Policies and Guidelines for KnightScholar

KnightScholar is a curated institutional repository for scholarly, creative, educational, and research works created by SUNY Geneseo faculty, staff, and students, and for digitized materials from Milne Library’s Special Collections and Archives.

This document outlines policies and guidelines regarding the submission of content to KnightScholar.

Contributors

Content creators who wish to deposit material in KnightScholar must be affiliated with SUNY Geneseo; that is, contributors must be current faculty, staff, and students. Contributors may also include non-affiliated scholars if they are co-authoring with Geneseo authors or are submitting via a Geneseo-sponsored publication or event.

General Guidelines

  • Most works added to KnightScholar are open access and therefore available to everyone without campus authentication or login. Select materials are available to SUNY Geneseo users only, upon request of the contributor.
  • Works uploaded to KnightScholar can be scholarly, creative, research-related, pedagogy tools, or datasets.
  • The content deposited in KnightScholar must be completed works and files, and not in-progress or regularly updated. Data should be in discrete sets, and addenda may be accepted.
  • KnightScholar contributors must be willing and able to grant Geneseo non-exclusive rights to preserve and distribute the content through the repository.
  • In order for the library to maintain a complete collection, works which are part of a set should be deposited as a complete set as long as the contributor(s) holds copyright to all works in the set.
  • Content deposited in KnightScholar must be in a digital format.
  • KnightScholar is also the location for electronic Special Collections at Milne Library. Policies for Special Collections in KnightScholar are separate from policies for KnightScholar as an institutional repository.

Content

KnightScholar accepts a wide range of content. A non-exhaustive list:
  • Publications & preprints
  • Creative works
  • Theses
  • Working papers
  • Technical support
  • White papers
  • Datasets (Must be complete and ready for use, and must include a readme file.)
  • Conference papers and posters
  • Campus-based publications (e.g., Proceedings of GREAT Day, Gandy Dancer)
  • Course-based publications
  • Teaching and learning resources
  • Audio and visual recordings
If you have questions regarding the eligibility of a work, please contact the KnightScholar administrator (KnightScholar@geneseo.edu).

Author Rights

  • Authors retain their copyright for all works submitted.
  • Authors may request to update and add to existing works.
  • Authors and/or co-authors may upload works to KnightScholar and also request the removal of an individual work for any reason. KnightScholar administrators recommend that co-authors consult with one another before uploading a work.
  • Authors may grant additional rights under their control to users through a Creative Commons license.
  • The State University of New York Copyright and Patent Policy:

Author Responsibilities

  • Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for any third-party content included in their submitted work that does not fall within fair use.
  • Although any one co-author can upload or request the removal of a work, KnightScholar administrators recommend that co-authors seek consensus before uploading a work.
  • Authors are responsible for compliance with publisher agreements governing previously published or forthcoming works.
    • To verify a publisher’s consent to deposit in an open access institutional repository, check the copyright agreement form for the publication. If the agreement cannot be found, SHERPA/RoMEO contains many scholarly publisher policies regarding permissions for deposit.
  • Authors must consent to the terms governing submissions outlined in the KnightScholar Contributor Agreement.
  • Any work that is in violation of copyright law will be removed from KnightScholar.

File Formats

A wide range of file formats is accepted (including text files, datasets, audio files, and video files) and there is no formal limit to size of material. The library will work with contributors to ensure appropriate file types are used. The Library of Congress recommends specific file formats: https://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rfs/RFS%202018-2019.pdf

Library Support

KnightScholar is a service that is provided by Milne Library and the library offers the following support:
  • Consultations and instruction on using KnightScholar,
  • Assisting the SUNY Geneseo community with submissions as library staff resources permit, and
  • Notifying contributors about significant changes to repository operations, policies, and procedures.
Milne Library will review submissions for compliance with established policies and guidelines in order to ensure consistency in KnightScholar and facilitate discoverability.

Withdrawal of content

KnightScholar is a permanent repository. Once deposited, an item may be withdrawn if removal is legally required, or for reasons of factual inaccuracy, plagiarism, or potential copyright infringement. If a work is removed, a citation including original metadata will always remain, with a note regarding the removal, e.g. “removed at request of author,” or “removed at the discretion of ...,” or “removed by legal order.” Works will not be removed without prior attempt to contact the author.