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FSU Research Repository
FSU Digital Library
Reuse of DigiNole Content
Notice and Takedown Policy
Contact and More Information
FSU Research Repository
The Research Repository is a service of FSU Libraries dedicated to preserving and providing open access to the scholarly research and creative work of the University. FSU Libraries works with members of the FSU community to curate, archive, and provide access to a diverse range of materials related to the missions of scholarship, research, and education at FSU. The Research Repository showcases the work of individuals, departments, colleges, research centers, and other communities of researchers on campus. Archiving content in the Research Repository is free and permitted by many publishers.
Content Guidelines
Currently, the Research Repository is optimized to archive peer-reviewed, published journal articles (usually pre- and post-prints), other forms of peer-reviewed scholarship (conference posters and papers), and theses and dissertations. The Research Repository can also be used to archive:
- Data sets
- Downloadable audio/video
- Presentation slides
- Teaching materials
- Technical reports
- Video recordings
- Working papers
Publications included in the Research Repository are typically the original work of FSU faculty, staff, or students. Any department, center, individual faculty member, staff member or student associated with FSU may archive content in the Research Repository, provided that the content is of a scholarly nature and the policies listed on this page are followed. The Research Repository is a full-text archiving platform and does not publish bibliographic citations or abstracts without their associated works.
Previously Published Works
Articles Covered by the FSU Faculty Senate Open Access Policy
FSU’s Faculty Senate adopted an Open Access (OA) Policy on February 17, 2016, asserting the right of all FSU faculty to make their scholarly articles available in the Research Repository. Thanks to this policy, FSU authors may post the "author's version post peer-review" of their scholarly articles in the Research Repository as long as:
- the author was an FSU employee when the article was written;
- the author has not obtained a waiver of the policy for that article; and
- the publication agreement for the article was signed after the policy became effective.
For more information about the OA Policy, see the policy statement and press release.
Other Previously Published Works
If you are interested in posting a previously published work in the Research Repository that is not covered by the FSU Faculty OA Policy (such as an article published before the policy was adopted, a book-length work, or other writing that is not a “scholarly article”), please bear in mind that your publisher’s policy may or may not allow it. While most journal publishers allow posting on a non-profit site associated with the author's institution or on his or her homepage even in the absence of rights reserved by an institutional open access policy, some do not.
To determine whether you can post works not covered by the FSU Faculty OA Policy, you will need to review the language of the contract you signed to see what rights you retained. If you are still unsure, the SHERPA/RoMEO (Publisher Copyright Policies & Self-Archiving) website is a resource for determining the postprint and preprint policies of a wide range of publishers and journals. Be aware that FSU has not verified the information on this site, although you are welcome to contact FSU Libraries for assistance with interpreting the information. You may also wish to contact your publisher directly if you have questions.
Publisher's vs. Author's Version
Most publishers who allow postprint publication of articles require that you post the “author's final version.” This term refers to the author's final, accepted manuscript after peer-review but before the publisher's copy-editing and typesetting. This will also generally be the appropriate version to deposit for articles covered by FSU’s Faculty OA Policy.
In some instances, publishers do allow postprint publication of the “publisher's version,” which is the final, published version of the article after copy editing and typesetting and branded with the journal's name and/or logo. You should be able to find information about which version you are allowed to post in your publication agreement, on your publisher's website, or by contacting the publisher directly. FSU Libraries staff are available to assist you with this process.
Multiple Authors
Many of the previously published works and working papers submitted to the Research Repository are written by multiple authors. In such cases, at least one author must be affiliated with FSU.
Warranty of Rights
By submitting a work to the Research Repository, the author warrants that he or she holds the copyright to the work or has sufficient authority to grant license to the work. Copyright holders retain the copyright to works made available in the Research Repository and may re-publish or reproduce the work as they wish.
Legal Agreements
The copyright for any work disseminated by DigiNole is retained by the copyright holder, not by FSU.
Users submitting works to be made available in the Research Repository must be willing to grant FSU the right to preserve and distribute their work electronically, as described in the DigiNole Author Agreement found in the next section. All work must be published in the context of the department, school, or research center with which it is associated.
Submission to DigiNole requires that authors enter into a simple author’s agreement regarding the deposit and use the items being submitted. This agreement reaffirms your desire to deposit your work in an openly accessible repository, and warrants the rights and permissions associated with that action.
Author Agreement for Deposit in Florida State University’s institutional repository
I hereby grant permission to the library to deposit my scholarly works (the “Works”) in Florida State University’s open access repository as it may evolve (the “Repository”), to be stored and made available publicly.
Where I retain the right, I grant to Florida State University (“FSU”) the non-exclusive right to preserve and reproduce the Works, and to display, distribute and make the Works available publicly without charge from the Repository, in any format.
In addition, if I am a member of the faculty of FSU, which has adopted the campus-wide open access policy found at http://openaccess.fsu.edu/, this confirms my grant to FSU of a non-exclusive license with respect to my scholarly articles as set forth in that policy.
I represent and warrant that:
- I have the right to deposit the Works in the Repository and to grant to FSU the rights granted above;
- The Works do not infringe or violate any copyright or other rights of a publisher or any other party. Distribution of the Works from the Repository will not infringe or violate any such rights;
- If the Works contain any material for which I do not hold copyright, I have obtained all rights necessary to permit the Works, including that material, to be distributed and made available from the Repository;
- If the Works contain any material for which I do not hold copyright, and for which I have not obtained rights to distribute or make available, my use of that material is fair use;
- If the Works are based upon work that has been sponsored or supported by an agency or organization other than FSU, any right to review or other such obligations of the sponsorship or support agreement have been fulfilled.
If I have specified an embargo date as allowed in the deposit process, I understand that FSU will delay making the Works publicly available in the Repository until that date.
If the Works were prepared jointly with other authors, I am consenting to the Agreement on their behalf as well as my own, and am authorized to do so.
FSU Digital Library
The Digital Library provides online access to thousands of unique manuscripts, photographs, pamphlets, rare books, historic maps and other materials from across the FSU campus libraries and beyond. Our goal is to support active learning and engagement by providing ample opportunities for discovery and scholarship. In order to achieve this goal, our digital library is constantly adding new resources.
Content Guidelines
Selecting content, whether digitized or born-digital, for the Digital Library is only one piece in the ongoing process of building digital collections. The development and management of digital collections also involves project planning and management; metadata creation and management; the development and use of systems to create, manage, deliver and preserve digital content; and the ongoing assessment of digital collections and services. The success of these activities hinge upon collaboration. The Digital Library works closely with other units in FSU Libraries to realize our goals, and collaborate with other units at the University and with external institutions and organizations as appropriate.
The Digital Library currently selects materials for inclusion based on the following factors:
- Significance of material
- Current and potential user needs
- Relationship to other available digital collections, locally, statewide and nationally
- Copyright status
- Physical organization and description of materials
- Funding
However, inclusion in the Digital Library may be decided on a project basis and any of the above factors may be navigated to make sure we’re making as much material as possible available to our users.
Legal Agreements
Copyright statements are included with every item in the Digital Library to direct a user on the copyright status of an item and how to obtain more information about copyright or reproduction needs.
Reuse of DigiNole Content
For material in the Research Repository, content creators license content to FSU so that FSU Libraries may display it in DigiNole. FSU is not, however, the copyright holder of this content, and our licensing agreement with content creators does not permit us to grant further license(s) to content that appears in DigiNole.
Copyright for most content in the Research Repository is retained by the author/creator or original publisher. You are welcome to contact creators or original publishers to request permission to reuse their content. While FSU Libraries is not able to provide assistance in locating contact information for authors, campus directories at the author's home institution are often a good place to start your search.
For materials in the Digital Library, much of the content is in the public domain OR copyright has been granted to FSU. Follow the copyright statement attached to each item in the Digital Library as to the types of reuse an object may be used for.
Finally, you may also want to consider whether your use of the content qualifies as Fair Use under US copyright law. Stanford University, University of Minnesota, and University of Texas have resources which may help you to better understand whether your proposed use qualifies as Fair Use.
Notice and Takedown Policy
DigiNole is a digital archive and the intention is that deposited content should not be removed. In the event of a complaint, acceptable reasons for withdrawal include:
- Proven copyright violation or plagiarism
- Legal requirements
- National security
- Falsified research
If you wish to issue a complaint regarding items available in DigiNole, please include the following information in your notice:
- Your contact details
- Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL
- An outline of the nature of the complaint
The complaint must be sent to lib-support@fsu.edu.
On receipt of a complaint the DigiNole team will:
- Make an initial judgement of the validity of the complaint
- Withdraw the item in question from public view
- Return an acknowledgement in writing that the complaint has been received
- The complaint will then be reviewed by the DigiNole team together with the DigiNole managing bodies and if necessary the University's Office of General Counsel
- If the grounds of the complaint are considered plausible, the material will be permanently withdrawn from DigiNole. Once a work has been deposited in DigiNole and subsequently removed, metadata to the deposited content will always remain to avoid loss of historical record together with a note explaining the reasons for withdrawal
Contact and More Information
To learn more about contributing to the Research Repository or open access scholarship, contact Camille Thomas, Scholarly Communications Librarian, at cthomas5@fsu.edu.
FSU Libraries’ Academic Publishing guide offers extensive information for faculty and researchers about open access, authors' rights, copyright and the uses and utility of the Research Repository.
To learn more about FSU Special Collections & Archives or the Digital Library in general, email lib-specialcollections@fsu.edu. More information about Special Collections and its holdings can be found at https://www.lib.fsu.edu/specialcollections/.