General information

A digital repository is a system for disseminating and preserving scholarly work to researchers and other interested people around the world. INCEIF Knowledge Repository (IKR) is based on DSpace, open-source software created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (http://www.dspace.org) and in wide use by universities globally.

The phrases "digital repository" and "institutional repository" are often used interchangeably.

How is IKR at INCEIF is organized?

The repository is organized into Communities, which consists of INCEIF’s institutional insights, scholarly publications and learning materials. Sub-communities for departments can be established in the respective communities and Collections, which consist of the content types can also be set up within sub-communities.

Who decides what types of material go into the repositories?

INCEIF knowledge community in collaboration with INCEIF Knowledge Management Centre (KMC) define the kinds of material they want to include. KMC encourages contributions from all faculty members, staff, students and collaborators.

Do other universities have digital repositories?

Yes: examples include the World Bank’s Open Knowledge Repository (OKR: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (DSpace: http://dspace.mit.edu).

Depositing your work

What type of materials can be deposited?

The system will accept any file format or content that a Community decides it wants to deposit into the repository (but see below for long term preservation implications). Please contact IKR Admin (ikradmin@inceif.org) to submit your material.

Examples of appropriate content may include numerical datasets, working papers, technical reports, pre-prints and post prints of published articles. Additional information can be found on our policy and guidelines page.

The copyright of articles that have been previously published is often owned by the publisher. To determine your publisher's policy on self-archiving, please use the link from this site's front page or visit http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php.

I have a large number of previously published articles that I wish to contribute. Can you help?

Yes. Please contact our team at knowledgemanagement@inceif.org. It is possible that we may be able to assist with researching copyright policies, scanning the offprints into PDF, metadata record creation and the batch import of large quantities of materials.

Preservation and access

Why should I participate? I don't need to worry about managing my publications... the publishers will take care of that.

Yes, and no. While publishers may indeed preserve your materials over time, it may be that INCEIF KMC will not be able to afford to pay publishers the price they charge us to provide access to your work. In addition, in the past the KMC purchased a copy of the journal your article appears in and made the commitment to preserve the paper copy. Now, however, the system has shifted and the KMC typically licenses access to online content. That could mean that if we cease paying for access, we have no retrospective access at all.

Using the IKR will save departmental staff time and money. Because the KMC has made the commitment to support server maintenance and upgrades, a staff member or graduate student in your department or lab will not need to back-up, maintain or restore these files. Instead the KMC assumes this responsibility. If others link to your work, putting items into IKR will provide them with a persistent identifier. In addition, those interested in obtaining copies of your article no longer need to contact you directly; they can simply access the article from the repository.

In the not too distant future, we will be able to send you emails with information on how often your articles and other materials are downloaded from the IKR.

INCEIF KMC participates in a number of consortia that distribute our digital collections through a variety of search engines and interfaces. This means that faculty materials are more widely distributed and easily found. Papers will be findable via Google, GoogleScholar, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.

Can I still link to my papers from my own website?

Yes - using the repository can relieve you of maintenance chores for your files but you can still link to your collection or individual papers from your personal or department website. In addition, if you leave the University you will also be able to continue linking to your papers.

What about preservation? How long will the files in the digital repository last?

The repository addresses two aspects of digital preservation. First, INCEIF KMC has made a financial commitment of staffing and server space to preserve the files deposited in the repository. Second, depending on the file format, we may be able to preserve the full functioning of that file (for supported formats such as ASCII) or we may be able to preserve only the bits (for known or unsupported formats - usually created with proprietary software). In addition, the repository software creates persistent addresses (handle - e.g., http://ikr.inceif.org/handle/INCEIF/126) that will not change over time. They will be enduring citations.

Can I delete a file after depositing it?

Because the purpose of this repository is to provide long-term preservation and access, deleting files is not recommended. However, in certain instances files can be hidden or deleted by the IKR Admin.

Who can read the files in the repository?

The IKR allows subscribed users such as faculty members, staff, students, alumni and subscribed members of the public to access our metadata and content. The default is metadata for all deposited items are allowed to be viewed for all users of the World Wide Web, and some items may be limited for access—depending on the privileges of the subscribed user.