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UCA Research Online Policy: Home

UCA Research Online Policy

Scope
1. The aim of UCA Research Online is to provide a permanent record of the research output of the University and to maximise the visibility, usage and impact of this research through open access.


SUBMISSION POLICY

Depositors
2. Items may be submitted to UCA Research Online by any staff and current postgraduate research students* of the University for the Creative Arts.

3. Authors/creators, referred to as depositors, may only submit their own work for archiving.

Copyright
4. The validity and authenticity of the content of submissions is the sole responsibility of the depositor.

5. Any copyright violations are entirely the responsibility of the depositors.

6. If UCA Research Online receives proof of copyright violation, the relevant item will be removed and deleted immediately.

Submissions
7. A list of all items submitted to UCA Research Online will be sent to the Research Office periodically for review against the University's definition of research.** The UCA Research Online Manager reserves the right to remove and, if appropriate, delete items from the archive on the authority of the Research and Enterprise Committee. Depositors may appeal to the Chair of the Research Committee against the decision.

8. Current postgraduate research students should seek the support of at least one supervisor prior to upload, and an email of support from the supervisor should be sent to ucaro@uca.ac.uk. The output will be made publicly available on UCA Research Online once support has been received and approval sought and received from the Director of Research.

9. The UCA Research Online Manager verifies items submitted for the eligibility of depositors, relevance to the scope of UCA Research Online, accurate metadata, and the exclusion of spam.

10. Items can be submitted at any time, although submission is encouraged at the earliest opportunity. Please note the requirements from HEFCE for depositing journal articles and conference papers on acceptance for publication, in order to be eligible for the post-2014 Research Excellence Framework (see point 17 below).

11. Text-based items should be submitted as the latest, authorised version that has been disseminated and accepted for publication.

12. It is the sole responsibility of the depositor that the most current version of the research output has been submitted to UCA Research Online.

Funders
13. Submissions will not be made publicly visible until any publishers' or funders' embargo period has expired.

14. University for the Creative Arts staff with full-time or part-time contracts that contain a research dimension are required to submit their research outputs to UCA Research Online.

15. University for the Creative Arts staff who have received support (financial, in-kind or other) from the University for a research project are required to submit their research outputs for that project to UCA Research Online.

16. University for the Creative Arts staff or students who have received support from an external funding agency for a research project on condition that outputs are available online are required to submit their research outputs for that project to UCA Research Online.

17. Any qualifying staff that may be or wish to be included in the University's submission to the post-2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) must submit their research outputs to UCA Research Online.

18. To be eligible for submission to the next REF, journal articles and conference proceedings accepted for publication after 1 April 2016 will need to fulfill the requirements of the HEFCE Policy for open access in the post- 2014 Research Excellence Framework (HEFCE 2014/07). This means that they must have been deposited in UCA Research Online on acceptance for publication, and made open access within a specified time period. These requirements apply to journal articles and conference papers only and there are a further list of exceptions to the requirements.

Theses
An electronic copy of all theses should be sent to the UCA Research Online Manager, who will apply any embargo periods to relevant theses on UCA Research Online. An electronic copy of all successful Research theses and a copy of the signed eThesis deposit form will be deposited by the Research & Enterprise Manager (Research Degrees) with the University Library to be published on UCA Research Online. The student is responsible for clearing any third party copyright as per the University of Brighton eThesis deposit form.

* Research students may only submit public research outputs, or a record of such to the archive, as well as their final PhD thesis.

** The University uses the definition of research by REF:

For the purposes of the REF, research is defined as a process of investigation leading to new insights, effectively shared. It includes work of direct relevance to the needs of commerce, industry, and to the  public and voluntary sectors, scholarship, the invention and generation of ideas, images, performances,  artefacts including design, where these lead to new or substantially improved insights and the use of existing knowledge in experimental development to produce new or substantially improved materials, devices, products and processes, including design and construction. It excludes routine testing and routine analysis of materials, components and processes such as for the maintenance of national standards, as distinct from the development of new analytical techniques. It also excludes the development of teaching materials that do not embody original research. It includes research that is published, disseminated or made publicly available in the form of assessable research outputs and confidential reports.


METADATA POLICY
For information describing items in the repository:

  • Anyone may access the metadata free of charge.
  • The metadata may be re-used in any medium without prior permission for not-for-profit purposes provided the OAI Identifier or a link to the original metadata record is given.
  • The metadata must not be re-used in any medium for commercial purposes without formal permission.

DATA POLICY
For full-text and other full content items:

  • Access to some or all full items is controlled.
  • Copies of full items generally can be displayed or performed for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided:
    • i. the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given;
    • ii. a hyperlink and/or URL are given for the original metadata page;
    • iii. the original copyright statement is given;
    • iv. original rights permission statement; is given, and
    • v. the content is not changed in any way.
  • Full items must not be harvested by robots.
  • Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holders.
  • Some full items are individually tagged with different rights permissions and conditions and these must take precedence.
  • This repository is not the publisher - it is merely the online archive.

CONTENT POLICY
For types of document and data set held:

UCA Research Online is restricted to any research output with valid metadata created by a UCA member of staff or current postgraduate research student* in any format including multi-media. Types of material include but are not limited to:

  • Books, chapters and sections
  • Conference and workshop papers
  • Datasets
  • Images
  • Journal articles
  • Multimedia and audio-visual materials
  • Patents
  • Photographs
  • Software
  • Theses
  • Unpublished reports and working papers (as submitted to the commissioning body)
  • Websites

Deposited text based items may include:

  • Pre-print: Prior to peer-review. This could be a draft or a version that has been submitted for publication but has not yet been peer-reviewed.
  • Post-print: The final draft author manuscript, as accepted for publication, including modifications based on referees' suggestions but before it has undergone copyediting and proof correction.
  • Publisher's PDF/version: This is the article as published and bears the publisher's logo and layout.

Text items are individually tagged with:

  • Their type (e.g. book, journal article).
  • Their status and version (pre-print; post-print; publisher created file).
  • Principal language (an abstract of 300 words in English outlining the nature of the research and its mean methods and outcomes will be required for all foreign language material).

PRESERVATION POLICY
UCA Research Online follows current best practice regarding preservation:

  • UCA Research Online has a daily backup. Items may be removed at the request of the depositor or if a complaint is upheld.
  • Acceptable reasons for withdrawal include:
    • i. Journal publishers' rules
    • ii. Proven copyright violation or plagiarism
    • iii. Legal requirements and proven violations
    • iv. National security
  • Withdrawn items are not deleted per se, but are removed from public view.
  • Withdrawn items' identifiers/URLs are retained transiently.
  • URLs will continue to point to 'tombstone' citations, to avoid broken links and to retain item histories, with:
    • a link to a replacement version, where available
    • a note explaining the reasons for withdrawal
  • The metadata of withdrawn items will not be searchable.
  • If necessary, an updated version may be deposited.
  • The item's persistent URL will always link to the latest version.
  • There will be links between earlier and later versions, with the most recent version clearly identified.

NOTICE AND TAKE DOWN POLICY
The Library has a Take Down Policy, which outlines the process by which requests can be made and are investigated when digital content may have inadvertently infringed copyright, or contains personal or sensitive data, or may be regarded as factually incorrect, offensive or defamatory.


Review
The Library will review this Policy every year and any significant changes will be considered and approved by the Research and Innovation Committee.

 

January 2024
Review: January 2025