Introduction

The purpose of the UNL Repository is to publicize, disseminate, and preserve the scholarly work of current UNL scholars to educate and inform the world. It is intended to provide access to this work as broadly as possible, and for as long as possible.

Who Can Join?

Any University of Nebraska research unit, department, lab, center, or institute is eligible to join. Hereafter, any of these is referred to as the " unit" in this document.

Whose Papers Can Be Included in the Repository?

The unit will decide what content is appropriate for their part of the repository

(e.g., journal article postprints, conference papers, technical reports, preprints, working papers, senior design papers, simulations, programs, etc.).

While content does not have to be authored by UNL faculty to be included in the Repository, there does need to be a UNL affiliation. For example, a unit may use the Repository to post papers from a conference they sponsored, which includes some UNL authors and many from other institutions. All that is required is that the sponsoring UNL unit decides that it is appropriate for their part of the Repository. The repository will feature the work of the current UNL community, but units can work with the Libraries on policies for their areas.

Appropriate Submissions

The unit working with the UNL Libraries reviews guidelines on content and sets policy for their unit. Any content is appropriate if all applicable policies are followed (e.g., copyright), it is technically feasible (the content can be posted using existing format types, etc.), and the unit decides it is appropriate. We do not accommodate the posting of bibliographic citations or abstracts alone without the referenced paper. If you have any questions, please contact Paul Royster at proyster@unl.edu.

Unit Agreements

The unit agrees to disseminate information regarding the procedures and policies for the repository, including author responsibilities regarding copyright, as set forth by the Libraries and communicated through written documents, correspondence, and training sessions.

Author Agreements and Copyright

Authors retain any copyright they have for all papers posted in the repository. When depositing material into the repository, each submitter agrees to the following:

I hold the copyright to this document, or have been authorized by the copyright holder(s) to upload it for distribution, and agree to permit this document to be posted in (Name of the Collection), and made available to the public in any format in perpetuity.

I warrant that the posting of the work does not infringe any copyright, nor violate any proprietary rights, nor contain any libelous matter, nor invade the privacy of any person or third party, nor otherwise violate Repository policies.

For more information about copyright, please refer to the repository copyright guidelines for authors. See also our copyright infringements policy.

Removing or Updating a Work

The Repository is meant to be a permanent scholarly record and once a paper is deposited anywhere in the Repository a citation to the paper will always remain.

However, authors may request that the unit repository administrator remove their paper, or a version of their paper. They may also request that an updated version be posted. Posting updated versions along with the original material is the way the Repository allows faculty to show the progression of their research.

Persistent Access and Migration

The Libraries will provide persistent access to Repository content, but it does not guarantee persistent functionality. If determined necessary by the Libraries, the current set of tools used for the Repository may be replaced. The Libraries will preserve all deposited contents through migration.

Peer-Reviewed Series

It is possible for the UNL Repository to support peer-reviewed series. If you are interested in starting a peer-reviewed series, contact repository@unl.edu, so we can help you decide whether this is the right forum for your scholarship.

(Adapted from the University of California eScholarship agreement and the University of Pennsylvania Library’s ScholarlyCommons@Penn agreement)).

Policy last changed April 2005

For Authors: How to Determine if Your Work can be Submitted to DigitalCommons@UNL

IF YOU RETAIN COPYRIGHT

If you retain copyright to the work in question, you should be able to submit it to DigitalCommons@UNL. Your work will receive increased visibility while raising the prestige of the University of Nebraska. Proceed to directly submit a paper via your account, or review the help if needed.

If you share the copyright with other authors, check with them to make sure they also approve of the work being archived and made available at DigitalCommons@UNL.

IF YOU DON’T RETAIN COPYRIGHT

If you do not retain copyright, but rather the publisher does, you should check publisher copyright policies to determine what is allowed to be submitted to an institutional repository. We recommend that you use the SHERPA list.

While the listing of publishers is growing, it does not cover all publishers. For this reason, we have been collecting policies from publishers’ web sites, as well as contacting publishers directly when their policy is ambiguous or when it does not address the institutional repository scenario. Please contact us if you have questions.

A number of publishers allow the post print (the post print is defined as the post-peer reviewed version of the article that is accepted by the publisher for final publication) to be submitted to an institutional repository, but not the publisher’s PDF version.

NOTE: With appropriate citation credit, the IEEE and MRS do allow UNL authors to submit the publisher PDF versions of papers to DigitalCommons@UNL.

If You Don’t Know Who Publishes Your Journal

Because of mergers and acquisitions, it is sometimes difficult to identify the parent company for a journal. The RoMEOSoton site allows you to input the journal name to look up the publisher. This site’s information on publisher’s policies is not as current as the SHERPA site, so we recommend that you only use RoMEOSoton to identify the publisher, and not its policies.

HOW TO INCLUDE CITATION INFORMATION

When you submit an article, in addition to entering descriptive information such as the author (s), title, date, keywords, and abstract, it is important to include citation information as well. This should be noted in the Comments…section when you submit the paper.

DOI – Digital Object Identifier

If you want or are required to refer to the publisher’s final version of a paper, you can turn a DOI into a URL by prefixing http://dx.doi.org/ to the front of the DOI the publisher specifies. Or, use CrossRef’s free DOI lookup. You have to either enter the Journal Title or the ISSN (they recommend title), and either the first named author or the first page number. The more information you input, the fewer results you will need to look through.

Questions?


Copyright Infringement Policy for DigitalCommons@UNL

Repository contributors are responsible for adhering to the copyright policies of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which includes adherence to federal copyright law. In general, we will assume good faith on the part of repository contributors, educate our contributors on their rights and responsibilities with respect to copyright, and act quickly to remedy copyright problems if they come up.

In order to prevent problems with allegations of copyright infringement involving DigitalCommons@UNL, we will:

  • Educate our users about the requirements of copyright law, copyright consideration for materials previously or subsequently posted in scholarly journals and other forums, and fair use.
  • Make it clear that submissions to DigitalCommons@UNL should comply with UNL’s policies on copyright and applicable copyright laws.
  • Include in the documentation for DigitalCommons@UNL are links to UNL’s policies on copyright and acceptable use of computing resources.
  • Require submitters to the repository warrant that their submissions do not infringe copyright. (This is part of the submission process.)

In the event that an interested party makes specific allegations of copyright infringement regarding material posted in the repository, with sufficient information to be substantially in compliance with the DMCA notification requirements, we will:

  • Forward such correspondence to: UNL’s designated DMCA copyright agent, the administrative contact for the unit under which the allegedly infringing material was posted, and the authors of the allegedly infringing material.
  • Remind authors and unit administrators of their rights and responsibilities concerning copyright and scholarly expression.

Upon the request of UNL’s copyright agent, the unit administrator, or the authors, we will:

  • Disable access to the full text of the allegedly infringing item.
  • Retain the item record and metadata (with a note that the full text is not available at present).
  • At our discretion we may choose to publicize the correspondence alleging infringement.
  • Ensure that the authors and unit administrators are notified of their counter-notification rights under the DMCA.
  • Restore access to the full text if such counter-notification is given.

In the event that we discover that specific material in DigitalCommons@UNL is posted in infringement of copyright, but we have not received actual notice from an interested party as described above, we will:

  • Report our discovery, and the reason for our judgment that the item is infringing, to the administrative contact for the unit under which the allegedly infringing material was posted, and the authors of the allegedly infringing material.
  • Remind authors and unit administrators of their rights and responsibilities concerning copyright and scholarly expression.
  • Request a warrant confirming that the material is not infringing.
  • If we do not receive one in a reasonable time period, at our discretion disable access to the full text as described above.

Generally, discovery of infringement should involve positive evidence of infringement. We should not presume that authors have not obtained special permission to use copyrighted material in their submissions. Nor should we presume that academic research publication violates anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA.

In any of the events described above, we will retain all correspondence related to the alleged or apparent infringements.

Policy last changed April, 2005