The 21st International Conference on Open Repositories, OR2026, will be held online June 8-11, 2026 with sessions scheduled at different times to accommodate a range of timezones. The organizers are pleased to invite you to contribute to the program.

The theme for the OR2026 conference is: Open to All? Repositories at the Intersection of People, Practice, and Emerging Technologies

Exploring how repositories sustain open knowledge exchange while advancing FAIR principles, preservation, community building, and responding to the challenges and opportunities of emerging technologies.

Our last online conference, OR2021, was held with “Open for All” as the theme. As we look back over the past five years, what has changed in the broader landscape of repositories? What new challenges are open repositories facing? How are repositories responding and addressing these challenges, and what opportunities are they embracing? As we embark on a fully online conference in 2026, we ask, are open repositories Open to All? 

We particularly welcome proposals aligned to the overall theme, but also on other administrative, organizational, or practical topics related to open digital repositories. We are interested in the following sub-themes:

  • Sustaining open knowledge exchange: How do we balance commitments to openness with long-term resilience and sustainability through our practices and partnerships?
  • FAIR principles: How are we ensuring that repository content is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reuseable and how are we addressing the ability of machines to automatically find and use digital assets?
  • Preservation: How are financial and resource impacts addressed in our work to ensure that repositories and their digital content are preserved into the future?
  • Community building: How do we strengthen and continue to build an open community of practice?
  • Responding to challenges and opportunities of emerging technologies: New technologies have the potential to offer both opportunities and challenges to repositories and scholarly communication infrastructure. How are we taking advantage of opportunities and mitigating potential threats?

There are a number of submission categories, including: workshops, panels, roundtable discussions, presentations, and pre-recorded lightning talks. We look forward to the vibrant conversations and learning opportunities of the conference.

OR2026 will be using the Zoom Events platform for the online conference. With the exception of Lightning Talks which are pre-recorded, presenters will be required to use Zoom’s screen-share facility to present from their local computers.

We are thrilled about the opportunities an online conference provides and will only plan to charge a small registration fee to attendees from “high income” countries to cover the online platform costs. Registration for all other attendees will be free.

The deadline for submissions is January 11, 2026.

Please note: This is a firm deadline for submissions and there will not be an extension.

Submission Process

Submission templates: The Program Committee has provided templates to use for submissions (see also below for links). Please use the submission template, and then submit through ConfTool where you will be asked to provide additional information (such as primary contact and the conference subtheme your submission best fits).

Submission limit: Authors are limited to four total submissions to OR2026 across any submission category.

Use of AI: Open Repositories discourages substantial use of AI to create proposal submissions. Proposals developed by generative AI are typically not strong submissions as they tend to lack original content.

Submission language: While the official language of Open Repositories is English, Open Repositories is an international conference. We recognize the language barrier of English-only submissions. Submissions are not penalized for grammatical issues and review scoring does not include English language proficiency in the review rubric.

Recording and dissemination: Accepted proposals will be made available through the conference’s website. All Presentations, Panel presentations, Developer Track presentations, and the Repository Showdown presentations will be recorded on the Zoom events platform. Workshops may be recorded on the Zoom events platform. With the exception of Roundtables and select Workshops, presenters of accepted proposals will be required to sign a speaker release form. Live recordings and pre-recorded Lightning Talks will be made available to registered attendees during the conference and for a limited time after the conference. Later, the presentations and associated materials will be made available in the Zenodo Open Repositories community under a CC BY license.

Proceedings: After the completion of the conference, in addition to all presentations archived in the Zenodo community, we may also solicit full papers from a selection of presentations to be published in the OR2026 proceedings (open access, no article processing charge) in cooperation with a scholarly publisher. If you are proposing a presentation or panel, please consider whether it would benefit from publication as a journal article.

Submission Categories

Presentations

We invite Presentations on topics relating to the theme Open to All? Repositories at the Intersection of People, Practice, and Emerging Technologies and on repository topics, more generally. Presentations will be 20 minutes plus time for questions and discussion.

Presentation proposals should be two to three pages. Please use the presentation submission template.

Panels

Panels are made up of two or more panelists presenting on work or issues where multiple perspectives and experiences are useful or necessary. Successful submissions in past years have typically described work relevant to a wide audience and applicable beyond a single software system or institution.

All Panels are expected to represent different viewpoints and perspectives.

Panels will be 50 minutes including time for Q&A. Panel proposals should be two to three pages. Please use the panel submission template.

Roundtable Discussions

Birds of a Feather, or Roundtable Discussions, are designed to bring together small groups to discuss and explore a specific topic. One or two moderators (also called facilitators) will organize the discussion and keep it moving. The moderator will have prepared questions to help facilitate conversation and gather different perspectives.

Roundtable Discussions will be 50 minutes long and limited to no more than 40 participants.

Proposals for Roundtable Discussions should be no longer than two pages. Please use the roundtable submission template.

Developer Track

The Developer Track provides focus for showcasing technical work and exchanging ideas. Presentations will be 20 minutes plus time for questions and discussion. Successful Developer Track presentations include live demonstrations, tours of code repositories, examples of cool features, and unique viewpoints.

Proposals for the developer track should be one page. Please use the developer track submission template.

Workshops and Tutorials

Workshops and Tutorials generally cover practical issues around repositories and related technologies, tools, and processes. Successful Workshops include clear learning outcomes, involve active learning, and are realistic in terms of the number of attendees that can actively participate in the Workshop.

Workshops will take place on Monday, the day before the main conference begins.

Workshops and Tutorials can be one hour, two hours, or three hours.

Proposals for Workshops should be no longer than two pages. Please use the workshop submission template.

Repository Showdown

The Showdown gives repository providers and developers the opportunity to demonstrate/highlight any new or key features and services of their platform. In this track, each system/presenter will have eight minutes of allocated time to present/demo. Following the presentations, there will be an informal discussion period available with systems/presenters.

Proposals for the Repository Showdown track should be one page. Please use the repository showdown submission template.

Online Express Lightning Talks

Online Express is a series of pre-recorded Lightning Talks that will be made available for viewing to attendees from the first day of the conference. Each pre-recorded Lightning Talk should be no more than three minutes. Lightning Talks should be fast-paced and have a clear focus on one idea. Lightning Talks about failures and lessons learned are highly encouraged.

Proposals for an Online Express Lightning Talk should be one page. Please use the online express submission template.

Templates

The OR2026 proposal templates help you prepare an effective submission. Please select the submission type below to download the templates for editing. Templates are available in Microsoft Word and Open Doc format. Submission in PDF format is preferred.

Please contact or26-program-chairs@googlegroups.com if you experience problems with downloading or using the templates.

Submission System

The submission system is now open – https://www.conftool.net/or2026/

Review Process

All submissions will be peer-reviewed and evaluated according to the criteria outlined in the call for proposals, including quality of content, significance, originality, and thematic fit. The program committee makes the final decisions on inclusion in the conference. If you would like to volunteer to be a reviewer, please fill out the reviewer interest form.

Also, please note that the program committee may accept a submission with the requirement that it move to another format (a presentation to a pre-recorded Lightning Talk, for example). In such cases, submitters will have the opportunity to decide whether to accept or decline such a move.

Code of Conduct

Please see the OR2026 Code of Conduct. We expect submitters to hold to the Code of Conduct in their proposals, presentations, and while attending the conference.

Key Dates

  • October 22, 2025: Call for proposals open
  • January 11, 2026: Deadline for submissions. (Please note: A deadline extension is not planned.)
  • February 2026: Submitters notified of acceptance of presentation, panel, roundtable, developer track, workshop, repository showdown, and online express proposals.
  • May 4, 2026: Deadline to submit Online Express pre-recorded Lightning Talks
  • June 8-11, 2026: OR2026 conference

Program Co-Chairs

  • Joseph Kraus, Colorado School of Mines
  • Ianthe Sutherland, University of Edinburgh
  • Paul Walk, Antleaf Ltd.
  • Maureen P. Walsh, The Ohio State University Libraries

Contact:  or26-program-chairs@googlegroups.com