Abstract
This study investigates the effectiveness of institutional repositories in promoting open access within the Scottish Universities Press (SUP) consortium, which operates a Diamond Open Access publishing model across twenty member institutions. The study aims to understand how repositories facilitate the visibility, accessibility, and preservation of scholarly outputs while supporting SUP’s mandate for cost-free open access to research. Using a survey method, data was collected from fifteen respondents representing librarians, repository managers, research support staff, and members of the SUP management board, covering fourteen of the twenty member universities.
The results indicate that institutional repositories are widely recognized and used across SUP member institutions, with a predominant focus on facilitating compliance with open access mandates, increasing research visibility, and managing diverse scholarly content. Survey data reveals high levels of daily repository engagement and confirms that repositories are considered effective tools for research dissemination, with most respondents noting improvements in institutional compliance and research visibility.
However, notable challenges persist, including limited integration of SUP-published outputs into institutional repositories, technical and usability barriers, concerns regarding copyright and intellectual property, and a general lack of researcher incentives or recognition.
The study recommended investments in training and outreach, improvements to repository usability, streamlined integration of SUP content, and the introduction of recognition or incentive schemes for researchers as strategies to mitigate the challenges.
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