Documentation for institutional repositories

In order to identify best practice, the documentation of seven academic institutional repositories(IRs) was compared and contrasted. This was followed by semi-structured interviews with six practitioners experienced in the set-up, management and maintenance of IRs, including representatives of three JISC FAIR projects. The aim was to identify the requirements of policy documentation provided by IRs. Although many issues were found to be handled differently depending on what IR software was used, or the stage of development of the IR, several common factors emerged. These included the importance of developing the documentation in collaboration with individual academics, departments and senior management whose views and needs are central to the success of the IR. Additional findings were that policies should be formulated only when the purpose and aims of the IR have been clearly defined and that the IR documentation itself should be concise and easy to understand, with the rights and responsibilities of stakeholders clearly presented.