The Research Repository is an Open Access platform to showcase and preserve Memorial University's creative and intellectual output. Faculty may submit work at their discretion, including:

• Article postprints
• Lectures
• Conference Papers
• Reports
• Performances

The Memorial University Research Repository runs on the open source Eprints platform.

 

The Memorial University Research Repository is located at

http://research.library.mun.ca/

The repository will support faculty efforts to discover and communicate new knowledge, will improve the visibility of Memorial's research in the global arena, and will help our faculty to build impressive, lasting digital portfolios. All material submitted to the repository will be freely discoverable online through Google and other major search engines.

Who can submit material to the Research Repository?

The Research Repository is open to all Memorial University faculty members and academic staff, including sessionals and part-timers. Contact Dr. Patrick Gamsby for more information.

How can I submit my work?

The library provides mediated services for the submission of your research outputs. The library will assess the self-archiving policies of your publishers, let you know which can be submitted, and will perform submissions on your behalf.

What type of work can I submit?

We are happy to accept both published and unpublished materials, as long as they are related to research, teaching, and learning.  Everything that you submit will be associated with your name and departmental affiliation, and will be freely discoverable through Google and other web search engines.

Published materials include journal articles, postprints, & book chapters. Many publishers will allow you to submit a copy of your postprint - the version of an article that has gone through the peer-review and editing process, but without the final publisher branding and layout. Some publishers will even allow you to submit the final PDF of the article from their website.

Unpublished material  may include reports, presentations, conference papers, lectures, performances, course materials, or any other intellectual output that you wish to share on the web. 

How do I know whether my publisher agreement allows me to submit a copy of my work to an Open Access repository?

SHERPA/RoMEO is a directory of copyright and self-archiving polices for most major commercial journal publishers. Simply type in the name of your journal to determine your rights.

Small and niche publishers are not always included in the SHERPA/RoMEO database. In some cases it will be necessary to contact your publisher directly. To make publisher requests easy we offer this template for publisher requests.

What are preprints and postprints?

A preprint is the version of a paper before it has gone through the peer-review process. A post-print is a version of the paper after peer-review, with revisions having been made. Post-prints have the same content as the published article, but they do not have the final publisher layout and branding. Typically, this means that the author cannot use the publisher-generated .pdf file, but must make their own .pdf version for submission to a repository.

 What file formats can I submit?

In order to make submission as easy as possible, we will not limit the formats that you may submit, although the library does reserve the right to migrate obsolete formats to ensure usability over time.  Because the audience for your work might be quite diverse, it will be best if you choose formats in common, open standards. The library can recommend formats, and can even help you to convert your existing files before you submit.

Will my submission be reviewed?

The library does not formally review the content of your submission, but we do have a look at items before we make them live. We may add extra citation information, add a preservation version of the file in a more accessible format, or review a publisher’s copyright policy to make sure that there are no infringements.  

Does the university have any copyright over items I deposit in the research repository?

No. You keep all your existing rights over your work. This also means that you have the right to withdraw items as you see fit.

We strongly encourage you to release your  previously unpublished work under a Creative Commons license, that allows you to authorize some uses of your work, while preventing others.

Do I require the permission of my co-authors in order to deposit?

If you have already transferred your copyright to a commercial publisher and you are submitting under the publisher’s self-archiving policy, then you do not need the permission of your co-authors. It’s good collegial practice to alert your co-authors, but you do not legally require their permission.

If copyright on the work has not been transferred to a commercial publisher (e.g. the work is unpublished, or published by an Open Access journal that allows you to keep the copyright on your work) then you must seek the permission of your co-authors before submitting.

Sounds like extra work. Why would I bother doing this?

The Research Repository is an Open Access initiative that allows faculty to openly share their creative and intellectual output. Your profile could be used as the basis of an online c.v. or a departmental website highlighting new and interesting faculty research.  Your published articles will be easy to find in major search engines, and can be accessed without login barriers. Many studies have shown that this can increase the number of citations that an article generates. The Research Repository is a great way to easily share unpublished works like reports, slides, conference papers, and lectures that may be of use to other teachers and learners, but would typically be almost impossible for them to find or read. Every item in the Research Repository has it’s own unique URL, making it easy to share links to specific items. You can also share a link to a list of all of the items submitted by a particular author, or to a list of all of the works submitted by authors with a particular departmental affiliation.

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons (CC) licenses are legally valid, and can be downloaded and used at no charge. They allow you to authorize some uses of your work, while preventing others. All CC licenses require others to provide attribution to you, if they use any part of your work. You may also choose to license your work only for non-commercial purposes, meaning that it can be used freely for research or teaching, but that no one else may profit from your work financially. For more information, please visit the websites for Creative Commons, and Creative Commons Canada.

What is Open Access?

Open Access is a global movement to make scholarly content more easily discoverable and accessible by removing subscription and login barriers. Open Access journals can provide higher visibility for your work while allowing you to retain control over your copyrights. Many studies have shown that Open Access articles receive more downloads, and higher citation counts because they are globally accessible, rather than restricted to those who can afford subscriptions. For more information, check out this website on the citation advantage of open access publications.

Can a department submit materials?

We are happy to allow departments to post items, as long as a faculty member requests the account and assumes responsibility for copyright & quality control. Your department may wish to post materials from a lecture or colloquia series, showcase award winning or exemplary student work, or archive reports and other intellectual output that may be of interest to others.

Can the library alter my submission in any way?

The library will not edit or otherwise change the content of your submissions, although we will sometimes enhance citation information. The library reserves the right to make copies of material for preservation purposes, and we may sometimes migrate file formats that have become obscure or obsolete.

Will the library keep all of this material forever?

We guarantee that submitted files will remain online for a minimum of ten years. The library will make efforts to preserve material in the repository over the long term, although we cannot guarantee that all file formats will stand the test of time. The library will prioritize published and high use material for long-term preservation.

RR Take Down Policy

Preservation Plan

Publisher Request Template (DOCX)