Digital Commons: Frequently Asked Questions

• FAQs for Students
• FAQs for Faculty and Staff

General FAQs

What is CSB and SJU Digital Commons?

CSB and SJU Digital Commons is the institutional repository of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University. Institutional repositories (IRs) bring together an institution’s research under one umbrella, with an aim to archive and provide access to that research to a global audience. CSB and SJU Digital Commons is coordinated and managed by CSB and SJU Libraries & Archives staff. Any questions can be directed to digitalcommons@csbsju.edu.

What’s included in an IR?

Materials often found in institutional repositories include faculty publications, university publications, student research, lectures, performances, and other creative work created by members of our community or located at our institution.

CSB and SJU Digital Commons has an inclusive collection policy; we want to help you share your work with the world! Submitted works should generally be scholarly or artistic and also substantive in nature. Contributions are intended to be permanent additions to the repository, so works that are still in progress or ephemeral in nature are not recommended for contribution. We suggest that faculty and staff consider adding more ephemeral work to departmental or personal websites rather than to CSB and SJU Digital Commons.

Who can contribute?

Content submitted for inclusion in the CSB and SJU Digital Commons must be originally created, produced, and/or sponsored by a member or unit within the CSB and SJU community; this includes current or retired faculty, staff, or administrators; current undergraduate or graduate students; members of our founding monastic communities; or active academic departments, programs, offices, clubs, or other organizations at CSB and SJU.

Note that we prioritize adding content created during one’s time at CSB and SJU, rather than before one’s arrival or after one’s departure from our institutions. If authors who have submitted work to CSB and SJU Digital Commons leave our institutions, their work will still be retained in the repository.

Can I download and use IR materials?

Individuals have the right to download and print or save a personal copy of CSB and SJU Digital Commons materials, and to use the materials in other ways that meet "fair use" standards (Title 17 U.S.C. § 107). Works uploaded to CSB and SJU Digital Commons that have a Creative Commons license are governed by the terms of that license. For any use beyond the terms of that license, users need to obtain permission directly from a work's copyright owners.

How do I cite items from the IR?

A Recommended Citation should appear at the bottom of every item's record page and on many front pages of downloadable PDF files. To provide the most comprehensive information possible within our Recommended Citations, CSB and SJU Digital Commons use Chicago style; this means you may need to adjust a Recommended Citation to conform to other styles’ conventions. For further information and guidelines on other common citation styles, please see the CSB and SJU Libraries’ Citation Help guide.

Why do some repository records link out to other sites?

Some materials are required to be hosted on external sites due to existing agreements. CSB and SJU Digital Commons can comply with funder mandates by linking out to external sites while hosting metadata on the repository to increase access to materials.

FAQs for Student Contributors

Can I add my CSC Day content to the IR?

Most of the student work currently represented in the IR are posters, presentations, and performances from CSB and SJU’s Celebrating Scholarship & Creativity Day. Immediately after CSC Day, we contact student presenters – those whose faculty advisors have already indicated that they approve having a student’s work added to the IR – and invite them to submit their content. Additional information is available on the myCSBSJU FAQs for CSC Day page and the Libraries’ CSC Day Publishing guide.

What if my work wasn’t included at CSC Day?

Students who are interested in submitting work to the IR that wasn’t presented at CSC Day should contact their course instructor, advisor, or the chair of their department and ask them if they will recommend the work for inclusion in their academic department’s collection of student works within CSB and SJU Digital Commons. You can also contact us at digitalcommons@csbsju.edu for further information.

CSB and SJU instructors, researchers, and advisors who are aware of exceptional student work are encouraged to discuss things directly with their students to see if they’d be interested in having their work added to the IR and then follow up with us at digitalcommons@csbsju.edu.

FAQs for Faculty and Staff Contributors

Why contribute?

Contributing your materials to the repository can result in increased visibility, and often increased citation rates, for your scholarship. Uploading your scholarship to the repository also preserves your work into the future and provides a permanent link to materials. This permanence makes it easier to track analytics, such as downloads and shares, for your materials. CSB and SJU Digital Commons is indexed by Google Scholar, The Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR), and The Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR).

How do I submit materials?

To learn more about the submission process, or to submit your work, click on the Submit Research link on the repository’s left-hand navigation menu. Submitters must use their university email address for all submissions.

Do I have to upload everything myself?

CSB and SJU community members are encouraged to self-deposit published and unpublished materials to CSB and SJU Digital Commons. To submit materials, sign up for an account by clicking on the My Account link near the top of this page and following the provided instructions.

CSB and SJU Libraries staff who manage the IR can often aid you in uploading and/or rights checking your materials. Libraries staff will check publisher permissions using the Open Policy Finder publisher agreements database before uploading items to the repository. Please email digitalcommons@csbsju.edu for assistance and include your contact information, relevant files, and any permissions documentation available.

Can I restrict access to my materials?

CSB and SJU Digital Commons is an open access repository whose works are meant to be shared with the public. However, authors can specify certain access restrictions if necessary:

• Campus Access: Accessible only to current CSB and SJU community members from on-campus.
• Embargo: The embargo option can be useful if authors plan to formally publish this work: some authors may not want the full-text version of a work in progress to be available via the IR if they are still exploring formal publishing options, and some publisher agreements necessitate a period where the material is under embargo until an agreed-upon future date. During the embargo period, a work’s full text will not be available in the IR, but metadata about the object will still be accessible to the public.

If you need to request campus-only access or an embargo on your materials, please contact digitalcommons@csbsju.edu with the details of your request.

What file formats can be deposited?

OCR-enabled PDF files are recommended to assure long-term operability and improved search engine results, but most digital formats can be uploaded to CSB and SJU Digital Commons. We will make our best efforts to maintain the content, structure, and functionality of work you deposit into the future. However, not all formats can receive the same level of preservation commitment, particularly with proprietary or uncommon file formats.

I don't have electronic versions of old working papers that I'd like to include in the repository. Is it okay to scan the printed page to a PDF file?

Yes--scanning printed pages is a great way to create PDF files for inclusion in the repository. There are two ways to scan a page: using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) or scanning the page as an image. Making OCR scans requires careful proofreading and loses the original formatting of the documents. Image scans cannot be searched.

How do I revise a submission?

To revise a submission that has already been posted to the repository, contact digitalcommons@csbsju.edu with details regarding the changes made; attach the new version or updated files.

Can I post related files (sound clips, appendices, data sets, etc.) alongside my primary document?

Yes. The repository system refers to these supplementary items as “associated files.” You will be prompted to submit associated files when you upload your submission. The name of the files you upload will appear on the website along with your short description of it.

Can I post a reprint from a journal?

It depends on what the journal allows, which is usually specified in their agreement with the author. If it would not violate copyright to post the reprint on your repository site, you're welcome to do so. Permissions for many publishers can be found at Open Policy Finder. CSB and SJU Libraries staff can help you check publisher permissions through this database. If you are having trouble tracking down a publisher, please contact digitalcommons@csbsju.edu.

Can I host an academic journal on the repository?

Yes, CSB and SJU Digital Commons offers hosting and publication of refereed, peer-reviewed academic journals and currently hosts five electronic journals: Headwaters, Obsculta, Studio One, The Compass, and The Journal of Social Encounters. A CSB and SJU Libraries staff member can go through the form and admin procedures with journal administrators; contact digitalcommons@csbsju.eduto schedule a consultation.

How do I find stats on my work?

The repository can send out monthly download reports to authors if their email is included in the submission. For more detailed information on download and usage statistics please contact digitalcommons@csbsju.edu.

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