Transparent Trustworthy Repository Attributes Matrix (TTRAM): Supporting Transparency Across Repositories
Repository managers and researchers are increasingly facing challenges that go beyond simple data storage. Across the EOSC ecosystem, repositories operate in highly diverse environments, each with its own policies, standards, governance structures, and preservation approaches. While this diversity reflects the richness of the repository landscape, it can also make it difficult to understand how repositories operate and what services they provide.
Although many repositories have established workflows, policies, and procedures, information about these practices is not always easy to find or interpret. Descriptions may be scattered across different documents, expressed in different ways, or focus on different aspects of repository operations. As a result, repository managers often face difficulties in understanding repository practices and comparing approaches across organisations.
In this context, transparency becomes an important enabler for cooperation, engagement, and trust within the repository community.
What is TTRAM?
The Transparent Trustworthy Repository Attributes Matrix (TTRAM) has been developed by FIDELIS, and supports a better understanding of repositories and explores which characteristics should be reflected by a repository in order to be considered trustworthy.
Rather than evaluating repositories against a fixed set of requirements, the TTRAM provides a structured way of describing repository activities and the information that can be shared about them. The framework helps repositories identify which aspects of their operations may be useful to communicate to others, supporting more informed discussions between repository managers, users, depositors, and other stakeholders.
A Structured Framework for Repository Activities
The TTRAM covers approximately 30 common repository activities and functions, organised into three broad areas:
Digital Object Management
Organisational Infrastructure
Technology and Security
The framework recognises that repositories differ significantly in their missions, resources, and communities. For this reason, TTRAM is designed to accommodate a variety of repository types rather than promoting a single approach.
Supporting Transparency and Mutual Understanding
Transparency is not simply about making information available. It is also about ensuring that information is structured, understandable, and useful to others.
The TTRAM supports this objective by helping repositories collect information about their practices in a logical and reusable way. By making repository activities more visible and easier to understand, the framework can facilitate dialogue, cooperation, and mutual support across the repository landscape.
The matrix can be used as a starting point for discussions within repositories, as a checklist for reviewing existing documentation, or as a framework for communicating practices to external stakeholders.
Contributing to the FIDELIS Vision
The TTRAM contributes to ongoing efforts to strengthen collaboration and shared understanding across the repository community. By providing a common structure for describing repository activities, the framework supports the sharing of practices, the development of aligned approaches, and the creation of a stronger network of repositories across EOSC and beyond. In doing so, it helps repositories progress on their journey towards greater transparency and trustworthiness.
We welcome questions and feedback on the TTRAM via fidelis.matrixfeedback-request@postit.csc.fi