Scholarly Communication

ScholarWorks is the CSU-wide database of scholarly research, publications, data sets, and more. Hosted by the Chancellor's Office, it is also where the electronic theses, graduate projects, and dissertations are held.

What kinds of writings can go into ScholarWorks?
Authors are best situated to understand what writings fit the category of “scholarly articles” within their discipline, and are welcome to rely on the policy for all articles they believe fall into this category and to deposit them in ScholarWorks. If faculty desire to deposit additional content such as conference proceedings or data sets, please contact the Library.

What are my rights as an author? Can I deposit my work in ScholarWorks if I signed my copyright over to the Publisher?
Every publishing agreement is different. Some journals request that you sign over your copyright to the journal or the journal publisher. You should READ the publication agreement before you sign it and make sure you understand what you are agreeing to. If you have already signed a publishing agreement, you may still be able to negotiate to have your article included in ScholarWorks. More information about Authors Rights is available on the Scholarly Communication research guide.

Can faculty members make their work open access if it has copyrighted images in it?
In some cases yes, and in some cases no — it depends on whether you had to sign an agreement to get access to the image you used. If you didn’t, because the image is in the public domain or your use of it was fair use, then the work can be made publicly accessible with the image included. If you did sign an agreement, review the agreement to see if it allows broad use of the image as long as it is in the context of the article. If the terms of the agreement would not permit public access to the image in the context of the article, you have a few options:
* Contact the other party to the agreement to get permission;
* Get a different copy of the image from a different source with better terms, or depending on your discipline, see if there is a different image that will meet your needs;
* Deposit a version of the article that does not include the images so that readers can still read your argument/analysis; readers unfamiliar with the images who want to fully understand your arguments will need to get the version of record through other channels.