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The University of Manchester Library

Manchester eScholar Policies

Manchester eScholar's policies are currently under review. The below policy statements are provisional and subject to change.

On this page,

Metadata Policy

To maximise the exposure and impact of research outputs, it is necessary that Manchester eScholar content is easily accessible to others and as widely as possible. It therefore helps to let third parties re-use the metadata for the items in Manchester eScholar for their own purposes.

Metadata re-use also covers the degree of availability of content supported by Manchester eScholar. Normally metadata in Manchester eScholar is available 24/7 but to accommodate maintenance operations there may be a need for "periods of risk" where access to metadata is not guaranteed.

The Manchester eScholar metadata policy is,

  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

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Full-item/data Policy

Full-item re-use extends simple read access to reproduction, performance and other re-use of items downloaded from Manchester eScholar. Manchester eScholar supports tagging of content with differing rights permissions.

Manchester eScholar allows people to reproduce or re-use deposited full items free of charge for personal research or study, educational purposes or not-for-profit purposes. Manchester eScholar requests for full bibliographic references to be given and/or links/URLs to the original metadata page provided ensuring authors retain accreditation.

Manchester eScholar supports a fair-use of content by robots and harvesters, and discourages the mass downloading of content without prior permission. Text-mining and citation analysis activities apply equally here.

Manchester eScholar DOES NOT allow commercial re-use of full items without prior permission of the copyright holders.

The Manchester eScholar Full-item/data Policy is,

  1. Access to some or all full items is controlled.
  2. Copies of full items generally can be:
    • reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium
    • 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 content is not changed in any way
  3. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holders.
  4. Some full items are individually tagged with different rights permissions and conditions.
  5. Mention of the repository is appreciated but not mandatory.

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Content Policy

Our Content Policy covers what is submitted, what metadata is compulsory and whether metadata-only records are allowed. It determines the quality of content the repository stores. Our policy favours self-archiving and zero barriers to content submission, while attempting to sustain high quality metadata records.

Manchester eScholar supports metadata only, aswell as metadata plus full-item/date records.

Manchester eScholar support staff will actively maintain the overall quality of content. Tasks conducted include de-duplication of records, metadata checks and updates (e.g. broken URLs, empty metadata abstract, DOI), and conversion of file formats. All efforts will be made to contact the original authors/owners of the content to authorise any changes to records. However, Manchester eScholar administrators may undertake such operations in the absence of the original authors knowledge.

Manchester eScholar is bound by The University of Manchester’s Intellectual Property policy and legal obligations with regards data protection, freedom of information and disability support.

>Manchester eScholar's Content Policy is,

  1. This is a multi-institution subject-based repository.
  2. The 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 publication status.

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Submission Policy

Manchester eScholar's submission policy is under review.

A provisional policy is,

  1. Items may only be deposited by accredited members of the organisation, or their delegated agents.
  2. Authors, or their delegated agents, may only submit their own work for archiving.
  3. The administrator only vets items for the eligibility of authors/depositors, relevance to the scope of the repository, valid layout & format, and the exclusion of spam
  4. The validity and authenticity of the content of submissions is the sole responsibility of the depositor.
  5. Items can be deposited at any time, but SHOULD NOT be made publicly visible until any publishers' or funders' embargo period has expired.
  6. Any copyright violations are entirely the responsibility of the authors/depositors.
  7. If the repository receives proof of copyright violation or evidence of other malpractice, the relevant item will be removed immediately, in accord with the Withdrawal/Takedown Policy.

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Preservation Policy

Manchester eScholar undertakes the following.

  1. Items will be retained indefinitely under normal operating circumstances.
  2. It will try to ensure continued readability and accessibility.
    • Items will be migrated to new file formats where necessary.
    • Where possible, software emulations will be provided to access un-migrated formats.
    • It may not be possible to guarantee the readability of some unusual file formats.
  3. Files are replicated across two physical locations on the University campus according to current best practice of The University's IT Services Division.
  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:
    • 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. In exceptional circumstances items may be deleted permanently with the permission of the depositor(s).
  8. Withdrawn items' identifiers/URLs are retained transiently.
  9. URLs will continue to point to 'tombstone' citations, to avoid broken links and to retain item histories.
  10. Errata and corrigenda lists may be included with the original record if required.
  11. If necessary, an updated version may be deposited.
    • The item's persistent URL will always link to the latest version.
  12. In the event of the repository being closed down, the database will be transferred to another appropriate archive.

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Withdrawal/Takedown Policy

Manchester eScholar reserves the right to withdraw items (metadata and/or full-item) from public view without the permission of the copyright owner(s)/depositor(s). This is to accommodate situations where submitted content is subsequently found to breach some other policy or legal requirement (e.g. copyright). This is necessary to accommodate complaints received from a third party. In such circumstances, Manchester eScholar administrators will immediately embargoe the item and instigate an investigation into the complaint. Manchester eScholar will make every reasonable effort to liase and inform with copyright owner(s)/depositor(s) to address the issue. The item WILL NOT be permanently removed from Manchester eScholar. Manchester eScholar will reinstate public access to the item only once complaint has been resolved.

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Deposit License

Why have a Deposit License?

This repository supports the long-term preservation of the digital objects that you deposit. To undertake this role, the administrators of the repository need permission to store, copy and manipulate the digital objects in order to ensure that they can be preserved and where appropriate made available in the future.

This Deposit License is designed to give repository administrators the right to do this, and to confirm that the depositor has the right to deposit the digital object to the repository. The License is non-exclusive, and the depositor does not give away any of their rights to the repository.

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Depositor’s obligations

The Depositor hereby confirms that,

  1. the Depositor is the owner of the copyright of the whole digital object (including content and layout) or is duly authorised by the owner(s), or other holder of these rights and is competent to grant under this agreement, a license to hold and where permissible disseminate copies of the digital object
  2. the digital object is not and shall be in no way a violation or infringement of any copyright, trademark, patent, or other rights whatsoever of any person
  3. The Depositor warrants that they have made all necessary copyright checks in depositing the digital object and understands that Manchester eScholar does not assume any legal responsibility if there is any breach of copyright in distributing this digital object.

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Manchester eScholar rights and obligations

The Depositor grants Manchester eScholar a non-exclusive, perpetual right to use the digital object for non-commercial use. Such right shall include, but not be limited to, the right to,

  1. electronically store, archive, copy or convert the digital object for preservation purposes and to ensure future accessibility without changing the content
  2. where no embargo applies electronically view and display the digital object on the World Wide Web
  3. expose the digital object to be indexed and displayed by third party federated search services
  4. create or enhance the metadata record associated with the digital object in order to improve visibility, accuracy and provenance
  5. Manchester eScholar shall provide a persistent URL to the digital object, however reserves the right to restrict access to the URL for a digital object, e.g., in order to enforce copyright holders’ embargo
  6. Manchester eScholar will co-operate with the Depositor to ensure that digital objects are replaced or removed as needed to comply with claims related to the digital object’s copyright in line with Manchester eScholar’s Take-down Policy
  7. although due care will be made to preserve the physical integrity of the digital objects, Manchester eScholar shall incur no liability for the loss of or damage to deposited digital objects
  8. Manchester eScholar shall not be under any obligation to take legal action on behalf of the Depositor or other rights holders in the event of breach of intellectual property rights or any other right in the digital object deposited

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Definitions

Copyright
The entire right, title and interest in the copyright, design right and database right in the digital object throughout the world.
Depositor
The copyright holder(s) of the digital object, be it its author(s) or copyright owner(s) as appropriate, or any other person duly authorised by the copyright holder to grant the rights in this License.
Digital Object
A collection of computer files that contain digital content (images, texts, sounds, video) and/or data descriptive of the content and its digital form.

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