Frequently Asked Questions


What is UND Scholarly Commons?

UND Scholarly Commons is UND’s new institutional repository. It is administered by the Chester Fritz Library and provides a unified institutional home for research conducted at UND.

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What can I put in UND Scholarly Commons?

Just about any kind of research output you have! UND Scholarly Commons is willing to accept articles, conference papers, white papers, data – if you have research work you’ve done at UND that you want others to see please contact us! Our Digital Initiatives Librarian, Zeineb Yousif is available to answer any questions you have.

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Why should I deposit work in UND Scholarly Commons?
Do you want more eyes on your work? Would you like detailed monthly reports showing you where and when your work is being viewed? Are you looking for a place to store grey literature, working papers, or data – scholarly work that doesn’t quite fit into traditional publishing workflows? UND Scholarly Commons provides all this and more.

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I already share my articles on ResearchGate or Academia.edu – why should I put my work on UND Scholarly Commons?

Good question! While academic social networking websites can be a useful way to build contacts with others in your field they’re not always a good venue for directly sharing your research. Many journal publishers distinguish between for-profit and non-profit entities with regards to authors self-archiving rights – your publishing agreement might allow you to post a copy of your work on an institutional repository for free but require a fee on a profit-generating website like ResearchGate. UND librarians also offer assistance in rights management, by checking a journal’s open access/archiving policies so you don’t accidentally post something in a way that breaches copyright – an issue that has led to lawsuits and takedown notices on ResearchGate.

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I already share my work through open access discipline repositories such as arXiv and SSRN. Should I still deposit my work in UND Scholarly Commons?

Yes, absolutely! Subject specific repositories such as arXiv are a great way to draw initial attention to your work among others in your field. However, institutional repositories often reach a broader readership, particularly open access repositories like ours that don’t require readers to create an account before being able to view your work.

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My publisher retains copyright to my article. 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 SHERPA RoMEO. If you're still unsure whether you have permission to share your work, the library will work with you to confirm the rights status of your document.

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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. The best solution takes advantage of both of these methods. Many software applications allow for the OCR capture of image scans. When documents are scanned this way, users see the image scan but search the full-text of the document. This is the preferred method for scanning documents for the repository.

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A working paper in our repository site has been published in a slightly revised form in a journal. What should I do?

Many journals do not have any restrictions on working papers that preceded an article, especially if substantial revisions were made. You should check your author agreement with the journal to confirm that there is no problem with leaving the working paper on the site. The repository would constitute noncommercial use.

Assuming the working paper does remain on posted in the repository, it is a good idea to include the citation to the published article on the cover page of the repository working paper. Please contact the repository administrator to request this change.

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