check icon Policies for IUScholarWorks

 

 

 

Copyright and Use Policy

 

Ownership of copyright:

 

Repository materials are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved by the copyright holder. In order to place your work(s) in IUScholarWorks and make them openly available on the web, you must agree to the IUScholarWorks limited, non-exclusive license, which:

  • confirms that you own the copyright to the items
  • grants Indiana University permission to distribute the items worldwide and to take the necessary steps to preserve them.

Authors may also consider licensing their works with a Creative Commons License. Using this license allows authors to preserve those rights that are most important to them (e.g., proper attribution), and at the same time explicitly grant to readers certain other rights chosen by the author to be used at the reader’s discretion (e.g., copy, distribute, display, or perform the work).

Use of materials:

By default, materials deposited in IUScholarWorks are Open Access, which means anyone on the web can access them. Single copies of full items may be reproduced for personal research or study purposes without prior permission or charge. Permission must be obtained from the rights holder for all other uses, unless a Creative Commons license is displayed on the item or the use is a Fair Use.

For more information, please see our Copyright and Licensing page.

Content Policy

The content in IUScholarWorks represents the research, scholarship, and intellectual output of the Indiana University community. Therefore, only materials authored or published by the following IU affiliates are eligible for deposit:

  • Any IU research unit, institute, center, department, or university partner
  • IU faculty and staff
  • IU dissertation and thesis writers
  • IU students with authorization from a sponsoring department or faculty member

 

The academic units decide what content to put into their respective communities. Types of content may include, but are not limited to:

  • Submitted manuscripts (as sent to journals for peer-review)
  • Accepted versions (author’s final peer-reviewed drafts)
  • Published versions (publisher-created files)
  • Supplementary files, including multimedia or datasets
  • Gray literature (conference papers, working drafts, primary evidence)
  • Dissertations and theses
  • Negative results or work that will not be finished
  • Conference proceedings (for conferences hosted by IU units)

 

While IUScholarWorks can host data and code, please note that DSpace can only publish static files. This means that interactive web pages or other dynamic content cannot be rendered within the system, although the code used to create the items can still be preserved.

Embargo Policy

 

Embargoes in IUScholarWorks are treated as a publicly available descriptive item record with restrictions on access to the file itself. Metadata/citation information will be visible for embargoed items. Since search engines will be able to find these citations that do not yet include the full-text content, any embargoed item in IUScholarWorks must contain contact information for the corresponding creator/principal investigator (NOT the depositor), so that end users who wish to gain access may request it.

Embargoes may be set for any time period up to five (5) years from the date of deposit. Renewal of embargoes beyond five (5) years will not be possible; all work deposited will, by that time, become Open Access. IUScholarWorks was originally conceived of as an Open Access repository, and we encourage researchers to consider making their publications Open Access and their data Open Data. However, we acknowledge that in some cases researchers may need to restrict access to their work. There are many reasons why some might want to embargo their deposits, which include but are not strictly limited to:

 

  • Plans to file a patent based on research and/or data
  • Research and/or data is subject to review by sponsor or grantor prior to publication

In some instances, submission for Open Access publishing should not be considered until the resolution of certain key issues, such as:

 

  • Plans for future publication based on research and/or data
  • Plans to publish research based on research and/or data and publisher has indicated that data release counts as "prior publication"
  • Third-party content remains to be licensed properly

Any research deposited in IUScholarWorks must be stripped of all personally-identifiable information, in accordance with patient privacy laws and IRB restrictions. Data sensitivity is not an acceptable reason for embargo.

 

Format and Preservation Policy

 

The system is designed to hold and deliver scholarly materials in digital form (text, data, image, audio, video, etc.), that will not change over time and that are adequately described with standard keywords and descriptors (i.e., do not have specialized metadata requirements). It is not equipped to support the archiving and/or accessibility of dynamic resources like open web sites, interactive applications, files with complex metadata requirements, authoring tools, or dynamic learning objects.

Because the technological environment is changing rapidly, it may not be possible to preserve the usability of every file format that is deposited in the Repository. Certain file formats (openly-documented, non-proprietary, lossless) are more easily preserved than others. IUScholarWorks staff can provide guidance related to file formats.

 

Removal Policy

 

IUScholarWorks has been established as a permanent archive with the goal of providing perpetual access to deposited materials. Files will be removed from IUScholarWorks only under extraordinary circumstances, such as:

  • Journal publishers’ requirements
  • Proven copyright infringement or plagiarism
  • Proven violations of libel or invasion of privacy
  • Falsified research

In instances where an author wishes to retract an earlier position, statement, or interpretation, the file will not be removed. In keeping with the Revisions Policy below, authors have the option to submit a new or revised version.

 

Please direct inquiries to iusw@indiana.edu and an IUScholarWorks staff member will respond to discuss the situation and suggest the best action. In addition, the IU Libraries and Indiana University retain the right to withdraw any item from IUScholarWorks if they deem such action necessary. In these cases, an attempt to notify the author will be made to apprise them of the situation.

 

In order to avoid the loss of the historical record for items withdrawn from IUScholarWorks, the system will display a substitute citation for any withdrawn item noting that the item by this person, published on a specific date, with this title, and with this specific URL has been removed, thereby leaving a 'tombstone' record. This will ensure that the URL never disappears even though the actual item has been withdrawn.

Revisions Policy

 

Revisions to submitted files may only be made to correct typographical, grammatical and spelling errors. No substantial revisions of findings, facts, etc. are permitted. In cases where authors have substantially reworked the content and wish to make a newer version available, they are encouraged to submit the new or revised version as a new item. IUScholarWorks staff will provide assistance in linking the earlier version with the later version.