Open access repositories are an integral part of open science infrastructure that ensures the accessibility and findability of research results. This article is based on the analysis of the various types of repositories. The authors attempted to identify main functions of these platforms, their features and development trends. The sample includes 11 repositories, both institutional and thematic projects, and also general-purpose platforms. The main function of repositories is the storage of publications, although over time the role of these services as the publication priority registrators is increasing. Projects typically feature pre-moderation procedures, as well as a rather careful attitude to the metadata and its accuracy. Only one repository charges publication fee, their revenue come from sponsorship funds, donations, advertising, additional paid services (in various combinations). The possibilities of social interaction as a rule are quite limited: neither reviewing, nor even commenting are built-in functions of the reviewed projects. Collective work on the manuscript is also impossible. The trends of repositories future development are the diversification of formats and types of works exchanged by scientists, as well as the increasing of the importance of non-profit projects for the scientific communication infrastructure.
The article deals with open peer reviewing as a new way of verifying results of researches in the scientific sector of digital media. The technological modernization of scientific publishers provides for solving some of the problems of the traditional peer reviewing. This explains the topicality of the study. The authors analyzed ten platforms with open peer review that are based in Europe, the USA and Canada. According to the results, a formally similar open peer review process may vary depending on the scope of authority a scientific community has, reviewers’ identification, authors’ opportunities to propose an expert, the degree of review openness, posting the revised versions, and involvement of the editorial board if any. The tools that the platforms use to encourage the scientific community to participate in commenting and reviewing the publications also matter. One of the key advantages of open peer reviewing is reducing the time required for publishing an article, which is crucial for some scientific fields.
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