Content Types
Digital repositories may include a wide range of content for a variety of purposes and users. The focus of each repository, and, therefore, what content it will store, will depend upon the policy decisions made by each institution or administrator. To give an idea of the type of content currently held in repositories worldwide, the Directory of Open Access Repositories- OpenDOAR has identified the following as the most common content types in repositories:
- Journal articles
- Bibliographic references (metadata only)
- Books, sections and chapters
- Conference and workshop papers
- Theses and Dissertations
- Unpublished reports & working papers
- Datasets
- Content-packaged learning objects
- Multimedia and audio-visual materials
- Software
- Patents
- Other special items
Within a repository's Content Policy there may be a desire to clarify the content types to be included as there may be areas of overlap between the types listed above. The list below, adapted from the default content type list provided with EPrints software may be a starting point for such clarification.
Publications
- Articles - Articles in journals, magazines, newspapers. Not necessarily peer-reviewed. May be an electronic-only medium, such as an online journal or news website
- Books - Complete books or conference volumes
- Book Sections - Separately-authored chapters or sections in books
- Conference or Workshop Items - Papers, posters, speeches, lectures or presentations given at a conference, workshop or other event. If the conference item has been published in a journal or book then please use 'Book Section' or 'Article' instead
Theses & Dissertations
UK Examples
International Examples
Utah State - Approval Form, Checklist
Student theses and dissertations submitted to an institution as part of the requirements for a degree, including:
- Doctoral Theses - PhD
- Masters Theses & Dissertations - MSc, MA, MBA, etc
- Bachelors Dissertations - BSc, BA, etc
Resources used to support teaching and learning
- Curricula and syllabuses
- Course validation documents
- Course materials - learning resources, lecture notes, learning exercises
- Assessment materials - tests, exam papers
- Study skills, support and revision materials
- Student-produced work (including all the content types listed here)
Audio Visual Items
- Images - Digital photographs or visual images
- Video - Digital video
- Audio - Sound recordings
- Show/Exhibition - An artist's exhibition or site-specific performance-based deposit
- Artefact - An artist's artefact or work product. Could also apply to archaeological finds
- Performance - Performance of a musical event
- Composition - A musical composition
Data
- Datasets - Bounded collections of quantitative data (e.g. spreadsheet or XML data file)
- Experiment - Experimental data with intermediate analyses and summary results
Grey Literature
- Patents - A published patent. As-yet unpublished patent applications should never be included in a repository, because to do so might disqualify the application
The following are grouped together by EPrints as Monographs, although many people use 'monograph' as a synonym for 'book'
- Technical Reports
- Project Reports
- Documentation & Manuals
- Working Papers & Discussion Papers
Other
Something within the scope of the repository, but not covered by the other categories.
