CommonKnowledge User Guide

Open Access & Access Restrictions

CommonKnowledge is an open access digital repository. By default, all content in CommonKnowledge will be visible and fully accessible to public users—this includes both the metadata record and the full-text (i.e. complete digital content) for individual items. However, in certain circumstances, it may be necessary or appropriate to place access restrictions on individual items or content collections. For example, a publisher may require an embargo of six to twelve months before making a journal article publicly accessible.

Access restrictions in CommonKnowledge may be requested during the submission process by an individual contributor or by the academic unit, office, or external entity from which a content collection was produced. Access restrictions requested by student contributors must be approved by their school, program, or department, as appropriate. The University Libraries may also impose access restrictions on content in response to concerns about unlawful or unethical content (see Content Policies). Access may be restricted either at the individual item level or at the collection level.

Visibility Level: PUBLIC

By choosing the Public option you are allowing anyone in the world to view your submission. You may choose to apply one of several Creative Commons licenses to your submission, which are explained on the submission form and in the Copyright & Licensing tab of this guide. These licenses allow you to set your own terms of use for anyone accessing the submission. You authorize Pacific University to distribute your content under the terms of that Creative Commons license and to allow users of CommonKnowledge to do the same if your license choice permits that.

If you do not choose a license, you grant to Pacific University the non-exclusive right to distribute your submission (including the metadata and abstract) worldwide, in any format or medium for non-commercial, research, educational, or related academic purposes only. You also authorize Pacific University to allow users of the repository to distribute your submission (including the metadata and abstract) worldwide, in any format or medium for non-commercial, research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Pacific University will clearly identify your name(s) as the author(s) or owner(s) of the submission, and will not make any alteration, other than as allowed by this license, to your submission.

Visibility Level: PACIFIC UNIVERSITY (Institution)

If you select the Pacific University access option, you have decided to restrict direct access only to users of Pacific University's network. Your deposit will not be directly accessible to colleagues or students at other universities or to members of the public; however, users of other libraries may request a copy of your work through the interlibrary loan process. If you want your work to be accessible to the broader scholarly community, you should consider the regular Public option instead. If you choose, you may also further limit access to specific individuals or groups of individuals at Pacific University Oregon.

By clicking through this license, you grant to Pacific University the non-exclusive right to reproduce and/or distribute your submission (including the metadata and abstract) to students, faculty, staff, and walk-in users of the Pacific University libraries, in any format or medium for non-commercial, research, educational, or related academic purposes only. You also authorize Pacific University to fill interlibrary loan requests for your work that adhere to established American Library Association guidelines and best practices.  to allow Pacific University community users of the repository to distribute your submission (including the metadata and abstract) in any format or medium for Pacific University internal non-commercial, research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Pacific University will clearly identify your name(s) as the author(s) or owner(s) of the submission, and will not make any alteration, other than as allowed by this license, to your submission.

Visibility Level: PRIVATE

If you have selected the PRIVATE access option in the CommonKnowledge deposit process, you have decided to allow Pacific University a more limited set of rights than those afforded under the Public license option. Your deposit will not be accessible to anyone other than yourself. If you want your work to be accessible to the broader scholarly community, you should consider the regular Public or Pacific University settings instead.

This option is only approved under specific circumstances, such as when students are required by their program to submit culminating works to the institutional repository, but also plan to publish the work in a journal that prohibits the availability of preprints or author's versions in open access repositories or any other form of self-publishing. Additional examples of acceptable use of private visibility include works that are not in compliance with copyright law, FERPA, HIPAA, or other relevant privacy laws.

Visibility Level: EMBARGO

By selecting EMBARGO for visibility, your work is granted a private or institution-only status (your choice) for a set period of time. At the time of submission, you will also select a new level of visibility that will automatically replace your original visibility selection once the embargo expires. For example, you might select private visibility for a period of 2 years, and institution-only after expiration. Or you may select institution-only for 3 years, and public after expiration. Embargoes are generally recommended for a period of 2 years, but any length of time may be selected. 

Important things to keep in mind while selecting visibility

1. You can select different levels of visibility for your abstract/metadata page and the dissertation file itself
   1. This means you could set your abstract page to public so the metadata about your work is discoverable, but restrict access to the actual files if you don't want the work to be downloadable to the public (or Pacific users if you select Institution for your metadata page)
      
2. If you select PRIVATE visibility for your work or the abstract/metadata page, the Repository Manager will reach out for further information regarding your choice
3. EMBARGO is the best option if you plan to publish your work in a scholarly journal but need to submit to the repository before you know all the details about the intended publisher
4. Visibility settings may be changed at any time by emailing commonknowledge@pacificu.edu with an explanation of your request

Visibility Level: PUBLIC

Choose if:

• your work is in compliance with copyright and privacy laws
• you would like your work to be widely discoverable and free to access
• you are not planning to publish in a scholarly journal with a limiting Open Access policy (Check SherpaRomeo if you're not sure!)

Visibility Level: PACIFIC UNIVERSITY (Institution)

Choose if:

• your work is in compliance with copyright and privacy laws
• you would like to retain a certain level of privacy while still making your work discoverable within the community where it was created (and the greater academic community via Interlibrary Loan)
• you are not planning to publish in a scholarly journal with a limiting Open Access policy (Check SherpaRomeo if you're not sure!)

Visibility Level: PRIVATE

Choose if:

• you do not want your work to be discoverable in the repository AT ALL (private abstract and files)
• you want your files to be private but you still want the abstract/metadata page to be visible (Private files, Public or Institution abstract/metadata page)
• you are planning to publish in a scholarly journal with a limiting Open Access policy (Check SherpaRomeo if you're not sure!)
• your work is not in compliance with copyright and/or privacy laws (check with your advisors or committee if you are not sure about this)

Visibility Level: EMBARGO

Choose if:

• your work is in compliance with copyright and privacy laws
• you think you may publish the work in a scholarly journal but you're not sure yet
• you are planning to publish (or have already submitted for publication) in a scholarly journal that requires delayed availability (embargo) of submitted works in Open Access repositories and databases (Check SherpaRomeo if you're not sure!)
• note: you can embargo both the files and the abstract/metadata page, and you can select unique parameters for each- it does not have to be same dates or visibility levels for both