Current State of Repository Interoperability: Work by the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR)

Panel at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

General Track Papers and Panels

Interoperability is the technical “glue” that makes possible an emerging open science infrastructure – an infrastructure that connects a global, decentralised network of repositories for literature and data with other services like research information systems and tools. While technology exists to make possible this integration, the landscape around interoperability is complex, and continually evolving. As an international organization representing the repository community, one of the major objectives of COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories) is to facilitate greater interoperability between repository content and systems. To that end, since its inception in 2009 COAR has been working on several aspects of repository interoperability. This panel will present the current work of COAR in the area of interoperability. This work falls into four areas: The COAR Interoperability Roadmap, controlled vocabularies, article-level and/or other repository metrics, and interoperability between repository and CRIS systems. The panel will conclude with a discussion with audience about the priorities and next steps for future efforts towards greater interoperability.