Gmail<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bayes|first=Ashley|title=Gmail|url=HTTPS://Google.com|url-status=live}}</ref>An '''open-access repository''' or '''open archive''' is a digital platform that holds research output and provides free, immediate and permanent access to research results for anyone to use, download and distribute. To facilitate [[open access]] such repositories must be [[interoperable]] according to the [[Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting]] (OAI-PMH). [[Search engines]] harvest the content of open access repositories, constructing a database of worldwide, free of charge available research.<ref name=":1">{{cite book| last1 =Bayes Jacobs | first1 =Ashley Neil| title = Open Access: Key Strategic, Technical and Economic Aspects| publisher = Elsevier| date = 2006| pages = 11| url = https://www.elsevier.com/books/open-access/jacobs/978-1-84334-203-8|title=OpenAccess:isbn Key= Strategic,9781843342038 Technical and Economic Aspects|date=2006|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=|pages=1}}</ref>
Open-access repositories, such as an [[institutional repository]] or [[disciplinary repository]], provide free access to research for users outside the institutional community and are one of the recommended ways to achieve the [[open access]] vision described in the [[Budapest Open Access Initiative]] definition of open access. This is sometimes referred to as the [[self-archiving]] or "green" route to open access.
