Scholarly Communications

Faculty members and graduate students navigating the waters of scholarly communication can find resources and library faculty to consult with through the Scholarly Commons. Some of the issues authors need to be aware of include:

Intellectual property 

Some publishers require authors to sign away their rights in order to have their research published, and authors may lose all control over further reproduction or dissemination of the work. Authors may need to seek the publisher's permission to use their work in a course packet, or to post it on a personal website or in an institutional repository such as the University's IDEALS. Experts associated with the Scholarly Commons can suggest options when negotiating a contract with a publisher and can help demystify publishers' policies.

Open Access

With scholarly communities searching for greater control over the publishing process and wider dissemination for their research, open access journals and repositories have emerged to provide alternative publishing channels and/or means to provide greater access to research. Experts associated with the Scholarly Commons can provide information about ways to provide open access to your research through open access repositories and journals. We can talk to you about impact factors, funder requirements for open access, and open access options by discipline.

Digital repositories 

Repositories such as IDEALS are intended to increase access to research and (in most cases) provide long-term preservation to the research and scholarship produced at an institution. They can contain preprints, post-prints, various forms of "gray literature" (technical reports, working papers, etc.), and primary research materials such as datasets. An author may often publish in a standard, high-impact journal and also place the article or some form of it in a freely available public archive. To learn about the University's institutional repository, IDEALS, contact the Scholarly Commons.