ScholarWorks@GVSU Policies
Introduction
ScholarWorks@GVSU is an open-access repository maintained by the GVSU Libraries that showcases and maintains works by GVSU scholars. The mission of ScholarWorks@GVSU is to collect and preserve scholarly and creative works by GVSU faculty, staff and students. Materials in ScholarWorks@GVSU may be viewed by anyone.
Who Can Participate
All Grand Valley State University faculty, staff and students are encouraged to add their scholarly and creative works into ScholarWorks@GVSU. Researchers affiliated with GVSU may also place their works into ScholarWorks@GVSU via the appropriate GVSU unit or department, with permission from the author/rights-holder(s).
Definition of Scholarly and Creative Work
The Libraries welcome scholarly, educational, or research-oriented submissions, which support the intellectual life of the University and have enduring value. Submissions should be complete works that are in, or can be converted to, a technically feasible file format, and should be able to meet any guidelines for scholarly work deemed appropriate by the sponsoring unit. The author(s) must be willing and able to grant the right to preserve and distribute the work.
Author Agreement and Copyright
Authors retain copyright for all content contributed to ScholarWorks@GVSU. Submitting a document to the repository does not transfer copyright; it only grants the Library a non-exclusive license to distribute and preserve the document.
Authors who contribute content directly accept an online submission agreement that simply states that you hold the copyright to the work or have been authorized by the copyright holder(s) to upload the work for distribution, and agree to permit this document to be posted in ScholarWorks@GVSU.
Many journal publishers allow authors to post a pre-publication copy of their published articles in their institutional repositories, ideally the post-peer review version, or even the published version in some cases. This is called “self-archiving.” Publishers prohibiting inclusion may grant exceptions if the author requests it.
Authors may wish to consult the SHERPA RoMEO website (http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.html), which provides a summary of permissions that are normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement. If the publisher prohibits submitting a journal article to the repository and will not grant an exception, the author may consider submitting a pre-publication copy. The Library can provide assistance on using the SHERPA RoMEO website.
Removing or Updating Work
ScholarWorks@GVSU is intended to be a permanent scholarly repository. Under special circumstances an author may request to have an item removed. It may also be necessary in certain circumstances to remove an item from the repository, such as when a work violates copyright law. However, once a work is deposited in the repository, a citation to the work will always remain.
Authors are allowed to post updated versions of their work, but these updates do not need to replace previous versions. Posting updated versions alongside original versions is one way that the repository can allow authors to show the progress of their work.
Persistent Access and Migration
The GVSU Libraries are committed to preserving authors’ submitted works at a stable URL, on a long term basis; enabling researchers to discover, access, and link to your work. As far as resources and technology permit, the Grand Valley State University Libraries will take steps to ensure that the files deposited in ScholarWorks@GVSU survive uncorrupted and continue to be usable. Links and access to content outside ScholarWorks@GVSU cannot be guaranteed.
