How to love research online

In 2010, University of the Arts London launched UAL Research Online, one of the first open access institutional repositories specialised for research in arts and design. In doing so, we found ourselves providing a de facto definition of ‘open access’ for research that was often not textually communicated, and regularly practice-based, site specific and time-limited. The place of the institutional repository in art and design infrastructure remains insecure, however; those caring for the collection are unaccredited outsiders, asking admission to a space into which unaccredited outsiders are rarely admitted. A fundamental issue is trust; can researchers trust repository staff to care for their artistic research in the same way they trust publishers, galleries and web designers to do so? Can funders trust the researchers and their repositories to fulfil the Open Access requirements they impose on recipients of research funding? Who owns the repository, and who owns what’s in it?