Policies

Metadata Policy

1. Anyone may access the metadata free of charge.
2. The metadata may be re-used in any medium without prior permission for not-for-profit purposes and re-sold commercially provided:
   • the OAI Identifier or a link to the original metadata record are given
   • Radford University Scholars' Repository is mentioned

Data Policy

1. Anyone may access full items free of charge.
2. Single copies of full items can be:
   • displayed or performed
   • for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge.
   provided:
   • the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given
   • a hyperlink and/or URL are given for the original metadata page
   • the original copyright statement is given
   • the original rights permission statement is given
   • the content is not changed in any way
3. Full items must not be harvested by robots except transiently for full-text indexing or citation analysis
4. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holders.
5. Some full items are individually tagged with different rights permissions and conditions.

Content Policy

1. This is an institutional or departmental repository.
2. Radford University Scholars' Repository holds all types of materials.
3. 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)
4. Items are individually tagged with:
   • their version type and date.
   • their peer-review status.
   • their publication status.

Submission Policy

1. Items may only be deposited by academic staff, and registered students of the institution
2. Authors may only submit their own work for archiving.
3. Eligible depositors must deposit bibliographic metadata for all their publications.
4. The administrator only vets items for the eligibility of authors/depositors, valid layout & format, and the exclusion of spam
5. The validity and authenticity of the content of submissions is checked by internal subject specialists.
6. Items can be deposited at any time, but will not be made publicly visible until any publishers' or funders' embargo period has expired.
7. Any copyright violations are entirely the responsibility of the authors/depositors.
8. If Radford University Scholars' Repository receives proof of copyright violation, the relevant item will be removed immediately.

Preservation Policy

1. Items will be retained indefinitely.
2. Radford University Scholars' Repository will try to ensure continued readability and accessibility.
   • Items will be migrated to new file formats where necessary.
3. Radford University Scholars' Repository regularly backs up its files according to current best practice.
4. The original bit stream is retained for all items, in addition to any upgraded formats.
5. Items may be removed at the request of the author/copyright holder, but this is strongly discouraged.
6. Acceptable reasons for withdrawal include:
   • Journal publishers' rules
   • Proven copyright violation or plagiarism
   • Legal requirements and proven violations
   • National Security
   • Falsified research
7. Withdrawn items are not deleted per se, but are removed from public view.
8. Withdrawn items' identifiers/URLs are retained indefinitely.
9. URLs will continue to point to 'tombstone' citations, to avoid broken links and to retain item histories.
10. The metadata of withdrawn items will not be searchable.
11. Errata and corrigenda lists may be included with the original record if required.
12. If necessary, an updated version may be deposited.
    • The earlier version may be withdrawn from public view.
    • The item's persistent URL will always link to the latest version.
    • There will be links between earlier and later versions, with the most recent version clearly identified.
13. In the event of Radford University Scholars' Repository being closed down, the database will be transferred to another appropriate archive.