Benefits and considerations in posting theses, scholarly writings, and other work to the repository: 1. Continual access for author and readers
a. All times of the year, even when Special Collections is closed
b. Potentially from any location
2. Controlled access if desired
a. Upon your request we will limit access of a work to the Middlebury community.
b. Restriction currently is based on the provision of a username/password (hence, for the moment, it's faculty, staff, students, not alumni).
3. Centralized location
a. Theses would be located in a single online location, for the convenience of future researchers
b. For students/departments who opt not to submit theses (because of concerns about future publication), we might at least be able to post title page and abstract—so that if the department chooses to invite all honors theses then all students who receive honors will be recognized in one place
4. Considerations for future publication:
Will the thesis be accepted for publication elsewhere later on?
Is publication risked by initially posting the thesis in DSpace?
a. If a thesis is considerably revised then this may not be an issue.
b. Policies of potential publishers should be consulted. Some publishers allow pre-prints to be posted to a web while others do not. Generally speaking, science publishers in biology are most restrictive and in physics are least restrictive.
Consult individual publishers' web sites for their policie
SHERPA/RoMEO provides summaries of permissions that are normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement: http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php
5. Copyright
a. DSpace allows assignment of Creative Commons licenses, permitting authors flexibility in defining the terms under which their works may be copied and distributed
Description of Creative Commons licenses: http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/
b. Increasingly, publishers permit authors to retain copyright to their work and to store digital copies of articles on institutional web sites.
c. The following web sites offer advice regarding retaining copyright and control of works submitted for publication
Practical guidance when submitting journal articles (SPARC): http://www.arl.org/sparc/author/copyrightintro.html
ACRL Scholarly Communication Toolkit: http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/scholarlycomm/scholarlycommunicationtoolkit/toolkit.cfm
6. Open Doors and Open Minds: What faculty authors can do to ensure open access to their work through their institution.
GLOSSARY ACRL : Association of College and Research Libraries
RoMEO : Rights MEtadata for Open archiving
SHERPA : Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access
SPARC : Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition