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.

KnightScholar Services supports three library services: KnightScholar Repository, KnightScholar Digital Collections, and Milne Library Publishing. Please continue reading to learn more about policies and guidelines related to each service.

KnightScholar Repository

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 uploaded in a digital format. KnightScholar Services can support the digitization of print and physical materials.
  • 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 Services Team (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: https://www.suny.edu/sunypp/documents.cfm?doc_id=88

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, 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.

KnightScholar Digital Collections

KnightScholar Digital Collections are curated collections consisting of digitized representations of physical materials and born-digital objects held in the College Archives and Special Collections as well as artifacts gathered from academic departments and campus units which help tell the intellectual, cultural, and academic story of SUNY Geneseo.

The Collection Development Policy for KnightScholar Digital Collections describes in greater detail the scope of the digital collections, the selection criteria used to curate the collections, as well as the Library’s policies for copyright, preservation and records management, file formats and conversion, and digitization.

Parties interested in contributing a collection to KnightScholar Digital Collections should contact Tracy Paradis, Digital Collections Librarian at paradis@geneseo.edu and submit a KnightScholar Proposal form.

Milne Library Publishing

The mission of Milne Library Publishing is to increase the visibility, reach, and impact of Geneseo’s research and scholarship by providing open access to information, ideas, and works of imagination, and to reduce the cost of higher education in NYS by publishing SUNY-authored open textbooks.

Milne Library Publishing supports a range of publications and projects which fall into one or more of the following categories:

  • authored or spearheaded by a member of the SUNY Geneseo community
  • of significance to the Genesee Valley Region
  • utilizes Milne library’s archives & special collections
  • educational texts by SUNY faculty

Milne Library Publishing projects are reviewed by an editorial team made up of SUNY Geneseo faculty and staff. Proposal documents can be found in KnightScholar: https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/library-research/19/.

Imprints

Geneseo Authors 

Debuted in the fall of 2013, Geneseo Authors highlights the scholarship and creativity of SUNY Geneseo faculty and alumni. These titles are also available free online and through Amazon.com.

Authors interested in proposing a publication can contact Allison Brown, Digital Publishing Services Manager, at browna@geneseo.edu. Project proposal forms can be downloaded in KnightScholar.

Milne Open Textbooks

Originally founded as the IITG grant project Open SUNY Textbooks, Milne Open Textbooks continues to publish SUNY-authored open textbooks. All titles are authored by SUNY faculty and staff, peer-reviewed and available free online. These publications are available in .pdf, EPUB, and online/HTML format. Over 1 million  Milne Open Textbooks have been downloaded worldwide, and have been incorporated into traditional classes, online classes, and MOOCs.

For more specific information about the submission process for Milne Open Textbooks, please see the Milne Open Textbooks site: https://milneopentextbooks.org/publishing-with-us/

Genesee Valley Historical Reprints 

This series highlights rare and locally significant titles in our Genesee Valley collection. These reprints of public domain titles offer the historical perspective of the Genesee Valley region through many genres and are available free online and through Amazon.

Journals

Gandy Dancer is a SUNY-wide literary magazine available online and in print publishing fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art.

Edited by a rotating staff of students at SUNY Geneseo enrolled in ENGL460, Gandy Dancer is published twice yearly.

Established in 2009, The Proceedings of Great Day journal compiles and publishes promising student work presented at SUNY Geneseo's GREAT Day symposium.

The projects, presentations, and research included here represent the academic rigor, multidisciplinary study, and unique creativity of the students taking part in the annual SUNY Geneseo GREAT Day symposium.