Repository Policies

Metadata Policy

for information describing items in the repository
1. Anyone may access the metadata free of charge. 
2. The metadata must not be re-used in any medium for commercial purposes or not-for-profit purposes without formal permission.

Data Policy

for full-text and other full data items
1. Anyone may access full items free of charge.
2. Single copies of full items can be:

    

  •  reproduced, displayed or performed, given to third parties, and stored in a database in any format or medium 
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  •  for personal research or study, educational, not-for-profit, or commercial purposes without prior permission or charge provided 
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  •  the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given 
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  •  a hyperlink and/or URL are given for the original metadata page 
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  •  the original copyright statement is given 
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  •  the original rights permission statement is given 
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  •  the content is not changed in any way 
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3. Full items must not be harvested by robots except transiently for full-text indexing or citation analysis
4. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holders.
5. Some full items are individually tagged with different rights permissions and conditions.
6. This repository is not the publisher; it is merely the online archive.
7. Mention of eprints is appreciated but not mandatory.

Content Policy

1. This is an institutional or departmental repository.
2. eprints holds all types of materials.
3. Deposited items may include:

    

  •  working drafts 
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  •  submitted versions (as sent to journals for peer-review)
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  •  accepted versions (author's final peer-reviewed drafts)
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  •  published versions (publisher-created files)
4. Items are individually tagged with:

    

  •  their version type and date.
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  •  their peer-review status.
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  •  their publication status.

Submission Policy

concerning depositors, quality and copyright
1. Items may only be deposited by accredited members, academic staff, and registered students of the institution, or their delegated agents.
2. Authors may only submit their own work for archiving.
3. Eligible depositors must deposit bibliographic metadata for all their publications.
4. Eligible depositors must deposit full texts of all their publications, although they may delay making them publicly visible
to comply with publishers' embargos.
5. The administrator only vets items for the eligibility of authors/depositors, relevance to the scope of eprints,
valid layout and format, and the exclusion of spam
6. The validity and authenticity of the content of submissions is checked by internal subject specialists.
7. Items can be deposited at any time, but will not be made publicly visible until any publishers' or funders' embargo period has expired.
8. Any copyright violations are entirely the responsibility of the authors/depositors.
9. If eprints receives proof of copyright violation, the relevant item will be removed immediately.

Preservation Policy

1. No retention period defined.
2. eprints will try to ensure continued readability and accessibility.

    

  •  Items will be migrated to new file formats where necessary.
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  •  Where possible, software emulations will be provided to access un-migrated formats.
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  •  It may not be possible to guarantee the readability of some unusual file formats.

3. eprints is working with external partners to:

    

  •  convert or migrate file formats 
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  •  develop and implement software emulations for old file formats 
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  •  record preservation metadata 
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  •  backup items in external archives 

4. eprints regularly backs up its files according to current best practice.
5. The original bit stream is retained for all items, in addition to any upgraded formats.
6. No withdrawal policy defined.
7. Withdrawn items are not deleted per se, but are removed from public view.
8. Withdrawn items' identifiers/URLs are not retained.
9. URLs will continue to point to 'tombstone' citations, to avoid broken links and to retain item histories, with:

    

  •  link to a replacement version, where available 
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  •  note explaining the reasons for withdrawal

10. The metadata of withdrawn items will not be searchable.
11. Changes to deposited items are not permitted.
12. Errata and corrigenda lists may be included with the original record if required.
13. If necessary, an updated version may be deposited.

    

  •  The earlier version may be withdrawn from public view.
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  •  The item's persistent URL will always link to the latest version.
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  •  There will be links between earlier and later versions, with the most recent version clearly identified.

14. Items are allocated a checksum to facilitate the detection of alterations.
15. In the event of eprints being closed down, the database will be transferred to another appropriate archive.