Manchester eScholar Policies
Manchester eScholar's policies are currently under review. The below policy statements are provisional and subject to change.
On this page,
- Metadata Policy
- Full-item/data Policy
- Content Policy
- Submission Policy
- Preservation Policy
- Withdrawal/Takedown Policy
Metadata Policy
To maximise the exposure and impact of research outputs, it is necessary that Manchester eScholar content is easily accessible to others and as widely as possible. It therefore helps to let third parties re-use the metadata for the items in Manchester eScholar for their own purposes.
Metadata re-use also covers the degree of availability of content supported by Manchester eScholar. Normally metadata in Manchester eScholar is available 24/7 but to accommodate maintenance operations there may be a need for "periods of risk" where access to metadata is not guaranteed.
The Manchester eScholar metadata policy is,
- Anyone may access the metadata free of charge.
- The metadata may be re-used in any medium without prior permission for not-for-profit purposes and re-sold commercially
Full-item/data Policy
Full-item re-use extends simple read access to reproduction, performance and other re-use of items downloaded from Manchester eScholar. Manchester eScholar supports tagging of content with differing rights permissions.
Manchester eScholar allows people to reproduce or re-use deposited full items free of charge for personal research or study, educational purposes or not-for-profit purposes. Manchester eScholar requests for full bibliographic references to be given and/or links/URLs to the original metadata page provided ensuring authors retain accreditation.
Manchester eScholar supports a fair-use of content by robots and harvesters, and discourages the mass downloading of content without prior permission. Text-mining and citation analysis activities apply equally here.
Manchester eScholar DOES NOT allow commercial re-use of full items without prior permission of the copyright holders.The Manchester eScholar Full-item/data Policy is,
- Access to some or all full items is controlled.
- Copies of full items generally can be:
- reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium
- for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge.
- the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given
- a hyperlink and/or URL are given for the original metadata page
- the content is not changed in any way
- Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holders.
- Some full items are individually tagged with different rights permissions and conditions.
- Mention of the repository is appreciated but not mandatory.
Content Policy
Our Content Policy covers what is submitted, what metadata is compulsory and whether metadata-only records are allowed. It determines the quality of content the repository stores. Our policy favours self-archiving and zero barriers to content submission, while attempting to sustain high quality metadata records.
Manchester eScholar supports metadata only, aswell as metadata plus full-item/date records.
Manchester eScholar support staff will actively maintain the overall quality of content. Tasks conducted include de-duplication of records, metadata checks and updates (e.g. broken URLs, empty metadata abstract, DOI), and conversion of file formats. All efforts will be made to contact the original authors/owners of the content to authorise any changes to records. However, Manchester eScholar administrators may undertake such operations in the absence of the original authors knowledge.
Manchester eScholar is bound by The University of Manchester’s Intellectual Property policy and legal obligations with regards data protection, freedom of information and disability support.
Manchester eScholar's Content Policy is,
- This is a multi-institution subject-based repository.
- The repository holds all types of materials.
- Deposited items may include:
- working drafts
- submitted versions (as sent to journals for peer-review)
- accepted versions (author's final peer-reviewed drafts)
- published versions (publisher-created files)
- Items are individually tagged with:
- their version type and date.
- their publication status.
Submission Policy
Manchester eScholar's submission policy is under review.
A provisional policy is,
- Items may only be deposited by accredited members of the organisation, or their delegated agents.
- Authors, or their delegated agents, may only submit their own work for archiving.
- The administrator only vets items for the eligibility of authors/depositors, relevance to the scope of the repository, valid layout & format, and the exclusion of spam
- The validity and authenticity of the content of submissions is the sole responsibility of the depositor.
- Items can be deposited at any time, but SHOULD NOT be made publicly visible until any publishers' or funders' embargo period has expired.
- Any copyright violations are entirely the responsibility of the authors/depositors.
- If the repository receives proof of copyright violation or evidence of other malpractice, the relevant item will be removed immediately, in accord with the Withdrawal/Takedown Policy.
Preservation Policy
Manchester eScholar undertakes the following.
- Items will be retained indefinitely under normal operating circumstances.
- It will try to ensure continued readability and accessibility.
- Items will be migrated to new file formats where necessary.
- Where possible, software emulations will be provided to access un-migrated formats.
- It may not be possible to guarantee the readability of some unusual file formats.
- Files are replicated across two physical locations on the University campus according to current best practice of The University's IT Services Division.
- The original bit stream is retained for all items, in addition to any upgraded formats.
- Items may be removed at the request of the author/copyright holder, but this is strongly discouraged.
- Acceptable reasons for withdrawal include:
- Proven copyright violation or plagiarism
- Legal requirements and proven violations
- National Security
- Falsified research
- Withdrawn items are not deleted per se, but are removed from public view. In exceptional circumstances items may be deleted permanently with the permission of the depositor(s).
- Withdrawn items' identifiers/URLs are retained transiently.
- URLs will continue to point to 'tombstone' citations, to avoid broken links and to retain item histories.
- Errata and corrigenda lists may be included with the original record if required.
- If necessary, an updated version may be deposited.
- The item's persistent URL will always link to the latest version.
- In the event of the repository being closed down, the database will be transferred to another appropriate archive.
Withdrawal/Takedown Policy
Manchester eScholar reserves the right to withdraw items (metadata and/or full-item) from public view without the permission of the copyright owner(s)/depositor(s). This is to accommodate situations where submitted content is subsequently found to breach some other policy or legal requirement (e.g. copyright). This is necessary to accommodate complaints received from a third party. In such circumstances, Manchester eScholar administrators will immediately embargoe the item and instigate an investigation into the complaint. Manchester eScholar will make every reasonable effort to liase and inform with copyright owner(s)/depositor(s) to address the issue. The item WILL NOT be permanently removed from Manchester eScholar. Manchester eScholar will reinstate public access to the item only once complaint has been resolved.