COAR community groups offer a forum for members to exchange information and experiences and work on topics of common interest. If you are from a COAR member institution and want to join one of these groups, please contact the COAR office: office@coar-repositories.org
Controlled Vocabularies Editorial Board
This group aims to develop and maintain controlled vocabularies for repositories to enhance the interoperability across repositories and with other related systems such as harvesters, CRIS systems, data repositories and publishers.
Next Generation Repositories Expert Group
This group promotes the promotion and implementation of next generation repository technologies that were recommended in the NGR Report and continues to monitor the environment for other new technologies. Currently, the focus of our activities is on the implementation of Signposting in repositories and the COAR Notify Initiative.
We are currently not accepting new members of this group.
COAR Task Force on managing multilingual and non-English content
Multilingualism is a critical characteristic of a healthy, inclusive, and diverse research communications landscape. Publishing in a local language ensures that the public in different countries has access to the research they fund, and also levels the playing field for researchers who speak different languages. In August 2022, COAR launched a task force to develop and promote good practices for repositories in managing multilingual and non-English content. The task force is focusing on identifying good practices for metadata, multilingual keywords, user interfaces, translations, formats, licenses, and indexing that will improve the visibility of multilingual and non-English content across the world.
COAR Repository Assessment Working Group
COAR develops good practice recommendations for the international repository community, focusing on specific areas that will advance the next generation repository vision and improve bibliodiversity in the scholarly communications ecosystem. The COAR Repository Assessment Working Group is responsible for reviewing and validating the COAR Community Framework for Best Practices in Repositories, which is a global, multidimensional framework for good practices in repositories that can be applied to different types of repositories (publication, institutional, data, etc.) and in different geographical and thematic contexts.
AI/Machine Learning Monitoring Group
This group will explore the roles and implications of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning for open access scholarly repositories. This is a rapidly evolving field and it is virtually impossible for a single person to remain up-to-date on all the trends. This COAR group will gather relevant literature and resources, assess and curate those resources, and provide our community with up-to-date information about the relationship between repositories and AI.
Asia OA
Asia OA is a special forum hosted by COAR in which members of the Asian open access community can share information, meet each other and build relationships. It has a mailing list and organizes meetings to facilitate greater exchange beyond national boundaries. It celebrates Asian cultural diversity and unique way of doing things. The aim is to support information sharing through a mailing list and organize regular in-person meetings in Asian countries.
Former Groups
Former community groups which are no longer active can be found here