Who can submit work to ScholarWorks?
Any member of the CSUCI community is encouraged to submit their work to ScholarWorks. Please see the categories below for specific information on the types of work that can be deposited:
Undergraduate Works
Broome library actively accepts undergraduate work; however, undergraduate works should be submitted with the recommendation or approval from a faculty member. Departments can use ScholarWorks to support undergraduate curriculum by preserving and providing access to examples of exemplary work or teaching curriculum that encompasses academic publishing models and scholarly communication. Types of undergraduate work appropriate for ScholarWorks include:
- Representative or exemplary capstone papers or projects
- Datasets of long-term value
- Products of undergraduate research (posters, conference proceedings, etc.)
- Additionally types and formats will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please contact scholarworks@csuci.edu with questions about undergraduate submission formats.
Graduate Works
All graduating graduate students are encouraged to submit their electronic thesis paper/project or dissertation (EDTs) to ScholarWorks. CSUCI does not partner with the ProQuest Theses/Dissertations Academic Database for a variety of reasons; however, ScholarWorks provides a stable, open access alternative for providing wider public access. When submitting EDTs to ScholarWorks, graduate students are provided with long term access to your thesis or dissertation, a stable digital object identifier (doi), and download statistics. Additionally, ScholarWorks supports the addition of other related files to the record, for example, graduate students can submit their data, posters, or other files along with the textual document.
Faculty & Staff Works
ScholarWorks provides an option for faculty and staff to deposit a vast variety of works that represent their scholarly or creative output. Examples of this can include, but is not limited to:
- Preprint copies of published journal articles
- Openly licensed books
- Posters
- Conference notes or proceedings
- Datasets
- Presentations
- Research projects
- Software and code
- Creative Material (with corresponding description and metadata)
- Open Education Resources (OERs)*
- Reports and white papers
- Magazines or trade publications
*OERs can take nearly any format of submission (syllabi, videos, worksheets, podcasts, slides, textbooks, etc.), but must be licensed under a Creative Commons License that allows for derivative works. For more information about Creative Commons licensing, please contact monica.pereira@csuci.edu.
Unpublished materials, manuscripts, and personal papers are typically not appropriate for ScholarWorks, but could be a good fit for one of the alternative systems listed below.
Alternative Options for Submission
If your work does not fall within the guidelines listed above, another repository may be more appropriate to the purpose/nature of the work. Please consider the following alternatives if your work does not fit the above criteria:
Open Journal Systems @ JSBL: A platform for open academic journals published through Broome Library/CSU Libraries. Works that are published as serials within departments or on campus should consider using this platform, rather than ScholarWorks.
Broome Library Unique Collections & University Archives (DSpace): Works meant to represent historical significance (reflections, journals, etc.), as opposed to scholarly, creative, or research-related work should consider submitting to the Unique Collections or University Archives, either to a specific collection or as a new collection. Both physical and digital items may be submitted.
How do I submit my works to ScholarWorks?
To submit works to ScholarWorks, please follow the steps below:
- Gather your files for submission and make sure files larger than 500MB are zipped and/or broken into smaller files;
- Please complete and sign our submission agreement;
- Attach your signed submission agreement and your deposit files to an email addressed to scholarworks@csuci.edu;
- If your files are too large to attach to an email, please send a link via a file sharing service (Google Drive, One Drive, or Dropbox);
- Please respond to any email correspondence regarding your submission. System administrators may contact you regarding the details of your submission;
- Please allow two weeks for system administrators to process your submission. You will be contacted with a link to your finalized submission once it has been published to ScholarWorks.
Why should I submit my works to ScholarWorks?
Have you ever encountered a paywall while trying to access an academic journal? If you have, than you have personal experience with the problem that ScholarWorks and similar institutional repositories attempts to solve. As an open access institutional repository, ScholarWorks exists to provide sustainable access to the products of academic research without the barriers created by the academic publishing industry. Read on below for more specific benefits that accompany a ScholarWorks submission:
For students:
- A stable link to your capstone project or thesis that you can share on your resume or website;
- California State University branding;
- A searchable interface so that your work is discoverable both within the CSU system and on the public web.
For faculty and staff members:
- A stable link to your academic work that you can share on your C.V., in your portfolio or on your website;
- California State University branding;
- A searchable interface so that your work is discoverable both within the CSU system and on the public web (including Google Scholar);
- A local, reliable option to meet the sharing requirements of grants and data management plans
- A means to provide equitable access to your work to your colleagues and students.
How does ScholarWorks handle copyright?
Depositors must hold the copyright or right to deposit for submitted materials. All depositors must include a signed submission agreement that acknowledges their copyright and gives John Spoor Broome Library permission to publish the work in ScholarWorks.
For faculty depositing published journal articles and other academic publications, please review your publishing agreement before submitting. Most academic publishers allow for a pre-print copy of journal articles to be deposited in an institutional open access repository. Additionally, the ScholarWorks platform can implement automated embargo periods up to ten years if required by a publisher.
For more information about copyright requirements or Open Access policies, please contact monica.pereira@csuci.edu.
What file formats can be included in my submission?
Nearly all file types are acceptable for submission to ScholarWorks. Best practices for digital preservation encourage the submission of material in stable format (for example: .pdf, .csv, .zip, etc.). System administrators will contact depositors if there are issues with a submission’s file format. ScholarWorks can deposit files up to 500MB and up to 100 individual files per submission.