Frequently Asked Questions

Contents

1. About Adelaide Research & Scholarship
2. How to Participate?
   1. How can I contribute my items?
   2. Do I need special software?
   3. What file formats can I deposit?
   4. How can I convert my file to PDF?
   5. I don't have time for this!
   6. Can I just give you my work and have you upload it?
   7. How many items can I deposit?
   8. Is there a limit on the overall size of a collection?
   9. Is there a limit on file size?
   10. Can I delete a file after depositing it?
3. Copyright and Publication
4. About Open Access
5. References

How to Participate

How can I contribute my work?

The Library welcomes submissions of suitable material from all staff and higher-degree student members of the University. To submit items, use our online submission form, accessible from the home page and the sidebar menu.

Submissions will be validated and approved by Library staff before being made available through Adelaide Research & Scholarship.

Do I need special software?

No. The deposit process, and access to items, is done entirely through standard web browsers.

What file formats can I deposit?

Each collection may have particular guidelines about type of materials that are acceptable; for example, a collection of journal articles will likely restrict you to just journal articles and associated materials (e.g. data sets). Aside from collection restrictions, we can accept any file format that can be stored on your PC.

For presentation purposes, the Adobe Acrobat PDF format is best for textual materials, since the reader for PDF is freely available and widely used.

For the purpose of long term preservation, we prefer file formats which are supported, or at least known to us. For text documents, we would prefer you to deposit files in Microsoft Word format. These can be converted into PDF for presentation, and into XML for preservation.

You are encouraged to deposit files in both their original format and PDF, when appropriate.

How can I convert my file to PDF?

The University provides AdLib PDF Relay, a useful web-based tool for converting documents in several common formats to PDF.

If you are likely to be converting many documents, you should consider purchasing a copy of Acrobat Pro.

For assistance with converting other file formats please contact us.

I don't have time for this!

You may be pleasantly surprised at how little time is required to deposit an item. However, we understand the time constraints under which academic staff work these days, so ...

Can I just give you my work and have you upload it?

We want your material in Adelaide Research & Scholarship, so yes: we will be pleased to assist you in any way we can with your material, including :

• item deposit;
• copyright permissions;
• scanning;
• bulk import of multiple items;

Be aware, however, that our resources are finite, and this kind of effort will take time.

To discuss your options, please contact us.

How many items can I deposit?
Is there a limit on the overall size of a collection?

No. There is no limit on the number of items an individual or Community can submit to Adelaide Research & Scholarship, and there are no limits placed on the size of communities or collections.

Is there a limit on file size?

In theory, the system can handle any size file, but there are practical limitations deriving from network bandwidth and the capacity of a user to download your content to their desktop.

Since web-based submission requires that you upload files from your own desktop, this should not be a problem.

For files that are too large for you to practicably upload, (such as very large data sets or large audio or video files), please contact us.

Can I delete a file after depositing it?

Because Adelaide Research & Scholarship is intended to provide for long-term, permanent access to scholarly work, we strongly discourage removal of content from the system, and individual users are not authorized to remove items directly. However, individual Communities may set policies regarding the conditions under which files will be authorized for deletion, and there may be other circumstances in which it is necessary to remove an item. In such cases, please contact Adelaide Research & Scholarship staff and we will take the appropriate action.

The permanent URL of any withdrawn item will contain a record with the item's metadata, and a note indicating that the item has been withdrawn from view (please note the item will normally still exist in our database but will not be made available for viewing, downloading or searching). The item's metadata will not be searchable, nor made available to search engines, but will be displayed when a citation elsewhere links directly to the item.

Can I still link to my papers from my own web site?

Yes. Adelaide Research & Scholarship can relieve you of maintenance chores for your files but you can still link to individual papers in Adelaide Research & Scholarship from your personal or department web site.