About the Institutional Repository of DePaul University

DePaul's Institutional Repository offers two related platforms designed to collect, organize, and provide open access to scholarly works produced by the University’s faculty, staff, and students.

  • Digital Commons@DePaul - an institutional repository providing long-term storage of the University’s locally generated scholarship and creative works, and
  • SelectedWorks - a turnkey personal webpage service for DePaul’s scholars

Mission

The Institutional Repository, administered by the University Library, supports DePaul’s goals to enrich academic quality and support educational innovation by collecting, organizing, and providing open access to scholarly and creative works produced by the University’s faculty, staff, and students.  The service also supports the  university's goal to strengthen DePaul’s Catholic and Vincentian identity by showcasing DePaul’s unique Vincentian heritage.

The purpose of the institutional repository is to:

  • Facilitate the production and dissemination of the University’s journals and conference publications,
  • Promote and increase access to the University’s research and scholarship,
  • Promote and increase access to the creative works produced by the University's faculty, staff and students,
  • Foster collaboration among scholars,
  • Further DePaul’s Vincentian and Catholic identity.

Service Policies

DePaul’s digital repository services are managed according to the following policies.  Questions about these policies can be sent to the Library at digitalservices@depaul.edu

The Institutional Repository of DePaul University

The Institutional Repository is a service provided by the DePaul University Library. 

Organization

The repository organizes content by “communities,” that correspond to academic departments, programs, centers and other units at DePaul University.  Any school, college, academic department, academic program, research center, or research institute at DePaul University is eligible to participate as a community in Digital Commons@DePaul .  Other University units that produce research or creative works and are willing to assume administrative responsibilities are also eligible to become a community.

Material will be posted in Digital Commons@DePaul under the following high-level categories:

  • Colleges, Schools, Departments or Programs
  • Theses and dissertations
  • Journals and Peer Reviewed Publications
  • Conferences and Proceedings
  • Faculty and Staff SelectedWorks Pages
  • SelectedWorks Expert Gallery
  • Vincentian Heritage Collections
  • Open Textbooks
  • Audiovisual Materials

More detailed lists of content are available under the individual organizational units.

The Vincentian Heritage Collection is maintained and organized by the Vincentian Librarian.

Digital Commons@DePaul Content Management Policy

Departments and units registered as communities determine content to be included within the following guidelines:

  • The work must be produced, submitted, or sponsored by DePaul University faculty, researchers, students, or staff.
  • The author/owner must be willing and able to grant DePaul University the non-exclusive, perpetual right to distribute the work through Digital Commons@DePaul
  • If there are multiple authors, all must be willing and able to grant DePaul the ability to make the work available over the Internet through Digital Commons@DePaul
  • Content does not have to be authored by a DePaul University affiliate to be included in the Via. For example, a community may use the Repository to post papers written by faculty from other institutions that were presented at a conference sponsored by the DePaul University community. The repository will also accept items co-authored by a DePaul University affiliate with non-DePaul authors. A DePaul University Community Sponsor or article co-author is responsible for securing permissions agreements from non-DePaul authors before content may be posted in the repositiory

The DePaul University institutional repository supports the following scholarly content

  • Electronic journals
  • Articles, post-prints and pre-prints
  • Technical reports
  • Working papers
  • Conference proceedings
  • Presentations
  • Public domain or out of print books which have been digitized in accordance with copyright laws and guidelines
  • E-books
  • Images, maps and graphics
  • Audio or video
  • Data sets
  • Other creative works produced by the university community as appropriate

Contributions to the institutional repository

Individuals may not submit content without belonging to or being sponsored by a DePaul department or unit  which is registered as a community within the repository. If a contributor leaves DePaul University, his or her content will remain in the repository.

Units interested in utilizing the institutional repository should contact the Library at digitalservices@depaul.edu.

Contributors will be responsible for working with the University Library to determine:

  • What format and type of content are appropriate to a particular collection and who may add content in accordance with the DePaul University Institutional Repository Content Management Policy (as defined above).
  • A communication plan to ensure awareness and maximize participation of scholars in the department or unit
  • Training and any other support need

Contributors are responsible for maintaining the department or unit’s submissions in a timely, accurate manner.  Any contributor who cannot maintain the department’s content due to reassignment of duties or departure from the University must notify both the department and the University Library immediately.

Copyright Policy

The University Library cannot provide a legal opinion regarding author rights.

We recommend that authors consult the Project RoMEO (Rights Metadata for Open archiving) website, which offers a Publisher's Copyright Listing summarizing permissions that are normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement. Individual journal policies vary, and it is the responsibility of the author to check the terms of his or her agreement.

Authors do not surrender copyright to any content contributed to the DePaul University institutional repository.  By accepting the Author’s Submission Agreement (see below), contributors affirm that they have the right to submit the materials and that the submission does not infringe upon anyone else’s copyright.

Materials submitted to the institutional repository are governed by the University’s Discovery & Copyright policy

Faculty and Staff SelectedWorks Pages

SelectedWorks is a web-based service  providing DePaul scholars a personal webpage to showcase and preserve their research output.  SelectedWorks web pages are search engine optimized, which means discoverability by search engines is maximized. In addition, scholarly materials posted to a personal SelectedWorks page will be selectively ingested into Digital Commons@DePaul.

SelectedWorks is a web-based service supported by DePaul University Library but these pages are considered the author's personal web space to build as they see fit and take with them even if they leave DePaul for another institution.

Selected Works pages allow the University's scholars to:

  • Present research articles, working papers, presentations and other scholarly work in an engaging manner
  • Take control of ownership and dissemination of their research
  • Develop their reputation in their field
  • Organize work according to personal criteria
  • Preserve work in a viewable, usable manner

Any scholar affiliated with DePaul University can register for a SelectedWorks site. Users who create SelectedWorks pages have complete editorial control over their sites. They can easily update their photo, personal information, and decide how they want documents to appear on their page. Users may also include an introductory paragraph and add links to research and materials on other web sites. Furthermore, users may edit how their citations appear and revise and update metadata for their documents.

PLEASE NOTE: This does not mean that the author has permission to post the full text or content of any given article or other work to their SelectedWorks page. Authors may need to consult the publishers of the journal or other places where their work may appear to get permission for items to appear on the web in their SelectedWorks page or in the institutional repository itself. Depending on the circumstances, University Library personnel may be able to work with the author to acquire this permission.

Author Submission Agreement

DePaul University Research Repository Author Agreement

I hereby grant DePaul University a non-exclusive, perpetual license to include my work (“the Work”) in Digital Commons@DePaul, DePaul University’s digital research repository (“the Repository”).  This license includes, but is not limited to, the following rights:

  1. To display the Work online or in any other format;
  2. To incorporate the Work into databases containing other works
  3. To store, archive, copy, distribute or convert the Work for preservation purposes.

I warrant that the Work is my original work and/or that I am authorized by the copyright holder to submit the Work to the Repository.  I also warrant that the Work does not, to the best of my knowledge, defame, infringe upon, or violate any rights of others.

I understand and agree that DePaul University will not pay me royalties or licensing fees in exchange for the rights granted above.  Although due care will be made to preserve the physical integrity of the Work, DePaul University shall incur no liability for the loss of or damage to deposited Work.  I understand that once a peer-reviewed work is deposited in Digital Commons@DePaul, it may not be removed.  I understand that once any other work is deposited in Digital Commons@DePaul, a full bibliographic citation to the Work will remain visible in perpetuity, even if the work is updated or removed.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, both during and after the term of this Agreement, I agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless DePaul University and its trustees, directors, officers, faculty, employees, affiliates, and agents, past or present, against all losses, claims, demands, actions, causes of action, suits, liabilities, damages, expenses, fees and costs (including but not limited to reasonable attorney’s fees) arising out of or relating to any actual or alleged misrepresentation or breach of any warranty contained in this Agreement, or any infringement of the Work on any third party’s patent, trademark, copyright or trade secret.

By clicking “I Agree” I grant the aforementioned license and acknowledge that I have read this agreement.

Withdrawal/Removal Policy

Once materials are posted in the DePaul University Institutional Repository, they will not and cannot be removed or withdrawn except when there is a violation of copyright or other laws.