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The article tries to highlight the evolution and conceptual framework of institutional repositories and their impact on the academic and scholarly circles in terms of better visibility, wider audience and earlier communication of research. The characteristics associated with the institutional repositories are also highlighted, which makes them stand out from the crowd in the family of open access scholarly platforms. The study is based on the examination and evaluation of the articles published across various peer-reviewed journals showcasing numerous dimensions of institutional repositories, ranging from their evolution to open scholarly acceptance. A preliminary search on institutional repositories was carried through two well-renowned indexing/abstracting databases of peer-reviewed literature, Clarivate Analytic's, Web of Science and Elsevier's Scopus. Search terms like institutional repositories, institutional research output, open access repositories, green open access, open access, open access publishing, open access initiatives, digital libraries, directory of open access repositories, open DOAR and scholarly communication were run across the databases for article retrieval, and the relevant studies were extracted accordingly. To make the study more comprehensive and current, the studies citing the retrieved articles were also consulted. The study reveals that the benefits associated with institutional repositories are manifold. They recounter users with the information which was otherwise unavailable due to the reasons ranging from the non-availability of supplementary information (like unpublished reports and working papers, multimedia and audiovisual items, learning objects, other special item types, bibliographic references, datasets, lecture notes and so forth) to the paywall/subscription models adopted by commercial channels of scholarly communication. Furthermore, the social, research and technological factors tend to be the main motivating factors for their wider acceptance by the scholarly community at global, national, organizational, and individual levels. They enhance the preservation of institutional research output with increased viewership and prestige apart from achieving a potential research impact. They, in a real sense, have abrogated the unilateral assault orchestrated by the commercial publishers on the author community by democratizing their scholarly voices via open and barrierless scholarly platforms. They are the future of the academic output of an institution/author as they perform successfully within the constitutional boundaries of scholarly and academic publishing, thus safeguarding the rights and claims of every academic actor. Given the importance of institutional repositories for a more democratic, barrierless and impactful information communication, they are for sure going beyond various scholarly circles by breaking the traditional and rigid walls of scholarly endeavours. The study presents a useful overview of the progression of the institutional repositories, their intended purpose and how they serve to fill the gaps in scholarly publishing and meet the needs of the wider academic community. The article summarizes in one place a concise overview of the use and impact of institutional repositories. The study is also an eye-opener for scholars interested in the research in the field of institutional repositories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper tries to explore the role; institutional repositories play in highlighting the scholarly endeavours. The paper highlights how IR's preserve and disseminate digital materials created by, or associated with an institution. Methodology: Based on the findings of the earlier research the study will try to showcase the possibilities researchers can have from the IR's. The published literature was reviewed critically stressing on their empirical findings. Findings: The study reveals the academic impacts IR's have on the academic circles in terms of wider visibility, better academic recognition, better academic performance and many more. The study clearly reveals that IRs provide an opportunity to integrate and facilitate knowledge sharing so as to enrich knowledge content and enhance global access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predatory publishing is becoming one of the biggest menaces in the scholarly world. New budding authors easily become a prey to them. Article processing charges, which ensure quality, have become an enticing factor for the scholarly community which results in sub standard research practices. The study showcases the market of predatory publishing and how authors get entrapped in this scholarly mess which lacks credibility and authenticity. The study further portrays various ways which can save authors from this menace of predation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The study aims to focus on the application of Web 2.0 tools in Agriculture and Food Sciences open access journals. The changing trends in scholarly publishing processes have revolutionised the academic world. The shifting of academic journals to open access mode has been on the rise because of the numerous benefits associated with it. The high level of profitability reaped from open access titles has forced them to experiment with new and innovative technologies, including Web 2.0. The new shift in the form of Web 2.0 has sifted in to the open access journal world. Open access journals in the field of Agriculture and Food Sciences are growing and so are the features and functionalities within them. Because of these new innovative tools there is an urgent need to focus on their adoption. Design/methodology/approach -- Directory of Open Access Journals, being one of the growing open access journal directories, was selected for the purpose of data gathering. The journals selected for the study included those titles which were currently active. Findings -- The open access journal landscape in the field of Agriculture and Food Sciences is influenced by the Web 2.0 revolution. The degree of experimenting with Web 2.0 in open access journals in Agriculture and Food Sciences is evident and can prove an excellent platform for the dissemination of agricultural information in a more advanced mode. Researchlimitations/implications -- The study will be helpful for journal administrators who belong to the field of Agriculture and Food Sciences to know the actual status of Web 2.0 adoption by the journals in their field. The study can also be helpful for journal administrators for the adoption of Web 2.0 tools to achieve a better, more innovative and interactive scholarly platform. It will also enable us to know how the new pioneering technology -- Web 2.0 -- can help to explore new innovative ways of managing information in the scholarly world in general and the Agriculture and Food Sciences discipline in particular. Originality/value -- The study can be extended to harness the effects of Web 2.0 on the research activities of the scholars associated with various disciplines of Agriculture and Food Sciences. How Agricultural scientists make use of Web 2.0 for sharing and exchange of information for their academic development can also be researched. The impact of Web 2.0 tools on the citation counts of open access journals can also be studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]