Repository Policies

Please note, these policies are for information only, and do not constitute a legal document or legal advice

White Rose Research Online Collection Policy

  • White Rose Research Online is an institutional repository intended for the open access dissemination of research outputs.
  • To be accepted into the repository, items must:
    • Have at least one author currently employed by, or registered on a postgraduate research degree course at, the universities of Leeds, Sheffield, or York
    • Be of a research or scholarly nature, e.g.
      • Journal articles
      • Conference papers
      • Monographs and monograph chapters
      • Working papers
      • Discussion papers
      • Images
      • Multimedia
      • Creative works
      • Theses undertaken at non White Rose institutions*
    • Other material may be acceptable. Contact libraries@whiterose.ac.uk for further enquiries.
  • Item types excluded from deposit** include:
    • Teaching-only material
    • Datasets
  • Where the deposit of the full item is not possible due to copyright or other restrictions, a citation, abstract and descriptive information including, where possible, a link to an alternative location such as to the publisher's version of the material may be added. Such links may be to subscription-only versions
  • This policy was last reviewed September 2015

* If there is a full-text version hosted on another institutional repository we prefer to create a link to that version. Theses undertaken at a White Rose institution should be submitted to White Rose Etheses Online.

** Contact the research support teams at Leeds, Sheffield and York for information on where to deposit other material types

Submission policy

concerning depositors, quality & copyright

  • Items may only be deposited in White Rose Research Online by accredited members of the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield, or York, or by their delegated agents.
  • Authors may only submit their own single or multiple-authored work for archiving.
  • Eligible depositors must deposit bibliographic metadata alongside their work.
  • The administrator only vets items for the eligibility of authors/depositors, relevance to the scope of White Rose Research Online, valid layout & format, compliance with publishers’ deposit policies, and the exclusion of spam.
  • The validity and authenticity of the content of submissions is the sole responsibility of the depositor.
  • Items can be deposited at any time, but will not be made publicly visible until any publishers' or funders' embargo period has expired.
  • White Rose Research Online bears no responsibility for any infringements of third-party copyright.
  • White Rose Research Online will remove any item in the repository which is shown to violate third-party copyright or otherwise breach the law [See Notice and Take Down Policy].

Metadata Policy

for information describing items in the repository

  • Anyone may access the metadata free of charge.
  • The metadata may be re-used in any medium without prior permission, for not-for-profit purposes, provided the OAI Identifier or a link to the original metadata record are given.

Data Policy

for full-text and other full data items

  • Anyone may access full items free of charge.
  • Check the copyright statement in each record for details of the licence or terms and conditions under which any deposited file has been made available.
  • Full items must not be harvested by robots except transiently for full-text indexing or citation analysis.
  • This repository is not the publisher; it is merely the online archive.

Preservation Policy

  • Items will be retained for at least 10 years from the date of deposition.
  • White Rose Research Online will try to ensure continued readability and accessibility.
    • items will be migrated to new file formats where necessary.
    • where possible, software emulations will be provided to access un-migrated formats
    • It may not be possible to guarantee the readability of some unusual file formats
  • White Rose Research Online regularly backs up its files according to current best practice.
  • Items may be removed at the request of the author/copyright holder.
  • Acceptable reasons for withdrawal include:
    • Journal publishers' rules
    • Proven copyright violation or plagiarism
    • Legal requirements and proven violations
    • National Security
    • Falsified research
  • Changes to deposited items are not permitted.
  • Errata and corrigenda lists may be included with the original record if required.
  • If necessary, an updated version may be deposited.
  • In the event of White Rose Research Online being closed down, the database will be transferred to another appropriate archive.

Notice and Take Down Policy

  • If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing eprints@whiterose.ac.uk including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request.
  • Your email will be acknowledged and an initial assessment will be undertaken once staff become aware of the complaint. We aim to acknowledge and assess the complaint within seven days of receipt.
  • Where grounds for complaint are reasonable, the material will be withdrawn from public view.
  • It may be necessary for us to seek legal advice before the complaint can be fully resolved.
  • If the complaint is well founded, the material will be permanently withdrawn from the repository. In some cases a metadata record may remain. This will be agreed on a case by case basis.