FAQs
- Lyon, Colleen E
General Questions
What is TSW?
Texas ScholarWorks (TSW), formerly University of Texas Digital Repository (UTDR), holds digital works and provides related services that together constitute a campus institutional repository. TSW was established to provide open, online access to the products of the University’s research and scholarship, to preserve these works for future generations, to promote new models of scholarly communication, and to help deepen community understanding of the value of higher education. Digital works include research and scholarship, as well as works that reflect the intellectual and service environment of the campus.
Why should I submit works to Texas ScholarWorks?
- Dissemination: TSW provides high visibility and increased access to your research by furnishing descriptive information about your submitted works to search engines, Google Scholar and other services.
- Increased impact and citation of your research: Works in TSW are openly available on the web. See a bibliography of studies on the increased impact and higher citations of open access research and scholarship.
- Reliability: TSW provides a digital object identifier (DOI), which is a kind of persistent URL, for your work.
- Long-term access: TSW commits to responsible and sustainable management of submitted works. View the Preservation Policy for details.
- Control: You or your assignee retain copyright in works you submit to TSW. Many publishers will allow you to submit previously published works to institutional repositories..
- Usage statistics: All items in TSW have an openly accessible link to view usage statistics. You will be able to see how many times your work has been viewed and downloaded, and you can see where that activity originated.
Who can search, browse, and download from Texas ScholarWorks?
TSW is designed to provide your work the widest possible exposure, so it is open to the world for searching. However, in exceptional situations where access restrictions are required, individual works may not be available to everyone. Please see question "Can I restrict access to the work I submit to Texas ScholarWorks?" for more information on restricting access to your work.
Who can submit works to Texas ScholarWorks?
UT faculty, staff, and students (including student groups, departments, institutes, etc.) may submit work to TSW. A UT faculty member or department must sponsor undergraduate student work. Faculty, researchers, graduate students, or staff wanting to submit works to TSW collections should contact the Repository Curator at tsw@utlists.utexas.edu.
Can I submit data or data sets to Texas ScholarWorks?
A more appropriate location for depositing data is the Texas Data Repository (TDR). More information about Texas Data Repository, including information about submitting content is available at via the TDR user documentation. In addition to Texas Data Repository, the University of Texas has a host of research data services available for researchers. For more information, visit the Research Data Services at UT website.
How is Texas ScholarWorks different from Texas Data Repository?
Texas Data Repository is purpose-built for data, with functionality not present in Texas ScholarWorks. Texas ScholarWorks and Texas Data Repository are meant to be complementary – you can have your data in TDR and your associated publications in TSW and they can both be linked together. For more information about TSW and TDR, please see our poster.
Can faculty, researchers, or students not affiliated with UT submit works to Texas ScholarWorks?
In general, no. However, if the faculty, researcher, or student is affiliated with a program or center at the University of Texas, publishes as part of a conference or in a journal or other publication sponsored through the University of Texas, or co-authors a publication with a University of Texas researcher, the work may be submitted to TSW.
How is Texas ScholarWorks different from posting research on my own website?
TSW provides benefits that may not be available on your own web site:
- full-text indexing of text files;
- enhanced discoverability through Google Scholar and various repositories of scholarly material;
- a persistent URL for your work so that it may be reliably cited over time;
- responsible and sustainable management of submitted works
Can I still link to my work from my own website?
Yes. One benefit of submitting to TSW is that your work is assigned a persistent URL which makes linking easy and stable.
What is the relationship between Texas ScholarWorks and the Texas Digital Library?
UT Austin is a founding member of the Texas Digital Library (TDL), a collaborative consortium based in Texas and rooted in higher education, that builds capacity for ensuring equitable access to digital scholarship. Texas Digital Library provides hosting and preservation services for Texas ScholarWorks. You can find more information about TDL, its members, or its services on the TDL website.
A PDF I'm trying to open is only displaying the first page - all the other pages are blank. How do I fix this?
Larger PDFs may have difficulty displaying within a web browser. Try going to your downloads folder and opening the file from there instead of opening within the browser. You could also save the file to a different folder on your computer (other than the downloads folder) and then open from that folder. If you are doing that and still having trouble getting the PDF to display, please contact tsw@utlists.utexas.edu for assistance.
I'm having trouble using Texas ScholarWorks. Who should I report this to?
If you are having technical problems with using Texas ScholarWorks, please contact the Repository Curator at tsw@utlists.utexas.edu to report the problem.
I'm having trouble using a file in Texas ScholarWorks because it isn't accessible. Who should I contact?
We strive to make sure all files in TSW are accessible, but we recognize that with hundreds of thousands of files uploaded by many different parties, there may be materials that don’t meet accessibility best practices. If you are having trouble with a specific file or group of files, please contact tsw@utlists.utexas.edu for assistance.
I found an item in Texas ScholarWorks that has problematic, harmful, or offensive text or images. Who should I contact?
We aim to provide access to collection materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, steward, and are represented in our holdings, but we realize that descriptive work is not and never has been neutral: it is done by people with their own backgrounds, experiences, and biases. We are committed to reviewing and correcting harmful language in our descriptions, and providing contextualization for language within the documents themselves. When providing feedback on Texas ScholarWorks (TSW) materials, please include a URL to the relevant item whenever possible.
Getting Started
What are Texas ScholarWorks communities and collections?
TSW organizes content around communities and collections to simplify the process of submitting your work and to provide you with the most flexibility for finding works of interest to you. Communities hold collections, and collections hold digital works. TSW offers established collections for faculty, staff, and student submissions. In addition, we will set up a community or collection for those departments or research units on campus wishing to establish their own space in Texas ScholarWorks.
How do I submit my work to Texas ScholarWorks?
You should find the process of submitting to Texas ScholarWorks quick and easy. You may either send your files and descriptive information about those files to the Repository Curator, or you may upload the content yourself following these steps:
- obtain authorization (see question “How do I gain authorization to submit to Texas ScholarWorks?” for more information);
- login to Texas ScholarWorks;
- select a collection;
- grant a distribution license;
- upload your work ;
- describe your work ;
- review your submission;
- click Submit.
Detailed information about the submission process can be found in our Help section. If you are interested in having the library manage the submission process for you please see the Collections Policy for more information.
How do I gain authorization to submit to Texas ScholarWorks?
Faculty, Staff and Graduate Students: If you are interested in submitting to an existing collection, please contact tsw@utlists.utexas.edu for further information.
Departments: Departments or research centers on campus wishing to establish their own collections may do so by contacting tsw@utlists.utexas.edu to begin the process.
Undergraduate Students: Individual undergraduate students wishing to submit must first obtain a faculty or departmental sponsor. Once faculty sponsorship has been obtained, contact the Repository Curator at tsw@utlists.utexas.edu for authorization.
How does my department or research unit set up its own collection or community?
If your department or research unit wants to establish a collection, we are happy to work with you to set up access, membership, and other parameters. Each collection will have one or more people who will help define specific procedures and guidelines. For more information about collection responsibilities, see the Collections Policy. To get started, please contact tsw@utlists.utexas.edu.
Can my department archive conference proceedings in Texas ScholarWorks?
Yes. If the conference is organized or sponsored by UT Faculty or a UT Department, we can set up a collection or a series of collections in the Conference Proceedings and Journals community in TSW. To get started, please contact tsw@utlists.utexas.edu.
Submission Questions
What kinds of materials/content can I upload to Texas ScholarWorks?
TSW accepts research and scholarship, as well as works that reflect the intellectual and service environment of the campus. Specifically, all kinds of scholarly research materials and content including pre-prints, post-prints, previously published material (if allowed by the publisher), working papers, technical reports, presentations, as well as other scholarship not usually submitted for peer-reviewed publications may be submitted to an appropriate collection in TSW. The work submitted must be ready for distribution (see the Submission and Withdrawal Policy for more information on submission guidelines). For information about submitting data, see Texas Data Repository or the Research Data Services website.
Can I upload video and audio files to Texas ScholarWorks?
TSW will accept audio and video files provided they have associated caption or transcript files. Depending on the size of your files and the speed of your internet connection, you may experience difficulties or delays when uploading audio and video files for submission. Submission of any single file larger than approximately 700 MB may require the assistance of the Repository Curator. Please contact tsw@utlists.utexas.edu if you plan to submit files larger than 700 MB.
What file formats can I submit to Texas ScholarWorks?
Any digital format will be accepted; however, we encourage you to submit in a file format recommended for submission (please see Recommended File Formats for a list of preferred formats).
How does Texas ScholarWorks decide the recommended file formats for submission?
TSW recommends file formats based on the following characteristics:
- openly documented;
- supported by a range of software platforms;
- widely adopted;
- no compression (or lossless data compression);
- does not contain embedded files or embedded programs/script;
- not a proprietary format.
Is there a limit on file size?
Submission of any single file larger than approximately 700 MB may require the assistance of the Repository Curator. Please contact tsw@utlists.utexas.edu if you plan to submit files larger than 700 MB.
Is there a limit on the number of files I may submit?
There is no limit on the number of files you can submit. Should you have more than 100 files for submission, please contact tsw@utlists.utexas.edu to request a batch load.
Can I use Texas ScholarWorks to publish a journal?
You may use TSW to archive a journal and make it available online; however, the repository is not an electronic journal publishing system and has no workflows for peer review. The Texas Digital Library (TDL) provides journal publishing services with a peer review workflow for researchers who want to start new journals or migrate an existing peer-reviewed journal to a new online system. If you are interested in learning more about TDL journal publishing services, please email tsw@utlists.utexas.edu.
What descriptive information do I assign to my work during submission?
During submission, the following information about your work is required:
- Author(s) or Creator(s)
- Title
- Date published or created
- Department
- Subject keywords/tag (at least one)
- Type of work (article, photograph, technical paper, etc.)
Additional information about your work is optional and highly encouraged:
- Description
- Publisher
- Citation
- Series/Report number
- Identifiers (ISBN, ISSN, etc.)
- Language
- Abstract
- Sponsors
Does Texas ScholarWorks automatically assign any descriptive information or tags?
At the time of submission TSW automatically assigns:
- A persistent URL for you and others to cite;
- The date of submission;
- The name of the submitter (as this may be different from the author/creator of the work);
- File format (based on its file extension)
Copyright Questions
What rights do I grant the University of Texas at Austin when I submit my work to Texas ScholarWorks?
When you agree to our Distribution License you grant TSW the non-exclusive right to:
- retain, reproduce, and distribute the submitted work;
- keep more than one copy of the work for purposes of security, backup, preservation, and access, and;
- migrate the work to various formats as needed in perpetuity for preservation and usability.
For additional information, please see the Copyright and Licensing Repository Policy.
What rights do I retain to my work when submitting to Texas ScholarWorks?
You, or your copyright assignees, retain all your intellectual property rights. The limited rights you grant to TSW are non-exclusive, and your ability to grant, assign, or retain any and all rights you had before your submission does not change as a result of your submission. For more information, please see the Copyright and Licensing Policy. Please note that some publishers may ask that you grant them exclusive rights to your work, thus limiting your ability to use the work as you see fit and perhaps even limiting your ability to submit it to TSW. Please email tsw@utlists.utexas.edu with questions about rights for your works.
If I no longer hold the copyright to an article or other publication, can I still submit it to Texas ScholarWorks?
Most publishers will allow some version of a previously published article to be made freely accessible online. The Sherpa list of Publisher Copyright Policies and Self-Archiving is the most definitive list of publisher policies at this current time. If you have a list of your publications, Repository staff can investigate permissions for you. You may also contact your publisher directly and ask whether you can submit your previously published work into TSW. If you have questions about submitting previously published materials, please contact tsw@utlists.utexas.edu.
When you publish, you can negotiate with the publisher to retain the right to submit your work to TSW by using the SPARC Author Addendum or by directly modifying the publisher’s license. Please see the Copyright and Licensing Policy for more information.
Can I publish my work if I've already submitted it to Texas ScholarWorks?
It depends. Some publishers will not accept material that has been made available elsewhere - even if it has not been formally published. This is changing, but we do recommend checking with potential publishers to ensure that you can safely submit your work, for example, into TSW. The Sherpa list of Publisher Copyright Policies and Self-Archiving is the most definitive list of publisher policies at this current time.
I just found some interesting work in Texas ScholarWorks and am about to download it. What can I do with that work once I have it?
Unless otherwise noted in TSW or the work itself, you should treat the work like any other copyrighted material and may make use of it as allowed by law.
I've found my work in Texas ScholarWorks and I didn't add it. How did it get added?
The administrators for Texas ScholarWorks may upload UT Austin authored content that is free of any copyright restrictions that would limit distribution. These are usually open access publications that are published with a CC-BY (Creative Commons Attribution) license, are from publishers that allow PDF versions of their articles to be posted in institutional repositories, or are items that are in the public domain. Since TSW was established to provide open, online access to the scholarship of the university, we add those works to Texas ScholarWorks. If you have questions or concerns about your work, please contact the Repository Curator at tsw@utlists.utexas.edu.
Access and Privacy Questions
Can I restrict access to work I submit to Texas ScholarWorks?
Texas ScholarWorks was established to provide open access to the digital works of the University; however, in exceptional cases access restrictions may be warranted. Concerns about access restrictions should be discussed with the Repository Curator before submission of a work occurs. Please contact tsw@utlists.utexas.edu with questions or concerns about restricting access to a work.
Access to electronic theses and dissertations are open in accordance with the policies of the Office of Graduate Studies; see "I've found my ETD in the repository and I don't think it should be there. What do I do?" for more information.
Can I make changes to an item once I've submitted it to Texas ScholarWorks?
TSW does not support revisions or editing of works once they are in the repository. However, you may make separate submission of different versions of a work (e.g., submitting both a preprint and a postprint). If you need to make changes to the descriptive information about your work (the metadata), just contact the Repository Curator at tsw@utlists.utexas.edu.
Revisions to electronic theses or dissertations are not accepted; see "I've found my ETD in the repository and I'd like to amend it".
Can items be withdrawn from Texas ScholarWorks?
Under special circumstances, items may be withdrawn from TSW. Please see the Withdrawal section of the Submission and Withdrawal Policy for more information.
Access to electronic theses and dissertations are open in accordance with the policies of the Office of Graduate Studies; see "I've found my ETD in the repository and I don't think it should be there. What do I do?" for more information.
What privacy policies are in place for Texas ScholarWorks?
Texas ScholarWorks adheres to UT’s Web Privacy Policy and to the security standards for published data.
Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) Questions
I've found my ETD in the repository and I don't think it should be there. What do I do?
Graduating doctoral students at The University of Texas at Austin, as of the summer semester of 2001, are required to publish an electronic copy of their dissertation. Master's students, as of Fall 2010, are required to publish an electronic copy of their thesis. Texas ScholarWorks accepts deposits of theses and dissertations from the Office of Graduate Studies at UT Austin. These digital documents and their metadata are exposed to Google and other search engines upon deposit so they can be available to the world for viewing and downloading.
If you have questions or need more information, please contact:
UT Office of Graduate Studies: 512-471-4511
James Cox, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies
The University of Texas at Austin
Office of the Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies
110 Inner Campus Drive, STOP G0400
MAI 101
Austin, TX 78712
I've found my ETD in the repository and I'd like to amend it. Can I submit additional material or replace the file altogether with a new version?
No. The digital version of your work in Texas ScholarWorks is an exact copy of your submitted version which was signed and approved by your committee and the Office of Graduate Studies. The UT Libraries cannot accept modified or replacement versions. The only exception to this is a vita page listed in a public ETD. If your ETD does have a vita page and you’d like it removed, please contact tsw@utlists.utexas.edu.
If you would like more information about modifying your thesis or dissertation, please contact:
UT Office of Graduate Studies: 512-471-4511
James Cox, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies
The University of Texas at Austin
Office of the Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies
110 Inner Campus Drive, STOP G0400
MAI 101
Austin, TX 78712
I graduated from UT Austin and submitted an ETD, but I don't see it in TSW. What happened to it?
It can take several months after graduation for an ETD to make it through both the Office of Graduate Studies and UT Libraries workflows to be published in Texas ScholarWorks. If you are curious about the status of your ETD, please email tsw@utlists.utexas.edu.
I graduated from UT Austin and submitted a print thesis or dissertation. Can I have my thesis or dissertation digitized and added to Texas ScholarWorks?
UT Libraries is happy to digitize print theses and dissertations upon request of the author. The process can take several months depending on current digitization projects. If you would like to have your work digitized, please contact tsw@utlists.utexas.edu to initiate the process.
If you would like to request a digital copy of someone else's thesis or dissertation (i.e. you are not the author), please contact InterLibrary Services to request a scanned digital copy for a fee: ilslend@lib.utexas.edu
I found my ETD in Texas ScholarWorks, but access is restricted to EID holders. Can I change the access option to be open to anyone?
Yes, we are happy to change access permissions from EID only to anyone. Please contact tsw@utlists.utexas.edu to request the access change.
Welcome to the University Wiki Service! Please use your IID (yourEID@eid.utexas.edu) when prompted for your email address during login or click here to enter your EID. If you are experiencing any issues loading content on pages, please try these steps to clear your browser cache.