Open access repositories in the Asia–Oceania region

In recent years open access models have transcended traditional modes of publishing, thus enabling freer access to research. This paper takes a trans-regional approach to open access publishing in the Asia and Oceania region focussing on individual institutions in three countries – Charles Darwin University (Australia), University of Hong Kong and the University of Malaya, reflecting on how each one is rising, in its own individual way, to meet the range of challenges that its research communities are facing. Specifically, it focuses on open access and institutional repository development, and traces their development at each of the aforementioned institutions. This paper is based on interviews conducted with staff involved with the development of the repository, and the open access collection in particular, at each of the three institutions. It synthesises open access developments and reviews the role the library has played in each institution in the development of open access across the academic and research community; and the success that has been achieved to date. It highlights any common factors between the approaches taken by each institution, as well as any significant differences of note. The findings reveal that each of the three institutions is at a different stage of development with the University of Hong Kong repository ranked at the top within Asia. Each has used a slightly different approach toward open access, and used different software to develop their repository. The authors have collated the overall experiences of each institution in open access publishing and repository development. They have highlighted the successes and failures that each has experienced and formulated a set of guidelines that may help those embarking on establishing an open access repository.