Frequently Asked Questions


General FAQ

Author FAQ

Q: What does Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College contain?

A: The contents (text, images, audio, video) of this open-access repository are related to the history or the life of Bryn Mawr College in some way. They include materials published at the college, materials about the college itself, and research and scholarship created by its faculty, staff, and students. Almost all these materials can be freely accessed, with the only exception being most of the Ph.D. dissertations.

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Q: Is it necessary to create an account?

A: No account is necessary to search the repository or to browse or download any of its contents. Only administrators and people involved with uploading the materials need to have an account. Authors have access to special features if they create one, but they are not required to do so. For more information, see the Author FAQ.

If you have an account, you can choose to be notified of updates to the repository by clicking on the blue “Follow” buttons. You can “Follow” the entire repository, one or more specific collections, or one or more authors.

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Q: I am looking for a published scholarly article, but when I try to download it I get a plain text document, or I see that it will be available only after a certain date. What is going on?

A: If a work is still in copyright, in most cases, the author's final version of the text can be posted, but not the publisher's PDF. The author of an article may retain the rights to the text of the article, or is given the right to post this text by a publisher, but does not have the right to make the formatted and published PDF available (although where a publisher allows us to upload the published PDF, we have done so). The final text of the article is often called a "postprint," and postprints make up the majority of the scholarly articles in this repository. Sometimes a publisher requires an embargo of up to 2 years before an article can be made openly accessible, or an author may ask for an embargo. For published articles, a full citation giving the journal where the final version is published and links is included with each article.

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Q: Why is your repository missing X, Y or Z?

A: We are limited to what authors can make and have made available for uploading, and are in the process of adding digitized and digital materials about Bryn Mawr. If you know of any materials suitable for inclusion in the repository, please send us your suggestions at .

Please explore the repository and give us feedback on it by using the form provided at http://repository.brynmawr.edu/open-access-feedback.html (each document in the repository has a link to it on its cover page). The creation of this archive is an ongoing process, and your comments on its structure, contents, ease of use and usefulness for your projects are extremely valuable to us. Moreover, as more and more content is added to the repository, mistakes and inconsistencies inevitably tend to pop up. If you notice any missing or incorrect data, please let us know by sending an e-mail to . Finally, if you found your experience with the repository useful and enjoyable, we kindly invite you to share it with your friends and colleagues, especially if they are interested in the history of Bryn Mawr College and in the scholarship produced here.

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Author FAQ

Q: I am a faculty/staff member at Bryn Mawr College. How do I upload my publications or papers?

A: Thank you for your interest in the repository and you willingness to make your work more accessible. Library staff will upload material for you, and for some collections within the repository, you can also create an account for yourself and upload your own scholarship (which will then be approved by an administrator). Please contact Camilla MacKay () with materials you want to include or any questions.

We can only include scholarship for which you retain the right to make the work available, or where the publisher allows you to make the work available. Permissions for most journal publishers can be found on the SHERPA/RoMEO database (http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo), and we are more than happy to assist you in determining what your rights are in this regard, including contacting publishers to ask for permission.

In addition to published and unpublished articles, papers and presentations given at conferences are also eligible for posting in the repository. If these have not yet been published, their addition to the repository will allow them wide dissemination. Please feel free to send us any of these conference papers and presentations that you wish to have posted, along with any supplementary materials such as slides or videos.

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Q: What are the benefits of having an account?

A: As an author, the main advantage of having an account is being able to track the dissemination of your work. By participating in Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College, you will get an automatic private monthly email informing you how often each of your documents, either published or unpublished, is downloaded. If you have an account, you will have access to additional details, like search terms used to find your scholarship.

Having an account also allows you to upload your work to the repository on your own. The repository is divided into collections, each of which corresponds to a department, academic program, or office at Bryn Mawr College. Documents uploaded to the repository will be added to the collection(s) related to the academic affiliation of the author(s).

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Q: What rights do I retain to the materials uploaded to the repository?

A: You retain whatever copyright you possess. You can ask for the materials to be placed under embargo, and can request that they be removed at any time.

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Q: My publications are already available online. Why should I post them in the repository, especially if the publisher's PDF cannot be used?

A: Archiving your articles will preserve them permanently as part of Bryn Mawr College’s digital collections and will also make them freely available for users worldwide, including those who otherwise have no access to your scholarship if your articles are published in subscription journals. Visibility of your work also leads to more citations and higher impact; open access is one of the best ways to maximize the impact of your research work.

If you are allowed to archive only the final text of an article, note that the content is the same as in the published article, just without the publisher's formatting. We give the full citation and links for each the published article, so readers will be able to find the published version.

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Q: I would like to include my old publications in the repository, but I do not have electronic versions of them. Is it possible to scan the printed version to a PDF file?

A: In many cases, yes, although we must abide by the policies of the publisher. We can use either the physical journal or the printed text as the source for the PDF, depending on which version of the article can be archived (publisher's PDF or postprint).

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Q: Can I post related files (audio, video, datasets, etc.) in addition to the published article?

A: Yes, as "Associated Files."

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Q: I'm holding a conference at Bryn Mawr. Can I use this site to host my conference materials?

A: Yes. Please contact Camilla MacKay () for more information.

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Q: How do I change or delete a submission?

A: To revise a submission that has been posted to the repository, please contact Camilla MacKay ().

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