Policies and Guidelines

uO Research is being built through partnerships between the Library and uO academic communities to populate collections in the repository with scholarly content. As in all partnerships, it is important that all stakeholders understand and agree to the policies, guidelines and procedures required to build uO Research.


Content Guidelines
  • The work must be produced, submitted or sponsored by University of Ottawa faculty, researchers or staff.
  • The work must be scholarly, research or teaching related (scholarly research output may include, but is not limited to: theses and dissertations, refereed articles, pre- and post-print, un-refereed works such as conference contributions, chapters in proceedings, research data, learning objects, etc.)
  • The work must not be ephemeral; deposits are intended to be permanent contributions to the repository.
  • The work must be contributed in digital form.
  • The work should be ready for public dissemination.
  • The author/owner should be willing and able to grant the University of Ottawa the right to preserve and distribute the work via uO Research.
  • Copyright must be cleared for works posted when the copyright owner is other than the author or the University of Ottawa.
  • Files should be made accessible in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), where practicable. Examples of not practicable situations may include materials formatted by a publisher, or files you have no authority or control over. Otherwise, see the FAQ section for tips on creating accessible documents.
  • If the work is part of a series or set of related works, where possible, the other works in that series should also be contributed so that uO Research can offer as full a set as possible.
Definition of a Community

uO Research content is organized around Communities which generally correspond to administrative entities such as faculties, schools, and research institutes or other group that produces research. A community should have a defined leader, long-term stability and assume responsibility for setting community policies. Groups wishing to form a community who do not fall into this definition will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Responsibilities of Communities

Each community agrees to:

  • Assign a community coordinator to work with uO Research staff.
  • Make decisions about community and collection definitions.
  • Decide upon a submission workflow for each collection.
  • Obtain copyright permissions for content submitted when the copyright owner is other than the author(s) or the University of Ottawa.
  • Arrange for the submission and description of content.
  • Understand and observe University policies related to uO Research and educate their community submitters about these policies.
  • Notify the uO Research contact of any organizational changes affecting submissions.

Rights of Communities

Each community has its own entry page which displays a descriptive list of its collections as well as information, news and links reflecting the interests of that community.

Each community retains the right to:

  • Decide policy regarding content to be posted, as defined by the Content Guidelines.
  • Decide who may post content within the community.
  • Remove items and collections, as outlined in Withdrawal Policy.
  • Approve addition of or elimination of collections and sub-communities.
  • Customize interfaces to reflect community content.
Responsiblities of the Library

The Library agrees to:

  • Retain content accepted to uO Research.
  • Distribute content according to community decisions.
  • Preserve content using accepted preservation techniques.
  • Notify communities of significant changes to content, e.g. format migration.
  • Return collections to existing communities if the Library ceases to support uO Research or maintain or transfer, under the University Archives policies, collections of communities that have ceased to exist.
Rights of the Library

The Library retains the right to:

  • Redistribute or amend metadata for items in uO Research.
  • Refuse or de-accession items or Collections under certain circumstances - as outlined in the Withdrawal Policy.
  • Renegotiate terms of original agreement with communities.
  • Perform appraisal for long-term archiving when communities cease to exist or within thirty years of the creation of a Collection.
  • Move collections to reflect current understanding between uO Research and Communities
  • Migrate items if format is in danger of obsolescence.
  • Set quotas (size of files, number of items) to determine what constitutes free service and consider possibility of charging a fee to support extraordinary files.
  • Consider the charging of fees for activities requiring extensive centralized support from uO Research (e.g. requests for extensive customization or a large amount of de-accessioning).
Responsibilities of University of Ottawa
  • Sets policy at the University level regarding issues that affect uO Research (e.g., copyright rules, thesis requirements, etc.)
  • Supports functions mandated by existing policies.
Licenses

Researchers who submit their work must agree to a non-exclusive distribution license (see below) which allows uO Research to distribute the submitted work online and to migrate it to new formats in the future if necessary.

The license has nothing to do with copyright. It is also non-exclusive, meaning that researchers can pursue any other publishing ventures.

Format Support

We want to provide support for as many file formats as possible. Over time, items stored in uO Research will be preserved as is, using a combination of time-honored techniques for data management and best practices for digital preservation. As for specific formats, however, the proprietary nature of many file types makes it impossible to make guarantees.

  • Everything put in uO Research will be retrievable using appropriate software
  • We will recognize as many file formats as possible
  • We will support as many file formats as possible

View the current list of Recognized File Formats.

Withdrawal Policy

uO Research is intended to be a permanent archive. However, it may be necessary to remove items from the repository under special circumstances such as legal order, request of the author or uO Research community or at the discretion of the University or Library. Theses archived in uO Research are part of the permanent scholarly record of the University of Ottawa and as such will not be removed at the request of the author. Removal of theses under exceptional circumstances may be considered on a case by case basis.

Since any item that has existed at some time may have been cited, uO Research will always supply a "tombstone" when the item is requested, which will include the original description (metadata) and a withdrawal statement:

  • "Removed from view at request of the author"
  • "Removed from view at University of Ottawa's discretion"
  • "Removed from view at uO Library's discretion"
  • "Removed from view by legal order"

The metadata will be visible but not searchable. The item will not be available for harvesting.

Disclaimer
  • The opinions expressed within the items posted in uO Research are not necessarily those of the University of Ottawa.
  • The University is not responsible for the content of the items contained with uO Research.
  • The University is not responsible for the maintenance and/or performance of external web links within documents on this site.