ScholarlyCommons@AUT provides a platform for the collection, organisation, access, annotation and preservation of the University's research outputs in digital formats.

What we're trying to do is collect together, in one place, the research produced by members of AUT University and make it accessible via the Internet to a world wide audience. This is an example of what is known as an "Institutional Repository".

The content of the repository is restricted to:

1. Research outputs which meet the requirements for the PBRF evidence portfolio and which comply with the publishers permission policy with regard to open access and archiving.
   This includes materials such as:
• journal articles (generally at the pre-print or post-print stage)
• book chapters
• research reports
• conference papers
2. Theses, dissertations and exegeses submitted for doctoral and masters degrees at AUT University and which have passed examination.

Previously published items should have clearance from the copyright owner for inclusion in an institutional repository.

ScholarlyCommons@AUT is an open access repository, meaning that anyone with access to the Internet may access, view and download content.

AUT staff researchers are required to input details of their research outputs to AUTs Research Output Management System (ROMS). Library staff then use this data to create entries in Scholarly Commons@AUT.

AUT postgraduate students who have completed a doctoral or masters thesis, dissertation or exegesis are required to deposit it in ScholarlyCommons@AUT after the work has been examined and any amendments required by the examiner(s) have been completed. See the Guide to Depositing a Thesis, Dissertation or Exegesis.

Content is organised into collections and communities.

Communities are a way of grouping together collections of items in a way that makes sense. Typically, they are based around administrative units such as faculties, schools and departments or research institutes, but may encompass other logical groupings. A community may contain one or more collections, and may also contain sub-communities, thus allowing a hierarchical organisation.

A collection is a grouping of items that are similar in one or more ways. For example, all masters theses or all the research papers for a particular faculty or school.

Items are the basic archival elements of ScholarlyCommons@AUT. Each item is owned by one collection, but may appear in other collections.

An item comprises the actual document (which may consist of one or more files, or bitstreams ) plus the associated descriptive metadata.

Metadata is defined as "data about data." Metadata associated with an item in ScholarlyCommons@AUT would typically include information such as author(s), title, abstract, publication date and keywords.

Internationally, open access research repositories have been shown in several studies to dramatically increase citation rates and impact. Major universities around the world are working on making as much of their research as possible available in these collections, and AUT University is committed to this too.

Other researchers will find your publications in their web searching because research in institutional repositories such as ScholarlyCommons@AUT is indexed by a number of services such as Google, Google Scholar and Kiwi Research Information Service (KRIS).

AUT staff researchers are required to enter details of all their research outputs into the University's Research Outputs Management System (ROMS) and are encouraged to attach a digital copy of each output. Library staff use this data to create entries for ScholarlyCommons@AUT. We work with each AUT author to obtain versions of their publications which comply with the publishers' archiving policies. We also secure the author's agreement to the Deposit License before making these publications available on ScholarlyCommons@AUT.

We require a version which is copyright cleared for inclusion in an institutional repository. This will depend on the type of agreement the author has with the publisher. Most major academic publishers permit authors to deposit some form of their publications in institutional repositories. However, in the main, the version permitted is not the final published version but is usually the author's final version, often known as the post-print (see below).

Before releasing your publications on the live ScholarlyCommons@AUT site, Library staff will check the publisher's policies in the SHERPA RoMEO database and may contact publishers directly to request permission if a policy is unavailable or unclear.

These terms are frequently used in publishers' archiving policies and in copyright transfer agreements.

A post-print may also be known as the accepted version or accepted author's manuscript. It is the version after peer review or refereeing with revisions having been made, but before copy editing by the publisher. In terms of content, a post-print will be the same as the published article but the formatting, type-setting and layout are usually different.

A pre-print may also be known as the final author's version or the submitted version. It is the version before peer review or refereeing. Pre-prints of works that have not yet been accepted for publication will not be included in ScholarlyCommons@AUT.

Provided the publisher allows it, we would prefer to have the post-print for ScholarlyCommons@AUT but we will use the pre-print when necessary.

To assist the development of content in ScholarlyCommons@AUT, we strongly encourage you to save the pre-print and post-print versions of all of your research publications with appropriate filenames that facilitate identification of the required version. Note that you should not delete the post-print from your files on receipt of a proof copy of your article or a PDF supplied to you by the publisher. For advice on managing the various versions of your research publications, consult the Versions Toolkit.

Only a small number of journal publishers permit the use of the publisher-generated PDF in an open access repository such as ScholarlyCommons@AUT. If you provide us with the pre-print or post-print and we find that we are permitted to use the publisher's PDF, we will use this version.

A list of the publishers who do permit the use of their version in a repository can be found here. Note that some publishers allow use of their version after an embargo period and/or apply other restrictions.

Some publishers stipulate that the publisher-generated PDF is the only version permissible for a repository. Many require that we add a link to the publisher's version which may be viewed by anyone who has access rights.

Library staff are working through a retrospective project of preparing entries for ScholarlyCommons@AUT and may not have had an opportunity to deal with your publications yet. If you would like to see your publications included in ScholarlyCommons@AUT sooner rather than later, please send us a list of appropriate publications and attach full text files. Please refer to the information above about the document versions we require. Email your documents and/or questions to scommon@aut.ac.nz.

Research objects for which a copyright compliant version is not available will not be added to ScholarlyCommons@AUT.

You retain any rights that you had prior to your research publications being added to the repository. We only require that you agree to a Deposit Licence which is an agreement between you and AUT University, allowing us to make the work available through the repository and to copy the item for preservation purposes. It is a LIMITED, NON-EXCLUSIVE agreement, meaning no copyright transfer occurs, and you retain all the rights you had before the item was deposited. The licence also asks you to confirm that you do indeed own the copyright on the item and have the right to deposit it in ScholarlyCommons@AUT.

The administrators of ScholarlyCommons@AUT need permission to store, copy and manipulate the files in the repository in order to ensure that they can be preserved and made available in the future. This licence is designed to give the ScholarlyCommons@AUT staff the right to do this, and to confirm that you have the right to submit the material to the repository. The licence is non-exclusive; you retain all your rights as copyright owner.

DECLARATION

1. This is my own work and I grant AUT University a non-exclusive licence to store it and make it available freely online.
2. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the work does not infringe the copyright of any other person.
3. Where I am not the sole author of the work I have the authority of all the other authors to grant this licence.

Yes. Each item in ScholarlyCommons@AUT has a URI (for example, http://hdl.handle.net/10292/576) which is a persistent unique identifier. You may wish to include these web addresses as links on your departmental or personal website, your CV or publications list.

No, these should be included in the repository of your previous institution.

We will retain your research outputs in ScholarlyCommons@AUT.

Most researchers prefer to cite the final version as published in a journal, conference proceedings or book. The information displayed in ScholarlyCommons@AUT includes the publication details of the final version to enable other authors to cite this.

Yes, this is a requirement for all AUT University students completing a thesis, dissertation or exegesis for a doctoral or master's degree. See the Postgraduate Handbook.

Yes, you must provide three printed and bound copies of your thesis/dissertation/exegesis to the University Postgraduate Centre. One of these copies must be printed on acid free paper and have bound into it the appropriate deposit form, either D15 or PG6. See the Postgraduate Handbook.

Bachelor with Honours dissertations are not included in ScholarlyCommons@AUT and are not routinely collected by the AUT University Library. A faculty may recommend that an exceptional Bachelor with Honours dissertation be added to the Library collection. In such a case, the bound copy of the dissertation must be accompanied by form PG9 signed by the student and the Associate Dean of the faculty. A digital copy of the dissertation should be supplied on disk. For further information, consult the Postgraduate Handbook. or contact the Library's Research and Postgraduate Coordinator.

Once your thesis or dissertation has been examined and you have made any amendments required by the examiner(s), go to ScholarlyCommons@AUT . Register for a personal account by clicking New User and then log in to begin the deposit process. A Guide to Depositing a Thesis, Dissertation or Exegesis is provided on the website and you are advised to read this carefully before you begin the deposit process. This guide explains how to prepare your files for uploading. If you have prepared appropriately, the entire deposit process will only take a few minutes but, if necessary, you may save the data entered and return to complete it at a later time.

If your work includes images, sound or movie files which are separate from the text of your exegesis, you are encouraged to deposit these as supplementary files. We will accept files in any format and endeavour to make them available online.

Contact the ScholarlyCommons@AUT Administrator.

If your work contains confidential or sensitive information you may apply for an embargo at the time of submission for examination, using the appropriate form: D18 or PG18. If an embargo or other access restriction is approved by your faculty, you must still deposit the digital copy of your theses/dissertation/exegesis on ScholarlyCommons@AUT but you should indicate the terms of the embargo on the online deposit form. The ScholarlyCommons@AUT Administrator will ensure that your work is not released to the digital repository until the restriction has expired. See the Postgraduate Handbook.

Third party copyright material is material in any format to which another person or entity holds the rights. If you wish to include any substantial portion of such material in your thesis/dissertation/exegesis, for example an artwork or photograph, you should obtain the permission of the copyright holder.

If you have not obtained the permission of the copyright holder, you must remove this material from the digital copy of your thesis/dissertation/exegesis before depositing it on ScholarlyCommons@AUT. When you remove such material, you should replace it with a statement such as: This image has been removed by the author of this thesis for copyright reasons. If possible, when removing material from the digital copy, retain the pagination of the original document. Please also send a digital copy of the full thesis/dissertation/exegesis by email to the ScholarlyCommons@AUT Administrator.

If you have concerns or questions about third party copyright material in your work, please contact the ScholarlyCommons@AUT Administrator.

If your thesis contains material from one or more papers published in a peer review journal (Pathway Two for the presentation of a thesis, see the Postgraduate Handbook), you need to ensure copyright clearance before depositing. If the copyright in the article is held by the journal publisher, it is very unlikely that the publisher will allow the inclusion of the published version in an online open access thesis. However, you may be permitted to include the post-print version. See the Research Outputs FAQ above for an explanation about versions, post-prints and pre-prints. Contact the Research & Postgraduate Coordinator for advice about the copyright clearance of journal articles in your thesis.

The ScholarlyCommons@AUT Administrator will check your online deposit to ensure that the process has been successfully completed and the files are readable and will contact you via email if there are any issues that need to be resolved. The Administrator will then "post" your work on ScholarlyCommons@AUT and it will be available for viewing on the Internet, without any password restrictions (i.e. "open access").

Yes, all theses/dissertations/exegeses deposited on ScholarlyCommons@AUT are also included in the AUT Library catalogue with links to the full text on ScholarlyCommons@AUT.

When you have successfully completed the deposit, you will receive a confirmation email from ScholarlyCommons@AUT. You should print this out and send it to the University Postgraduate Centre when you send your three bound copies.

Once your work is deposited on ScholarlyCommons@AUT and has been checked and posted by the Administrator, you will receive an email containing the stable URL that can be used to link to your work. You may wish to include this URL in your CV or on a personal website.

Your thesis/dissertation/exegesis may have been completed prior to 2007 online deposit. Please contact the ScholarlyCommons@AUT Administrator to request a consent form so that we can make the full text of your work available on open access.

This situation usually indicates that your work was completed prior to 2007 when deposit of the digital copy was not mandatory. We would be very pleased to receive the digital copy now and to make it available on open access, so please deposit your thesis/dissertation/exegesis on ScholarlyCommons@AUT following the procedure described in the Guide to Depositing a Thesis, Dissertation or Exegesis.

Yes, you retain any rights that you had prior to deposit. We only require that you click on a Deposit Licence which is an agreement between you and AUT University, allowing us to make the work available through the repository and to copy the item for preservation purposes. It is a LIMITED, NON-EXCLUSIVE agreement, meaning no copyright transfer occurs, and you retain all the rights you had before the item was deposited. The licence also asks you to confirm that you do indeed own the copyright on the item and have the right to deposit it in ScholarlyCommons@AUT.

You grant to AUT University the non-exclusive right to:

• reproduce, translate (as defined below), and/or distribute your submission (including the metadata and abstract) worldwide, in any format or medium for non-commercial, academic purposes only.
• translate the submission, without changing the content, to any medium or format, and keep more than one copy of your work for purposes of security, back up and preservation.

The online Guide to Depositing a Thesis, Dissertation or Exegesis includes the full text of the Deposit Licence.

Authors of theses, dissertations and exegeses included in ScholarlyCommons@AUT may be contacted by "Print on Demand" (POD) publishers offering to publish their research as a book. While you own the copyright in your work and are therefore free to decide what to do with it, we advise that you consider these points before proceeding:

1. Your research is already available, without cost or restriction, for other researchers and students around the world to read.
2. You may be asked to sign away the copyright in your own work. Look at the terms and conditions very carefully and consider seeking legal advice before signing.
3. Publishing in this way is very likely to harm your chances of publishing your research with a traditional and often more reputable publisher.

POD publishers work like this:

1. They acquire the rights to lots of works, such as theses.
2. They format each work as a PDF, give it an ISBN, and list it on Amazon and other bookseller sites.
3. They print a hard copy only when it is requested.

The economies of POD mean that it doesn't matter if there are only five customers in the world who are interested in a particular work, as long as those five are prepared to pay $80 apiece, i.e. there is very little economic risk.

POD is different to "vanity publishing" and "traditional publishing" in the following ways:

1. Unlike vanity publishing, POD comes at no up-front cost to the author (in vanity publishing, the author bears the economic risk).
2. Unlike traditional publishing, the author receives no advance on the publication (in traditional publishing, the publisher bears the economic risk).
3. Unlike traditional publishing, the works are not vetted, peer reviewed or professionally edited.

In addition to requesting a copy of their author-publisher agreement, here are some things you should try to ascertain before making a decision:

1. What is the quality of the printed books (jackets, binding, etc)?
2. What is the royalty share you will receive? With POD, as with vanity publishing, you have very little certainty as to the number of books that will be sold.
3. What will the publisher do to market/promote your thesis?
4. Will people be able to obtain your thesis only through this publisher from now on? Will they require that your thesis be removed from ScholarlyCommons@AUT? [Note: from 2007 onwards, it is mandatory that all AUT University doctoral and masters theses and dissertations be deposited on ScholarlyCommons@AUT unless permission for an embargo has been sought and approved by the Associate Dean (Postgraduate) of the appropriate faculty. Such approval should be sought before the work is submitted for examination.]

If you have received such a publishing offer and want advice on the terms of the author-publisher agreement you have been sent, contact AUT University's Manager, Commercial Research, Dr Luke Krieg, luke.krieg@aut.ac.nz .

For more information about copyright, contact us.

The open access movement is about using the Web to open the research literature of the world to any user wishing to access it, for free. All that is needed is access to the Internet and enough bandwidth to download the document.

The benefits of this approach are that:

• publicly funded research is made publicly available
• researchers will be able to access and use all the literature, rather than just what appears in the journals that their institution can afford. Open Access means that usage and citations will be based on what research is best and most pertinent, not just what is affordable
• researchers will gain an increase in citations to high quality work, wherever it is published (a piece of research hidden in either an obscure or an expensive journal is not likely to be cited today). Research shows a 50% to 250% increase in citations when documents are made freely accessible online.

There's a comprehensive discussion, with many useful links, on Wikipedia. The SHERPA site also has a good explanation.