Frequently Asked Questions

Do I lose copyright when I submit a work to LU Digital Commons?

All items submitted to the LU Digital Commons by authors fall under applicable elements of LU Intellectual Property Policy and copyright guidance provided by Library Services. Generally, an author sharing an item through LU Digital Commons retains copyright for works and may use Creative Commons licenses to further restrict use, attribution, and remixing of their work.

To share already published work or materials, an author must be the copyright holder or licensed by the copyright holder to distribute work in an open access format. Many journals will allow the sharing of published work in an open access environment, but LU authors must review publication agreements carefully to ensure they have retained such a right with publication.

How can I protect work submitted to LU Digital Commons?

All materials submitted to the LU Digital Commons are afforded copyright protection under LU Intellectual Property policy. Authors and creators may select a Creative Commons license to further protect their work. Creative Commons licensing can be further applied to specify terms under which work can be used, attributed, remixed, and licensed. For advice about the use of Creative Commons licensing in an open access environment, please contact Paul Huffman at [email protected].

How can I use material found in LU Digital Commons?

All authors and creators automatically retain copyright for works posted to the LU Digital Commons, consistent with current LU Intellectual Property policy and guidance. Any use of material from the LU Digital Commons beyond that considered fair use requires the express permission of the copyright holder. A basic Creative Commons license will be applied to all work submitted by authors and creators to the Digital Commons. Alternative or more restrictive licensing can be further applied to specify terms under which work can be used, attributed, remixed, and licensed.

{ back to top }

What is Lindenwood's Open Access Policy?

Lindenwood University will make the scholarship of its faculty and students more accessible to the world through the Digital Commons @Lindenwood University.

For those who submit items to the Digital Commons @Lindenwood University, the expectation is that they are aware that it will be made openly accessible in order to provide the widest dissemination of knowledge.

Items on the Digital Commons @Lindenwood University will be subject to a Creative Commons "Attribution / Non-commercial" license, which means that work cannot be used commercially, and any authorized use must be properly attributed. Submissions will also be accompanied by a copyright statement indicating the author’s continuing rights. Lindenwood will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the author’s name remains clearly associated with the submission.

{ back to top }

Who may contribute content to Digital Commons @Lindenwood University?

Any Lindenwood faculty, student, college, department, center, or institute is eligible to submit material.

The Digital Commons @Lindenwood University also hosts digitized historic and archival materials from the University's Mary Ambler Archives.

Materials should be deposited through the Submit Research link, after which it will be vetted to see if it meets university standards before being uploaded to the Digital Commons platform.

Students who wish to have their materials added to the Digital Commons @Lindenwood University, must have a faculty sponsor.

{ back to top }

Is there a checklist for contributors?

Before contributing items, please check to see that the following requirements are met.

  • The work must be original and produced by a Lindenwood University faculty, staff, student, organization, or department. Student submissions will need to be approved by a professor sponsor.
  • The work must be creative, scholarly in nature, research-oriented, or of institutional significance.
  • The contributor must own the copyright to all components and content within the work, or have received and be able to show permission to make the material available.
  • By contributing for inclusion, the author or representative of the organization or department grants the University the right to distribute and preserve the material through Digital Commons @Lindenwood University.
  • Documents submitted for inclusion must be converted into a word-searchable PDF.
  • Please include an abstract or description to be included with your content.
  • Contributors may include non-affiliated scholars if they are co-authoring with Lindenwood University authors or if they are affiliated closely with the University. Contributors should notify all co-authors of intent to deposit work in the Digital Commons @Lindenwood University.

{ back to top }

What kind of materials can be hosted at Digital Commons @Lindenwood University?

A wide range of material can be placed in the Digital Commons @Lindenwood University, including text, video, image, and audio files.

Material suitable for the Digital Commons @Lindenwood University repository include, but are not limited to:

  • Archives and Special Collections
  • Articles and preprints
  • Artwork
  • Audio and video
  • Conference papers, posters, and presentations
  • Datasets
  • Dissertations, theses, and capstone projects
  • Images
  • Immersive reality files
  • Journals published by the Lindenwood University community
  • Technical reports
  • Working papers

While the Digital Commons @Lindenwood University can accept any digital material, we encourage authors to follow the following recommendations:

  • Text files — provide a word-searchable PDF. If it is a document scanned as a PDF, OCR will need to be run on the file, if possible.
  • Maps and Photos (image files) — provide a png or jpeg
  • Audio files – provide an MP3
  • Video files – provide an MP4

{ back to top }

What steps need to be taken for submitting theses and dissertations?

Steps for Submission of Theses to the Library

  • Student must successfully complete the degree requirements as defined by their respective department.
  • Student must present one electronic copy in .pdf format to the Technical Services Librarian, Suzanne Gleason at [email protected], in order that the University retains an archived copy. If the electronic copy contains the signature pages, this is all the student must submit. If the electronic copy does not contain the signature pages, then the student must submit 2 hard copies of his or her thesis according to departmental specifications to Suzanne and these copies must include signature pages.
  • One bound hard copy will be returned to the student and one bound hard copy will be cataloged and placed on the shelf at the Library.
  • An electronic copy of the thesis will be added to the Digital Commons @Lindenwood University.

Steps for Submission of Dissertations to the Library

  • Dissertation Manuscripts must be submitted to the library through The Director of the School of Education Office of Graduate Studies.
  • Once the library receives the dissertation, it will begin the process for copyright and electronic publication.
  • An electronic copy of the dissertation will be added to the Digital Commons @Lindenwood University.

{ back to top }

When I copy and paste abstracts into the Submit form, some formatted text reverts to plain text. What's going on?

When copying abstracts from a word processing file or a PDF file, and pasting the text into the submission form, you are taking text from an environment that supports fonts and text style changes. Because the abstract is intended to be presented on the web, text styles must be specified using HTML codes.

If submitting an abstract in HTML format, please be sure to select the corresponding option on the submission form.

The following HTML tags are recognized by the system and may be used to format an abstract (use lowercase tags):

  • <p> - paragraph
  • <br> - line break
  • <strong> - strong/bold
  • <em> - italics/emphasis
  • <sub> - subscript
  • <sup> - superscript

{ back to top }

How do I include accents and special characters in the abstracts and titles?

The repository software supports the worldwide character set (Unicode, utf-8). Accents, symbols, and other special characters may be copied and pasted into the abstract or title field from a word processing file or typed in directly. Windows users may also use the Character Map to insert these characters. Macintosh users may use the Character Palette (available via Edit > Special Characters in the Finder).

{ back to top }

How do I revise a submission?

To revise a submission that has been posted to the repository, contact the repository administrator with the new version.

If the submission has been submitted, but not yet posted, you may revise it via your My Account page:

  1. Locate the article on your My Account page, and click the title.
  2. Click Revise Submission from the list of options in the left sidebar.
  3. Enter your changes in the Revise Submission form, and click Submit at the bottom of the page to submit your changes. (You only need to modify the portion of the form that corresponds to the changes you wish to make.)

{ back to top }

How can I submit a multi-part file, such as multiple chapters for a book?

Combine all the sections together as one Microsoft Word file or PDF file and submit that.

To make one PDF file from multiple files, open the first PDF file, then choose Document>Insert Pages from Acrobat's menus to insert the second file (indicate it should go after the last page of the first file), and repeat for all documents. The result will be one compound PDF file which may then be submitted.

If you feel that the one large PDF file might be too large for some people to download, we suggest that you submit the consolidated file as the full text of the article, and then upload the separate chapters or sections of the document as Associated Files. These files will appear on the web page alongside the complete document. For more information about uploading associated files, see "Can I post related files..." below.

{ back to top }

Can I post related files (sound clips, data sets, etc.) alongside the published article?

Yes. The bepress system refers to these supplementary items as Associated Files. You will be prompted to submit Associated Files when you upload your submissions. The name of the files you upload will appear on the web site along with your short description of it. Viewers must have the necessary software to open your files; that is not provided by the bepress system.

Please be sure that there are no permissions issues related to use of the associated material. Sometimes, especially with images, you must write a letter seeking permission to use the material before it can be posted.

Also note that where possible, items such as images, charts and tables that are referenced in the document (or otherwise an integral part of the document) should be included directly in the article itself and not posted just as associated files.

{ back to top }

Can I post a reprint from a journal?

It depends on what the journal allows, which is usually specified in their agreement with the author. If it would not violate copyright to post the reprint on your repository site, you're welcome to do so. Permissions for many publishers can be found at SHERPA RoMEO.

{ back to top }

A working paper in our repository site has been published in a slightly revised form in a journal. What should I do?

Many journals do not have any restrictions on working papers that preceded an article, especially if substantial revisions were made. You should check your author agreement with the journal to confirm that there is no problem with leaving the working paper on the site. The repository would constitute noncommercial use.

Assuming the working paper does remain on posted in the repository, it is a good idea to include the citation to the published article on the cover page of the repository working paper. Please contact the repository administrator to request this change.

{ back to top }