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CommonKnowledge User Guide

This guide helps Pacific University faculty, staff, students, and other affiliated users deposit scholarly works

Who is eligible?

Faculty Contributions

CommonKnowledge contains standard collections for faculty publications, gray literature, and other scholarly works from each college, school, or other academic units. 

All current Pacific University faculty are eligible to contribute to CommonKnowledge during their course of employment at the University. Faculty may contribute content created prior to their employment at Pacific University. 

Collaborative Works and Non-Pacific Contributors

The University Libraries encourage submission of collaborative works to CommonKnowledge, including collaborations with non-Pacific contributors. When works with multiple authors, creators, or owners are submitted for inclusion in CommonKnowledge, the submitting author or owner is responsible for ensuring that the submission does not violate any existing contractual agreements governing the work and that the submission conforms to all applicable policies and laws.

External contributors without a valid Pacific University email account may not register as users of CommonKnowledge, and are not able to directly submit content to CommonKnowledge. A co-creator/owner of content with a valid Pacific University email account must submit content on their behalf.

The only exceptions made are for Pacific University alumni, emeritus faculty, and honored staff retirees who do not maintain valid Pacific University email accounts. In these cases, a Pacific affiliation will be verified with the Registrar or Human Resources prior to account approval.

How To Deposit Faculty Works

Preparing files:

Format: PDF is the standard; best for preservation and accessibility
Naming: Be sure to give the file a name that is representative of the work and/or you as the creator. For example, LastName+FirstInitial_title_year. Or, for a long title, just a portion of it that will be recognizable to readers.
Accessibility: Ensure accessibility of documents at Section508.gov 

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Depositing prepared files:

1. Login/Create Account
2. Upload
3. Select Collection & Type of Work
4. Describe work
5. Upload Files
6. Select Visibility
7. Review deposit agreement
8. Submit

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1. Login
  • Go to https://commons.pacificu.edu/
  • Create an account:
    • Click sign up, then enter @pacificu.edu email address and preferred password
    • Click create account
    • CommonKnowledge will send an automated confirmation email
    • Proceed to login
  • Existing Accounts:
    • Click sign in in the upper right corner
    • Enter credentials and click sign in
2. Upload
  • Click upload in the top navigation menu. This opens the Dashboard.
  • Click the blue Add new work button in the upper right corner and proceed to step 3 to select a collection in the menu that pops up
3. Select Collection & Type of Work
  • Note: The drop-down menu for selecting a collection automatically defaults to Archives
  • Open the drop-down and select department.
    • By design, many departments have two entries in the menu that look identical, except one of them has Student Scholarship after the hyphen. These collections are specifically for student works such as theses and dissertations, so be careful not to select a collection that has this designation.
  • Here is an example of how it would look if someone from the libraries submitted a work:

  • After finding and selected the appropriate collection, select the type of work to be deposited, and click Create work
4. Describe work
  • Here is what the submission screen looks like:

  • Use the metadata fields to describe the work.
    • Required fields are clearly indicated in blue, but be sure to look for the Additional Fields button at the bottom of the page. There are more fields fields below it, though it is not mandatory to fill them in.
  • If submitting a work after it is published, there is an option to enter the DOI at the top of the page. In addition to pointing viewers to the final work, this also allows the system to populate the form automatically.
    • If submitting prior to publication, it is still possible to add the DOI later on. Please contact commonknowledge@pacificu.edu to make changes at any point after submitting the work.
5. Upload Files
  • Scroll back to the top of the page and move to the files tab. Upload the main file for your work and any supplemental files you would like to include (data files, assessment tools, images, etc.)
  • Be sure to select your preferred Visibility setting from the drop-down menu

 

6. Select Visibility

  • In the Save Work box to the right of the metadata fields, set the visibility for the descriptive page (abstract) of the work in CommonKnowledge. 
  • When you toggle the button for each option, it will give you a description of the level of visibility provided by that designation

NOTE: CLICKING SAVE WILL SUBMIT YOUR WORK. If you are not ready to submit, do not click Save!

  • For additional information about Visibility and how to select the appropriate level of access for a work (especially if you are considering publishing in a scholarly journal or other commercial publication), see the Visibility Settings tab of this guide.
     

7. Review deposit agreement

  • ​​​Click the Deposit Agreement hyperlink and look over the terms of submitting a work to CommonKnowledge. Included are further details around visibility settings, and the rights authors retain when depositing a work.
  • Check the box next to "I have read and agree to the Deposit Agreement"

8. Submit

  • Look over all metadata fields and the files tab to ensure you have filled in all the desired details and attached all necessary documents
  • When ready to submit, click Save. This places your submission into a queue for review by the the Repository Administrator
  • CommonKnowledge will send depositors an automated email when their work has been approved
  • Check your pacificu.edu email account occasionally in the days after submitting in case the Repository Administrator reaches out request changes or additional information.

Send any questions or comments about this process (or CommonKnowledge in general) to commonknowledge@pacificu.edu

 

Policies & Best Practices

Editorial Support

The University Libraries do not provide editorial support or facilitate peer review for content in the repository.

Individuals submitting work to CommonKnowledge, whether through an online submission form or through an administrator-mediated submission, are solely responsible for the content of their work.

While the University Libraries reserve the right to request assurances or relevant documentation from submitting authors related to the legality of their submissions (and to delay posting until said assurances or documentation are received), CommonKnowledge administrators do not systematically review the content of submissions for compliance with intellectual property, privacy, or other applicable law.

Criteria for Deposit

  • The contributor is affiliated with Pacific University;
  • The content aligns with CommonKnowledge collection priorities;
  • The content has been submitted to the appropriate collection;
  • All metadata required for the specific collection has been supplied;
  • The contributor has completed the CommonKnowledge submission agreement (as part of the online submission process for direct submissions, or as a separate document for mediated submissions); and
  • The file(s) supplied is the correct version, is not corrupted/unreadable, and (in the case of previously published work) does not violate publishers’ posting policies.