University of Texas Digital Repository http://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/

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What is an IR? What is UTDR? Institutional repositories are online databases that hold and preserve digital copies of the scholarly output of institutions and make that output freely available. The University of Texas Digital Repository (UTDR) uses DSpace, open-source software, to let users deposit, catalog, search, and retrieve this scholarly output.

What is the purpose of the Repository? The purpose of the UT Digital Repository purpose is to collect, record, provide access to, and archive the scholarly, educational, and research-oriented digital works of the University of Texas at Austin.

What are the benefits of the Repository? It’s easier to put your work in the Repository than to post and maintain your work on a website – just click a few buttons and fill in a few blanks. You can do it from any computer. Long-term accessibility: Things in the IR have an address or “handle” that will never break – you can cite it, and the plan is that 10 – 20 – 30 – indefinite years down the line, that address will still work. Google searches will find works in the Repository. If you want to restrict access to your work, you can work with the IR administrators to set that up.

Why is the library doing this? The University of Texas Libraries’ long-standing role on campus has evolved to encompass stewardship over digital materials. An IR is a means to provide this stewardship, i.e. preservation and open access, while increasing the visibility and citation impact of UT Austin’s scholarship and research. The Libraries needed to create a storage system for electronic theses and dissertations, so instead of thinking small, the Libraries is keeping an eye toward the future and increasing open access to scholarly output.

Who maintains the Repository? After the initial rollout, the UT Digital Repository will be maintained by the UTDR Oversight Group, which will revise and update policies, staff and public training materials, and the FAQs on a regular basis.  The IR Curator, along with Community Administrators and Collection Curators, will make decisions about the materials to be included in accordance with the Collections, Copyright and Licensing, and Submission and Withdrawal policies. See the Project IRI Web site for these policies and other information.

Who can submit? The UT Digital Repository is open to research and scholarship submitted by UT Austin faculty, staff, and students. Students or student groups wishing to place works in the Repository must be sponsored by a faculty member. UT submitters need authorization from a Repository administrator in order to submit works. Repository administrators will review each submission and communicate with submitters as needed. For more information see the Submission and Withdrawal Policy linked from the IR web site.

Why should I use the Repository ? Current policy trends embracing open access model: Funding agencies in the U.S. and abroad are establishing public access policies requiring deposit in open access (OA) repositories (e.g. HHMI, NIH, Wellcome Trust, European Research Council). Academic communities are beginning to adopt public access policies that mandate or facilitate default deposit in OA repositories (e.g. Harvard Arts & Sciences and Law School faculty).

What is Open Access? Open Access (OA) makes scholarly material freely available online to the public without financial, legal, or technical barriers to the user.  What makes it possible is the Internet and the consent of the author or copyright-holder.

Why do Open Access? Increasing access to scholarly literature Absurdity of current situation where we pay skyrocketing costs to provide access to the fruits of our own faculty research Public funds – public access Widen access in developing countries

Why not deposit in a disciplinary repository? Depositing your work in the Repository doesn’t replace deposit in a disciplinary repository, but increases visibility of your work to researchers not in your discipline (who might not use, for example, ArXiv).

How do I/others use the Repository? Anyone can use the Repository to browse, search, and download scholarly material UT faculty, staff, and students can describe and store their digital scholarly materials. Colleges, departments, and centers at UT can create unique communities and collections. Access to some material may be restricted by the submitter, but anyone will be able to view the information describing a digital resource or collection in the Repository.

What goes in the Repository? Types of material suitable for the Repository include dissertations and theses, articles and conference papers, datasets, images, sound, video, musical scores, technical reports, working papers—essentially, any scholarly work produced by a member of the UT Community. Most formats are acceptable—.doc, .pdf, .wmv, .jpg. For a list of recommended formats see forthcoming Appendix B of the Submission and withdrawal policy.

Preparing to submit to the Repository All works must be in digital format prior to submission to a collection as the Library does not offer digitization services. After authorization by the collection curator to submit to a specific collection, follow these simple steps - see video Submitters can choose to submit to the UT Author Works collection without preauthorization. All submitted works will be reviewed by the collection curator or a UTDR curator.

Submission Process Flow Chart Can my work go into the UT Digital Repository? Submission Process Flow Chart I am a UT Austin faculty member. I am a UT Austin staff member. I am a UT Austin student. Yes! Go to next page. Are you…? Is your work…? Grad student? Undergrad? yes yes no Theses and dissertations are automatically submitted… Yes! Go to next page. A faculty member must sponsor you. A faculty member must sponsor you.

How do I put my work into the Repository? Step 1: Legal due diligence… Step 2: Make sure the work fits Repository specifications. Step 3: Login and go to Submissions… Step 4: Select an existing collection, or make a new one links to license, copyright policy link to appropriate policies; list of file types, allowed extensions (Appendix B); file-size info, submission policy link to login page collections policy

How is the Repository structured? The UT Digital Repository has two levels: Communities & Collections Communities are created and maintained by colleges, departments, research centers, or administrative and other campus groups, as outlined in the Services Policy. Collections are parts of communities that hold groups of digital works.  A community can have multiple collections. So there won’t be empty collections, collections will only be added to the hierarchy the first time materials are actually submitted to the UTDR.

Staff roles associated with levels of hierarchy UT Digital Repository – IR Curator       Community – Community Administrator                    Collection – Collection Curator

Communities and Collections in the Repository

How much of the work of depositing will UTDR staff do for me? It depends. The Repository is designed to make deposit of most works fast and easy, and we have step-by-step instructions to guide you through the process. However, UT Libraries staff can help with the deposit of files larger than 512 MB in size or batch deposit of large numbers of works. 

Repositories, publishers, and copyright Assigning copyright to a publisher does not necessarily mean that you cannot deposit in the Repository. Many publishers now permit authors the non-exclusive right to deposit copies of their work in one or more repositories. This is an “Open Access” right authors should negotiate in addition to any copyright agreement. This author’s addendum shows sample language.

Checking publishers’ policies It is the responsibility of Repository submitters to check a publisher’s or journal’s policy about archiving in an OA repository. Check the SHERPA RoMEO (Rights MEtadata for Open archiving) web site for publisher or journal permissions normally given as part of a publisher’s copyright transfer agreement. These are the default policies and changes or exceptions can often be negotiated by authors.

Example: Elsevier

RoMEO’s color categories RoMEO differentiates between four categories of archiving rights using these colors:

Example of a publisher that DOES NOT allow OA archiving:

How can I tell who’s using or how much use my deposited works get? The Repository does not currently provide usage information for works in the repository.  UTDR features will be enhanced over time; usage statistics may be available in the future.

Have questions? UTDR Contacts An FAQ is under development. Flash videos of the submission and search processes are available.

Open Access Journals (should we include this section at all?)  OA journals typically let authors retain copyright and do not charge for access via a subscription model. Revenue is generated by author/institution fees (pay to play) and in some cases page charges (which can be covered by grants). There are many business models for OA Journals, which can be non-profit (e.g. Public Library of Science or PLoS) or for-profit (e.g. BioMed Central or BMC). Some publishers [are already] experimenting with open access options, e.g. Springer Open Choice [does anyone know of any other publisher open access experimentation so we can have more than one example?] Browse a list of Open Access Journals by discipline at : http://www.doaj.org/