Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A university's institutional repository holds accepted manuscripts from its chemistry, history, and computer science departments alike, alongside PhD theses and technical reports -- organized by department, author, and date rather than by any single discipline.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A discipline-specific archive such as a subject repository accepting deposits from researchers at any institution worldwide, provided the work falls within its subject scope, is organized on the opposite principle -- subject matter, not institutional affiliation.
Editorial commentary
Institutional repository is an online, digital collection of research outputs connected by their affiliation with a specific institution — most commonly a university or other academic organization. Because an institutional repository is organized around institutional affiliation rather than subject matter, a single repository’s contents typically span a wide range of disciplines, reflecting whatever research the affiliated institution produces.
Institutional repository vs. subject repository
An institutional repository is the mirror image of a subject repository, which instead organizes content by discipline regardless of the depositing author’s institutional affiliation (arXiv for physics and mathematics, or PubMed Central for biomedical literature, are common examples of the subject-repository model). An author can often deposit the same work in both — their institution’s repository and a relevant subject repository — since the two are not mutually exclusive, and funder mandates sometimes accept either as satisfying a deposit requirement. See CASRAI’s institutional repository vs. subject repository comparison for a fuller breakdown.
What an institutional repository typically holds and does
Beyond simply storing files, an institutional repository is usually run as part of a wider suite of services supporting scholarly communication, open access compliance, and open education at its host institution. Common functions include:
- Accepting author deposit of accepted manuscripts for green open access, applying any required embargo automatically based on the journal’s self-archiving policy.
- Hosting theses, dissertations, technical reports, and other institutional outputs that may never appear in a commercial journal at all.
- Assigning persistent identifiers and structured metadata to deposited items, supporting discovery and long-term access.
- Generating compliance reports for research offices tracking funder open access mandate deadlines across the institution’s output.
Worked example
A university’s institutional repository holds accepted manuscripts from its chemistry, history, and computer science departments alike, alongside PhD theses and technical reports — organized by department, author, and date rather than by any single discipline, since institutional affiliation, not subject matter, is what defines what belongs in it.
Counter-example
A discipline-specific archive such as a subject repository accepting deposits from researchers at any institution worldwide, provided the work falls within its subject scope, is organized on the opposite principle — subject matter, not institutional affiliation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I deposit the same article in both my institutional repository and a subject repository?
Often yes, subject to the publisher’s self-archiving policy allowing multiple deposit locations — many funder mandates accept deposit in either type of repository as satisfying a green open access requirement.
Does an institutional repository only hold journal articles?
No. Most institutional repositories also hold theses and dissertations, technical reports, working papers, datasets, and other institutional outputs beyond peer-reviewed journal articles.
Who manages an institutional repository?
Typically the host institution’s library or research office, often as part of a broader set of scholarly communication and open access compliance services.
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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