Institutional Repository Collection Development Policy

The Western Michigan University Institutional Repository (IR), also known as ScholarWorks@WMU, is a digital showcase of research, scholarly and creative output of members of the WMU community, and serves as a permanent digital archive for these materials. The IR also serves as the digital archive of University records and publications deemed to have value for access and preservation.

The goals of the IR include the stewardship and global online dissemination of content created and selected by WMU authors and affiliates.

This collection development policy is intended to provide guidance for content selection that anticipates and meets the needs of the communities of WMU.

Collections in the IR adhere to values, principles, and other guidelines in the WMU Libraries Collection Policy. Questions about these other guidelines can be emailed to wmu-scholarworks@wmich.edu.

Content and scope

Content in the IR primarily includes:

• Copyright-compliant versions of scholarly works created by faculty, students and staff affiliated with WMU.
• University records including administrative and historical materials such as Board of Trustees activities, university publications and communications, and other significant publications and activities of university officers, student organizations, etc.

Contributors may include:

• WMU faculty, postdoctoral researchers and staff in academic units.
• WMU graduate students.
• WMU undergraduates depositing:
• Work that has been accepted elsewhere through a peer review process (such as a conference poster or paper).
• Honors thesis.
• Research or creative projects done as part of an academic requirement or sponsored by a WMU faculty member.
• Alumni submitting scholarly work completed while at WMU.

Selection priority is given to content that is unique or is of particular significance. Deposits should have the following characteristics:

• Deposited content should be in a final form, rather than in progress.
• Deposited content must be in a digital format.
• Deposits should contain attached scholarship rather than links to external publications, whenever possible. (Collections that refer to external sources are strongly encouraged to archive the URL using the Internet Archive, to guarantee long-term access.)
• If the deposited content is part of a series, other works in that series should also be deposited when possible so that we can offer a full and complete collection.
• Contributors must be willing and able to grant the University the non-exclusive rights to both preserve and make their work available through ScholarWorks@WMU.

The following content types are among those that will be accepted:

• Journal publications (including preprints)
• Hosted journals
• Dissertations
• Masters and undergraduate theses
• Openly licensed educational resources
• Working papers and technical reports
• White papers
• Conference presentations
• Conference posters
• Audio and video recordings
• Images
• Campus-based publications

This is a non-exhaustive list. Contributors are welcome to deposit content that can be characterized as "scholarly, creative, research-related, or teaching resources". The Scholarly Communications Librarian should be contacted with any questions about appropriateness of materials for inclusion.

Note concerning deposit of journal articles, including preprints. Many subject-based repositories exist specifically for the sharing of these types of materials. Due to these repositories' higher visibility, they will be considered the repositories of choice for preprints and postprints, with ScholarWorks serving as an option only if there is not an acceptable alternative.  

Technical specifications

The WMU Libraries recommends certain formats be used in consideration of long-term preservation of digital content. Open file formats are preferred over proprietary versions as they are more likely to be available and accessible over time, (i.e. PDF rather than Docx). The file formats with the best chance of survival have open specifications, are high quality, and are in relatively wide use. Where possible, accessible formats are highly encouraged, and accessibility features should be used.

Access and rights

All deposited content will be made available to the public, except when forbidden by contracts, rights or when embargoed by the author for a defined, limited time. Content in the repository constitutes a digital instance based on permissions granted particularly to the WMU Libraries to make relevant resources available, and this permission does not extend to other entities. Beyond the implicit right to read the content or download or print a copy for personal use, re-use rights vary based on the permissions granted by rights holders.

The contributor must either hold the copyright, or the right to deposit, for all contributed content. If the deposited content is unpublished, the Library recommends using a Creative Commons license, either CC-BY or CC-BY-NC.

By depositing their work, the contributor agrees to give the University only the non-exclusive right to disseminate and preserve the content. Preservation may require reproducing the content in different formats to ensure future accessibility. University records adhere to the Retention and Disposal Schedule outlined in the Records Management policy.

Administration

The IR is administered and maintained by the faculty and staff in the Research Services unit of the WMU Libraries. Content in the IR is uploaded via mediated deposit. When copyright holders grant permission to include works in the IR, the IR faculty, staff and student workers either upload content to the IR directly, or an IR administrator approves deposit by authors or selectors

The Library is committed to providing preservation of repository content. In order to better preserve this content, the Library will, in coordination with the repository vendor:

• Provide secure storage and backup.
• Perform routine maintenance.
• Create provenance records and other preservation metadata to support accessibility and management over time, as necessary.

Withdrawal

All deposits are considered permanent, with the exception of specific university records governed under the retention policy. Under certain circumstances, copyright holders may request that the body of a work be suppressed, (i.e., if the item contains sensitive, confidential or proprietary information). All such requests are honored unless the item serves as evidence of the completion of an educational requirement at the university (e.g., a thesis). In the event of an academic challenge or a degree being revoked by the university, an appropriate university official may request removal of the thesis, dissertation or other WMU academic work.