Collections Policy
Collections Policy
The mission of the Rutgers University Community Repository (RUcore) is to support, preserve, and provide convenient access to the significant intellectual property of Rutgers University, particularly the unique scholarly information of enduring value created by Rutgers University faculty, students, staff, and publishers in support of the university's mission to promote research and learning.

The heart of RUcore is the digital collection that can be searched and used by researchers and students at Rutgers and around the world. RUcore policies are intended to provide open access and the greatest possible impact for RUcore collections in a responsible manner that safeguards the copyright of the creator.

All items deposited must meet the RUcore intellectual property and copyright conditions.

Who may deposit items in RUcore?

All Rutgers University faculty, graduate students, administrators and staff can deposit items into RUcore. Programs intended to provide a research experience for undergraduate students and undergraduate honors programs can arrange for undergraduate research and honors papers to be deposited. Depositors must verify that they have appropriate copyright permission to deposit their material. Rutgers affiliates and other third parties may also be authorized to submit to RUcore by virtue of their collaborations with Rutgers. Rutgers authors are encouraged to deposit material co-authored with those outside the University. However, the Rutgers author is responsible for getting necessary copyright permissions.

What types of collections are acceptable?

Items may be submitted for individual or departmental (includes schools, centers, institutes, libraries and programs) collections.
Items encouraged for deposit include academic or scholarly electronic output that has research and long-term or historical value. Examples of such works include articles, books, book chapters, papers, reports, symposia or conference proceedings, theses and dissertations, undergraduate honors papers, briefs, newsletters, posters, presentations, maps, still images, video, and audio recordings, datasets, and supplementary resources.

What type of preservation will RUcore support?

Deposited material will be permanently preserved. Therefore, deposits in approved formats are required for automated submission. RUcore reserves the right to convert submitted documents to archival formats. RUcore currently accepts PDFs, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and TIFF(for images and scanned text). We recommend these video formats: AVCHD, DVCAM and variants (DVCPRO/50/Progressive, DVCPRO HD), MPEG4 AVC, including H.264, QuickTime ProRes 4:2:2, and Uncompressed AVI. We recommend these audio formats: BWF, WAV, and PCM Audio. If your material is not in an approved format, please contact the RUcore repository manager.

Can a deposited item be removed from RUcore?

The purpose of depositing an item in RUcore is to make it permanently available for searching and access by anyone. If the author feels that the previous version absolutely needs to be removed, s/he can contact the RUcore repository manager to do so. In cases of removal, the item record will remain in RUcore, indicating the date of removal of the associated content. Version control and errata correction are available on a case by case basis, allowing authors to update their contributions while retaining access to previous works. For assistance with versions please contact the RUcore repository manager.

Can an item be embargoed?

The primary goal of RUcore is to provide Open Access to the intellectual creations of the Rutgers University community. However, copyright restrictions, publisher requirements, privacy issues, and other factors may require embargoing, or temporarily blocking access to content. RUcore allows for flexible embargo periods, set at the unit or individual level. All items will ultimately revert to Open Access once the embargo period expires. Authors are encouraged to use the embargo option as sparingly as possible.

What kinds of projects can RUcore support?

RUcore can support a variety of collaborations to support the research needs of the Rutgers University community. This may involve significant efforts on the part of RUcore staff, and cost recovery may be necessary. If you have a project that requires additional support and features beyond the standard deposit module, please contact the RUcore repository manager. Open Access is a critical consideration for any potential collaboration.

How do I propose a new digital project for RUcore?

All digital projects proposed by any librarian or staff member at Rutgers Libraries are required to undergo an evaluation process. This evaluation process will assist in prioritizing the project and help ensure that we have the resources to complete the project. Click here for a description of the Digital Projects Evaluation Process.

Routine digitization projects are short-term projects for which rights issues are determined to be straightforward, no infrastructure development is needed for either metadata or resource process, and generally involve 50 or fewer resources.

Major digitization projects involve more than 50 resources, or have more complicated digital rights or technical issues.

For both routine and major digitization projects, a project manager must complete the appropriate questionnaire and send it to the Copyright and Licensing Librarian and the Repository Collection Librarian.

Policy questions?

Contact: RUcore repository manager
For more details see: RUcore FAQ
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