The Nebraska IR: How We Make It Work

Digital Commons @ University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Established 2005; Contents 98,000 items; Downloads 50 million to date; Annual downloads 6.5 million (18,000/day); Rank in USA (size) #3 (UCal199,000; UMich120,000); Rank in USA (downloads) #1. The university’s most-visited site:18% of all web traffic ! Contents & downloads by series/item types. Rule #1, Make it easy; Rule # 2, Give immediate feedback. How do I get my articles into the repository ? Basic policy: The IR belongs to the faculty. We are 100% voluntary. No mandated deposit policy (Harvard model). Usage reports are our best recruitment tool. We are 99.9% full-text. SEO: Top traffic referrers: Google 72%, Google Scholar 8%, IR internal 7%, Bing 2%. Downloads, by continent, 2017 (61% are international). 2017 Elsevier buys bepress. Digital Commons assets: 1. Software 2. Service 3. Separation 4. Strength in number

LibGuide for Copyright

I. Can I use this material in a paper/article/project ? II. Can I use this material for teaching a course ? III. How do I get/keep copyright protection for my work

Author\u27s Rights and Predatory Publishers

All publishers are predators. Even the ones who are reasonably honest and responsible. But some take it too far, and they use business practices that are extremely misleading and dishonest. “People I don’t know keep contacting me online.” The DOAJ and Beall\u27s List. How the scam works; a matter of degree. Troll publishers entice authors to sign over the rights. Bad signs: You never heard of them, even though you have been doing research in the area for 5 years. Title is vague and overly broad. Physical location is obscure. No affiliation with school or society. Interest in receiving money up-front. Negotiable “deals” are offered. Good signs: Published by organization, department, or university Demonstrates working knowledge of the field You can find them online, along with Editorial Board, Aim and Scope statements, author guidelines, etc. You recognize some names of other authors or editorial board members. Most publishers want the author to transfer the copyright to the publisher. Sometimes they settle for “all publishing rights”, which amounts to the same thing in effect. When you sign over your copyright, the assignee can keep your work totally locked up for: the rest of your life plus 70 years after you die. Giving and keeping rights to distribute. Gold and Green Open Access. The publishing industry needs new content like the beef industry needs dead cows. Some publishers are more unscrupulous, and so the industry calls them “predatory.” This may distract us from the “normal” practices that victimize authors routinely. Publishers say: • We are all in this together. • We are doing it for scholarship/science. • Our interests are aligned. • We want to work together. Publishers do: • Restrict distribution. • Earn extravagant profits. • Take and hoard copyrights. • Exploit faculty and researchers. • Sue libraries over fair use of educational materials. • Circulate misleading advice on copyright issues. • Misrepresent their own motives. So we live in a jungle, watch out for predators! (PowerPoint slides .pptx file attached below)

A Short History of the UNL Digital Commons

From 2005 through 2023, the UNL Digital Commons grew to be a leading example of an institutional repository. This presentation reports on personnel, history, strategy, and outstanding examples of series or contributors

12 Years Plus an IR Manager

From 2005 through 2017, I have managed the University of Nebraska\u27s Digital Commons institutional repository. This presentation covers some past, present, and future concerns: Why Nebraska? Our mission. Our history. Our content and usage. Our assets. Our competition. Our allies. Our obstacles. Our services. Our strategies. Our risks and rewards. Our relations with publishers. Order vs. chaos. The information universe. Miracles and disruption

A Template for Book and Article Manuscripts

If you are submitting your document to a publisher, then this template/format is recommended. It generates traditional manuscript-style pages for books or scholarly journal articles. The blank file and template both include design and typographic settings to accommodate common text elements: headings, subtitles, extracts, etc. The font is Courier New, 12-point, set on a 24-point line. All type is the same size. The design is “left aligned”— all titles, subtitles, headings, etc. are lined up on the left margin. Text paragraphs, titles, headings, references, and endnotes are not justified. A single blank line (12 points) is added between paragraphs

Intellectual Property

Copyrights, trademarks, & patents Registration of copyright What copyright gives you Requirements for copyright What you can and cannot copyright Transfer of copyright Exceptions to copyright exclusives Fair use Instructional exemption Open access licenses Ownership by UN

Keynote: Publishing for Love

Why should libraries be interested in publishing? And how should they go about getting started with a publishing program? What are the aims and values that should drive the effort? Should it follow the examples of the university presses and other scholarly publishers, or is there need for a new basis and approach to scholarly communication? What are appropriate products, formats, and workflows? How does one deal with authors and other participants in the process? Paul Royster, a library publisher for the past 10 years (and a “regular” publisher for 20 years before that) will address these and related issues, with emphasis on the motivational aspects and the rewards of the experienc

PowerPoint Presentation on the UNL Digital Commons, 12/01/05

This is a text version of the PowerPoint presentation; slides include: Digital Commons is: Applications The “institutional repository” (IR) Electronic Publishing Benefits: online work is Who controls the copyright ? Rights to published works Publishers who allow some form of self-archiving: What the IR wants: CONTENT Content: Published Content: Unpublished Content: Records Page/URL structure diagram/schematic Site structure diagram/schematic A “community” can be a: Access to work can be: How do I get started ? To establish a new “series” Costs Why put work online? “But my article is already online . . .” A cybernetic experiment: Contact Places to visit: Google searche