘domain’ for broad fields (e.g. life sciences), ‘discipline-specific’ for narrower sub-fields (e.g. proteomics) — but the terms are not consistently distinguished. Funder policies and repository registries (re3data, FAIRsharing) typically treat them as one category against the contrast with ‘generalist repository’.

References

NIH, 'Selecting a Data Repository' guidance (sharing.nih.gov).

Also known as

Discipline repository · Specialist repository

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Domain repository"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/domain-repository" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/domain-repository",
  "name": "Domain repository",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/domain-repository",
  "description": "Synonym for discipline-specific repository: a repository whose scope is a particular research domain (or domain-sub-area), with curation practices and metadata tailored to that domain.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/data-infrastructure#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/domain-repository",
  "sameAs": [
    "Discipline repository",
    "Specialist repository"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-10T02:06:21",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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