open access policies of highly-ranked digital repositories of the world’s universities

purpose: this study aimed to investigate the status of the open access policies of highly-ranked digital repositories in the world’s universities by identifying the policies regarding the components of submission, content, data, meta-data, preservation, and access. methodology: this survey was descriptive-analytical. data was collected by administrating a researcher-made questionnaire completed by sending e-mails to the managers of nine highly-ranked university digital repositories of the world in 2013. findings: in 55.5% of studied repositories, the main submitters were university researchers. in 44.4% of them, the submission of abstracts and full-texts was mandatory for some resources and optional for others. in 77.7% of them, the submitted resource was theses. in 77.7% of them, the access to abstracts and full-texts was possible. 77.7% used dublin core metadata. 55.5% provided meta-data for non-commercial objectives. all supported the pdf and word file formats. 44/4% have non-defined preservation period. 66.6% defined the preservative strategy by providing backup file and its holding in a safe place. 66.6% applied handle digital object identifier. 55.5% relied on the updated item for the control and mending process. 66.6% did not define the condition for the close repository and 55.5% provided open access repository to the public.