Digital Repositories Policy

Effective Date: November 20, 2024

Next Review: 2028

Policy Owner: Associate University Librarian, Research

Policy Location: Library Sharepoint and Library Website

I. Purpose

The McLaughlin Library supports open access digital repositories (the “Repositories”) dedicated to the long-term stewardship of scholarly and creative works created at or in cooperation with the University of Guelph. Providing access to the content of these Repositories supports the principles of open science and open scholarship which recognize scholarship as a public good and seek to advance knowledge through open dissemination via standardized metadata and protocols (“Purpose”).
Content which is accepted for inclusion in the Repositories (a “Submission”) is subject to all applicable University policies including but not limited to the McLaughlin Library’s Collection Policies, academic and research integrity policies and Intellectual Property policies, and AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) regulations.

A user who submits content to the Repositories (the “Depositor”) will be either the creator of the submission, a researcher collaborating with the creator(s), an individual designated by the creator, or an institutional curator.

The University may reject any content submitted for review, withdraw a Submission from the Repositories or from public access either temporarily or permanently, if in its sole discretion, it decides the content or Submission fails to satisfy the requirements of this Policy.

Any questions regarding Submissions, the Repositories or this Policy should be directed to: libresc@uoguelph.ca.

II. The Repositories

A.    The Atrium Institutional Repository (the “Atrium”) 

The Atrium primarily hosts research publications and open access versions of scholarly and creative work in accordance with the Purpose identified above. Works may include:

• Graduate theses and dissertations

• Journal articles and preprints

• Books / Book Chapters

• Conference Presentations / Papers

• Grey literature (including policy briefings, plain language summaries, trade publications, community outreach materials)

• Other research outputs such as protocols, images, reports, infographics, papers, audio files, etc.

• Openly licensed source files for OER created by, or in partnership with, McLaughlin Library

B.    Research Data Repositories

The Research Data Repositories accept open access research data and datasets in accordance with the Purpose identified above.

There are currently two Research Data Repositories:

1. University of Guelph Research Data Repository (UGRDR) – for research data for all disciplines except those covered in 2) below; and 

2. University of Guelph Agri-Environmental Research Data Repository (AERDR) – for agricultural and environmental research data.

The Research Data Repositories are guided by the FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship which aim to improve the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reuse of research data. Thus, all Submissions in the Research Data Repositories are required to have:

• data structured in accordance with directions provided for the Research Data Repositories;

• rich metadata that describes the data; and

• all supplemental documentation necessary for the data to be found, understood and reused, such as ‘read me’ files, user guides, codebooks, and where applicable code/script files.

III. Content

The Library will review any content received for possible inclusion in the Repositories. To begin a submission to the data repositories, contact the Research & Scholarship team at libresc@uoguelph.ca. To begin a submission to the Atrium, consult the Atrium Submission Guide.

In accordance with the Purpose, deposited content and associated metadata should be open by default and by design to the greatest extent possible.  Depositors are responsible for ensuring that all materials they deposit in the Repositories meet accessibility standards according to the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). Guidance and resources in support of creating accessible digital materials can be accessed through the Digital Accessibility Resource Centre.

Content must be in digital form and must not include:

• Unfinished works, drafts, works in progress

• Ephemeral works

• Unaltered secondary and third-party data

• Collections of data to be shared for teaching purposes

• Undergraduate coursework except honours theses or significant original research

• Content that is confidential/sensitive as described in the U of G’s Research Data Classification (RDC) guidelines.

IV. Representations, Warranties, License, and Indemnification

Responsibility for the content of submissions to the Repositories is the sole responsibility of the depositors, and true copies of any approvals and/or authorizations must be available upon request. In submitting content to the Repositories, depositors acknowledge and agree to the following:

A. Representations and Warranties

1. They are either the sole author of the submission, or if there is more than one author, all co-authors have agreed in writing to the submission to the Repositories under the terms of this Policy;

2. The submission is original, except for any copyrighted material of others incorporated in the submission, for which written permission to use has been obtained, or which is otherwise permitted by applicable law(s);

3. The submission does not infringe or violate any intellectual or industrial property rights or contractual right of any person including but not limited to patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or right of publicity (all applicable Ontario laws);

4. If the submission is produced in whole or in part with funding from an external agency or organization, any right or review or other contractual obligation required by the external agency or organization has been fulfilled;

5. If subject to Research Ethics Board (REB) review, the submission has received such approval; and

6. The submission complies with all applicable Canadian and provincial legislation including but not limited to those related to libel, obscenity, defamation or privacy.

B. License

1. Authors/copyright holders or their designated representatives submitting materials to the Repository must agree to a non-exclusive distribution license which allows the University to reproduce, distribute, and migrate the submitted work to new formats where necessary and feasible. By granting the non-exclusive license, copyright holders permit the University to distribute their work while retaining the right to pursue any other publishing ventures.
2. They grant the University of Guelph a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, irrevocable, non-exclusive license to make available , reproduce and distribute this Submission in whole or in part, in all languages, in print, electronic or any other form and in any media now known or hereafter devised, throughout the world, for the full term of copyright available to the Submission, for the purpose of long term access to your submission in the Repositories  (“Preservation Rights”). This includes but is not limited to:

   1. Mediation and curation of the submission process including cataloguing and editing of metadata for the purpose of improving discoverability (and reuse, where permitted) of the Submission;

   2. Uploading and storing the submission in the Repositories;

   3. Make available the submission on the public internet via the Repositories as outlined in the Terms of Public Access section of this Policy;

   4. Migration of the submission to any medium or format for the purpose of long term access; and

   5. Retention of more than one copy of the submission for purposes of security, back-up and long term access.

3. They grant to the University, the right to sub-license these Preservation Rights regarding any graduate thesis or dissertation, to Library and Archives Canada for the Purpose.

4. They acknowledge and agree that they have the right and authority to grant these license rights and have not previously assigned or relinquished these rights in such a manner that would conflict with this license.

C. Indemnification

1. The author agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the University, its employees and assigns, from any claim that may arise out of any act or omission by the author with respect to their obligations, rights or warranties under this Policy.

V. Submission Guidelines

Submission guidelines provide an outline of specific requirements including preferred file formats, file naming conventions, required descriptive information (or metadata) and copyright considerations.

The University reserves the right to decline any Submission which the University determines its sole discretion, fails to meet the criteria in this Policy.

VI. Open Access

Access to the Repositories will be managed in accordance with guidance from the  Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications,  the Tri-Agency Statement of Principles on Digital Data Management, CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance , the First Nations Information Governance Centre’s principles of ownership, control, access, and possession (OCAP Principles) and the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science.

Normally Submissions will be made available publicly as soon as possible. The University may decide to delay public access in its sole discretion because of circumstances including but not limited to legal rights, ethical principles or private, public, or community interests.

VII. Correction or Withdrawal of Submission

Once accepted, Submissions are part of the Library’s collections and will not normally be withdrawn from the Repositories. If necessary, corrections through the addition of errata or corrigenda for the original Submission may be used as appropriate, guided by the Data Repository deaccession guidelines or the Atrium guide.

If the University determines in its sole discretion to withdraw a Submission from public access, the Submission will retain its persistent identifiers and URLs. Where possible, the citation will include the reason for withdrawal and a link to another version of the content (if applicable).

VIII. Disclaimer

Neither the University nor the Library is not responsible for the content of the items contained within the Repository.

Neither the University nor the Library is not responsible for the maintenance and/or performance of external web links within documents and records in the Repository.