What is the NOAA Institutional Repository?

The NOAA Institutional Repository is a digital library of scientific literature and research produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Through curated collections researchers can access documents and materials related to specific areas of research. Additionally, full text and other search options make the entirety of the repository accessible to users. This repository is retained indefinitely available to researchers, academics and the general public. This repository has been created in fulfillment of the NOAA Plan for Increasing Public Access to Research Results (PARR) which was issued in response to the White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) Memorandum Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research issued 2013 February 22.

What is accepted into the NOAA IR?

NOAA authored publications with one or more NOAA authors (federal, contractor or cooperative) or NOAA funded publications. The following types of NOAA research publications are required to be submitted to the IR:

NOAA Series Publications including:

• NOAA Technical Memorandum
• NOAA Technical Reports
• NOAA Atlases
• NOAA Professional Papers

Other NOAA non-series publications. For more information on accepted types of non-series NOAA publications please see the Central Library's NOAA IR Document Policy.

NOAA authored/funded journal articles:

• Any peer-reviewed journal article with one or more authors employed by or who have received funding from NOAA must be submitted to the NOAA IR. All submissions should be published AFTER October 1, 2015.
• Journal articles that are submitted must be manuscripts with final edits, but before the publishers' formatting (e.g., pagination, logos, etc.) has been added. These files will be made available 12 months after their publication date. Open Access articles will be accepted in their final published form and made available immediately.

Submission FAQs

• Who should submit to the NOAA IR?
  • All NOAA authors and grantees are required to submit their publications no later than one year after publication to the IR according to the NOAA Public Access Policy for Scholarly Publications (Public Access Policy). As some NOAA offices are submitting on behalf of authors, please check with your program manager or supervisor to see if this situation applies to you. However, it is the responsibility of the author to ensure their publication is submitted to the NOAA IR.
• How do I submit my material(s)?
  • Submission Form: The submission form is available to anyone with a noaa.gov email address. It is a 2-step process. First, submitters will attach PDF files that are Section 508 compliant. Second, submitters will need to fill out the form portion indicating the document type, author names, article title, and the item's DOI (if available).
  • Email: You are also able to submit to the repository via the IR's service account at noaa.repository@noaa.gov. Email is the best method if you are submitting a batch of documents. If this is a batch submission, indicate how many documents are included. In the body of the email, include the article citation if it is a single item submission. For single documents, attach the document PDF or a link to the item in Google Drive. For batches, include the Excel batch submission template. Use the spreadsheet to provide document links to either an outside web source or to a Google Drive file/folder. For both single and batch submissions include information on the primary point of contact (if it is different than the submitter).
  • Via RPTS. For those offices that have implemented the Research Publication Tracking System (RPTS), there is an option to directly submit publications to the NOAA IR via the tool. 
• Should my submission be Section 508 Compliant?
  • Yes. According to Sect. 7.2, of the NOAA PARR Plan: "Submitted manuscripts shall be required to be in an accessible format (for example, Adobe Portable Document Format [PDF] with Adobe Accessibility Check performed)." Section 508 compliance standards can be found here. For more information on Section 508 compliance and resources, please see the library's Section 508 Compliance LibGuide.
• I need to have my journal article remediated, how can I do that?
  • For journal article manuscripts, the NOAA Central Library will perform your 508 remediation for you! Simply submit your journal article manuscript and you are done - the IR staff will take care of the rest. 

Please see our extended FAQs page for more information.

Section 508 is an amendment to the US Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973--a federal law that mandates all federal agencies make their electronic and information technology (such as publications, presentations, software and websites) accessible to people with disabilities. In making documents 508 compliant, these documents and web pages are then accessible to people with disabilities via assistive technologies such as screen or text readers. 

Please see our Section 508 Compliance Guide for more information, tutorials, and examples.