National Repository Infrastructure and Open Access Challenges: The Croatian Perspective

Repositories are one of the key infrastructure components in achieving the goals of open science. In response to legal obligations, emerging trends, and challenges in open science, several Croatian institutions jointly established a national digital repository infrastructure in 2015 - the DABAR system (Digital Academic Archives and Repositories). Its purpose is to provide a unified space for storing, preserving, and ensuring open access to the scholarly output of scientists and institutions within the Croatian science and higher education system. After nearly a decade of operation, it is crucial to assess the role of this infrastructure today and evaluate whether it has successfully embodied the core principles of open science - openness, transparency, and visibility of scientific and Croatian scholarly output. This paper presents the Croatian national repository infrastructure as a case study, offering insights for comparison with similar national infrastructures. The study employs a quantitative research approach, divided into two parts to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state and future development of repositories in Croatia. The first part analyses quantitative data and repository statistics. The DABAR infrastructure currently comprises 182 repositories and hosts over 249,000 digital objects, yet only slightly more than 50% of them are openly accessible. To investigate the reasons behind the high percentage of restricted or closed-access objects, a survey was conducted among institutions that primarily deposit such items. The findings of this research contribute to a broader discussion on open science practices and repository management at both European and international levels. The results will serve as a foundation for further improvements to the infrastructure, the promotion of open science principles, and the development of systematic support mechanisms to encourage greater accessibility and transparency in scholarly communication.