Policies
Metadata Policy
for information describing items in the repository
- Anyone may access the metadata free of charge.
- The metadata may be re-used in any medium without prior permission for not-for-profit purposes provided the OAI Identifier or a link to the original metadata record are given.
- The metadata must not be re-used in any medium for commercial purposes without formal permission.
Data Policy
for full-text and other full data items
- Anyone may access full items free of charge.
- Single copies of full items can be:
- reproduced, and displayed or performed in any format or medium
- for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge.
- Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holders.
- Some full items are individually tagged with different rights permissions and conditions.
Content Policy
for types of document & data set held
- This is an institutional or departmental repository.
- The repository holds all types of materials.
- Deposited items may include:
- working drafts
- submitted versions (as sent to journals for peer-review)
- accepted versions (author's final peer-reviewed drafts)
- published versions (publisher-created files)
- Items are individually tagged with:
- their peer-review status.
- their publication status.
Submission Policy
concerning depositors, quality & copyright
- Items may only be deposited by accredited members of the organisation, or their delegated agents.
- Authors may only submit their own work for archiving.
- The administrator only vets items for the exclusion of spam
- The validity and authenticity of the content of submissions is the sole responsibility of the depositor.
- Items may not be deposited until any publishers' or funders' embargo period has expired.
- Any copyright violations are entirely the responsibility of the authors/depositors.
- If the repository receives proof of copyright violation, the relevant item will be removed immediately.
Preservation Policy
- Items will be retained indefinitely.
- The repository will try to ensure continued readability and accessibility.
- The repository regularly backs up its files according to current best practice.
- Items may not normally be removed from the repository.
- Acceptable reasons for withdrawal include:
- Proven copyright violation or plagiarism
- Legal requirements and proven violations
- National Security
- Falsified research
- Withdrawn items are not deleted per se, but are removed from public view.
- Withdrawn items' identifiers/URLs are retained indefinitely.
- URLs will continue to point to 'tombstone' citations, to avoid broken links and to retain item histories.
- Changes to deposited items are not permitted.
- If necessary, an updated version may be deposited.
- In the event of the repository being closed down, the database will be transferred to another appropriate archive.