An Analysis of the Factors Affecting the Institutional Repositories Development in Universities based on the Information Systems Theories

Institutional repositories provide a new infrastructure for the scientific information management in universities. They can fulfill the internal and external needs if set optimally. Many universities in Iran have decided to develop their institutional repository but they have not applied a systematic planning for it yet. These attempts are based on unorganized frameworks and structures.
This study seeks to find the most effective and efficient factors that can affect the institutional repositories’ development. A thorough search was conducted to identify the related literature on the institutional repositories from 2000 to2010). A conceptual content analysis was conducted on the literature. The analysis of the 41 studies revealed that the concepts which were found in the institutional repository literature can be grouped into 6 major themes of strategy, policy, documentation, management/administration, system, and use.
Findings: This paper makes an original contribution to identifying the criteria of developing institutional repositories based on the information systems theories and offering a framework to take them into account.