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Institutional Research Repository Policy

Category Academic
Type Policy
Approved by Council, 21 April 2009
Date Policy Took Effect 1 January 2010
Last Approved Revision
Sponsor Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International)
Responsible Officer University Librarian
Review Date 1 April 2012

Purpose

The University of Otago has established an institutional research repository. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that the contents of the institutional research repository (IRR) reflect and strengthen the University’s long established tradition of research excellence, by increasing the awareness of the University’s research profile and where possible, by providing open access to its high quality research outputs. The policy also establishes the framework within which the IRR is created and managed.

Definitions

Term Acronym Definition
DSpace   DSpace is an open source software package that the University of Otago Library has selected for the IRR http://www.dspace.org/
Electronic Prints eprints Electronic full-text of publications, research, and teaching materials that are contained within an institution’s repository.
Electronic theses eTheses Electronic copies of Theses that are a replica of the final corrected version
Institutional Research Repository IRR A university-based institutional repository is a set of services that a university offers to the members of its community for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community members. It includes an organisation’s commitment to the stewardship of digital materials, including long-term preservation where appropriate, as well as organisation and access. 1)
Kiwi Research Information Service KRIS The website KRIS is a gateway to open-access research documents produced at universities, polytechnics, and other research institutions throughout New Zealand.
Library Consortium of New Zealand LCoNZ LCoNZ is a company established in 2004 by four universities: AUT University, Victoria University of Wellington, the University of Waikato and the University of Otago. The vision of LCoNZ is to use and develop the best enabling technologies in a collaboration which will enhance the innovative delivery of library and information resources and services to the New Zealand tertiary learning and research community. 2
Metadata   Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource. Metadata is often called data about data or information about information. (p. 1) 3
Open Access OA Open Access (OA) is free, immediate, permanent online access to the full text of research articles for anyone, webwide. 4
Performance-Based Research Fund PBRF PBRF was introduced in 2003 to encourage and reward research excellence in New Zealand's tertiary education sector. It is managed by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) and it has progressively replaced a student numbers-based model for supporting research. The quality evaluation process comprises a peer review assessment of evidence portfolios submitted by tertiary institutions to TEC. The portfolios describe eligible staff members’ research outputs and their contributions to the research environment as well as peer esteem. 5
Post-Print   The version of the paper, accepted for publication, with revisions having been made. 6
Pre-Print   The version of the paper before peer-review. 7
Quality Assurance   See Appendix 2 – PBRF Definition of Quality Assurance (p. 6)
Research   See Appendix 3 – PBRF Definition of Research (p. 7)
Third Party Copyright material   The use of a substantial portion of material where the copyright is owned by a 3rd party and examples of this material can be a chart, graph, photograph or map.

References

  1. Lynch, Clifford A. (2003). Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age [Electronic version]. Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 3:2, 327-336. Retrieved October 1, 2008, from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/v003/3.2lynch.html
  2. LCoNZ. (2007). Library Consortium of New Zealand (LCoNZ). Retrieved August 25, 2008 from http://www.lconz.ac.nz/
  3. National Information Standards Organization (2008, April). Understanding Metadata. Retrieved October 6, 2008, from http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf
  4. Harnad, Stevan. Open Access [2005]. Retrieved September 15, 2008, from http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/
  5. University of Otago. (2008). Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF). Retrieved April 29, 2008, from http://www.otago.ac.nz/research/pbrf/
  6. University of Nottingham. (2006). Sherpa: Pre-print and Post-print. Retrieved September 15, 2008, from http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeoinfo.html#prepostprints
  7. Ibid.

Policy Content

1. Deposits

The digital versions eligible for deposit are based on the Research Output Types as recognised by TEC during the 2006 PBRF Quality Evaluation. See Appendix 4 – PBRF Research Output Types (p. 8)

2. Availability

Full text access will only be provided after it has been confirmed that the copyright holder of a research output gives permission for the author to deposit it within the research repository.

Where full text access cannot be provided the IRR will either provide access to both the metadata and abstract and restrict access to the full text; or restrict access to both the full text and metadata.

3. Access

The IRR reserves the right to alter the format of the deposited work to improve access, for example, move from a Word document to XML.

4. Preservation

All research outputs that are deposited will be retained even if the item cannot currently be made available as a result of copyright and other restriction including embargoes.

The IRR reserves the right to alter the format of the deposited work for the purposes of preservation.

5. Compliance

(a) Copyright

All material deposited in the IRR is subject to applicable copyright law.

Many publishers will require an author to assign copyright to them before they will publish a work. An author who is no longer the copyright owner will need to have the copyright holder’s permission to make their material available in the IRR.

(b) Preferred version

Copyright permission determines the availability of the version in the IRR. The order of preference is for:

  • Published
  • Post-print (Accepted Version)
  • Metadata only
(i) eTheses

The ‘final corrected version’ of an eThesis will be the only version that is made available and/or preserved.

(c) Quality Assurance

A quality assured research output is any research output that, prior to its production (i.e. publication, public dissemination, presentation, performance or exhibition) has successfully completed a formal quality assurance process.

See Appendix 2 – PBRF Definition of Quality Assurance (p. 5)

(d) Privacy and embargoes

The Library will adhere to any availability restrictions laid down by the copyright holder.

The Library in administering the IRR acknowledges the rights of the copyright holder and will restrict access to material upon request.

(e) Licensing

An appropriate licence, e.g. Creative Commons, will be applied where the copyright owner(s) is the author of the work.
The licence will outline what rights the end-user has in relation to the deposited work.

6. Withdrawal of content that is already publicly available

Acceptable reasons for withdrawal include:

  • Proven copyright violation or plagiarism
  • Legal requirements and proven violations
  • National Security
  • Falsified research

Withdrawn items may not be deleted, but will be removed from public view and the items’ identifiers/URLs may be retained indefinitely.

7. Disclaimer

The IRR does not accept liability for any losses or damage arising directly or indirectly from reliance on the information contained within the IRR.

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