Policies and Submission Guidelines

See also the About and FAQ pages.

Adding Content

Clark Digital Commons is a dynamic institutional repository system, based on the principle of open access, that enables us to collect, distribute to the broader community, and preserve the scholarly output of the faculty, students, staff, and their collaborators at Clark University. Members of the Clark community interested in submitting materials should consult with the or an appropriate collection administrator. Appropriate content may be added in accordance with the guidelines below:

  • The work must be original, produced and submitted (or sponsored by) a faculty, staff, student, organization, or department of Clark University.
  • The work must be creative, scholarly in nature, research-oriented, or of institutional significance.
  • The author must own the copyright to all components and content within the work, or have received and be able to show permission to make the material available.
  • By submitting for inclusion, the author or representative of the organization or department grants the University the right to distribute and preserve the material via Clark Digital Commons.
  • Contributors may include non-affiliated scholars if they are co-authoring with Clark authors or if they are affiliated closely with the University (e.g., if they are faculty emeriti or hold honorary appointments). Contributors should notify all co-authors of intent to deposit work in Clark Digital Commons.
  • Some material may be available only to current college faculty, staff, and students.
  • At this time, there is no formal limit to size of material but Collection Administrators or the Commons Coordinator reserve the right to deny inclusion of artifacts that are too large.
  • Various file formats are accepted; refer to Digitization Standards for more information.
  • Examples of possible content are:
    • Working papers, conference papers, and technical reports
    • Student papers or projects
    • Faculty-student collaborative projects
    • Journals published by the Clark community
    • Published articles when copyright and/or license allow
    • Faculty course-related output primarily of scholarly interest
    • Organizational annual reports and newsletters
    • Data sets

      • Withdrawal of content

      Clark Digital Commons has been established as a permanent repository. Once deposited, an item will not be withdrawn, although under some circumstances, it will be removed from view.

      • Any requests for withdrawal must be sent to the .
      • Authors or affected parties may request that works be removed from Digital Commons for reasons of factual inaccuracy, plagiarism, or potential copyright infringement.
      • No materials will be removed without an attempt to reach the author.
      • If authors who have submitted work to Clark Digital Commons leave the University, their work will be retained in the archive. If the authors would like to have new contact information added to their material in Clark Digital Commons, the will assist them in having such information added.
      • If a work is withdrawn, a citation including original metadata will always remain, but the work is noted as withdrawn. Sample statements might include “removed at request of author” or “removed by legal order.”

      Updating a work

      The repository is intended to be a permanent scholarly record. Authors may request that updated documents be posted. Posting updated versions along with the original material is the preferred way to show the progress of research.

      Rights and Terms of Use for Material Posted in Clark Digital Commons

      These terms of use apply to any works without a Creative Commons license (see below).

      For previously published works (journal articles, book chapters, etc.) for which the publisher retains copyright, permission has been granted (where necessary) to post this material in Clark Digital Commons. For any use, which exceeds personal use or fair use, permission may be required by the copyright owner of the material.

      For previously unpublished scholarly or creative works, the right to download or print any portion of this material is granted by the copyright owner only for personal or educational use. The author/creator retains all proprietary rights, including copyright ownership. Any editing, other reproduction or other use of this material by any means requires the express written permission of the copyright owner.

      Except as provided above, or for any other use that is allowed by Fair Use (Title 17, §107 U.S.C.), you may not reproduce, republish, post, transmit or distribute any material from this web site in any physical or digital form without the permission of the copyright owner of the material.

      For works posted in Clark Digital Commons that display a Creative Commons license in their record and/or on the work itself, the use of that work is governed by the terms of the license selected by the content creator. For more information about Creative Commons licenses, or to license your own work, please visit http://creativecommons.org/choose/.

      If you have questions about permitted uses for any content in this database, please contact the .