Collections Policy

Texas ScholarWorks (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.

In addition to preserving selected works of research and scholarship, TSW also holds materials that reflect the intellectual and service environment of our campus community.

The author/copyright owner decides if their work in TSW is published or made available on other online platforms. Works are not exclusive to TSW. See the Copyright and Licensing Policy for more information.

TSW uses DSpace software which supports a simple hierarchy structure of Communities and Collections. Communities hold Collections, and Collections hold digital works. There are also roles associated with the Community/Collection hierarchy.

Each Collection of works will meet these requirements:

Be part of a Community.
Accept digitally formatted works. Print materials can sometimes be digitized and added to TSW. Please contact the Repository Curator if you have questions.
Determine the Collection's required and optional metadata fields; see the Metadata Policy for more information.
Determine the Collection's submission workflow.
Create additional Collection policies as needed that do not conflict with TSW's umbrella policies: Texas ScholarWorks Services, Submission and Withdrawal, Collections, Metadata, Copyright, and Preservation.
Conduct short annual review with the TSW Repository Curator to assess the Collection's usability and discoverability.

By default, a Collection will not impose access restrictions on their works. TSW was established to provide open access to the digital works of the University. In exceptional cases where access restrictions are required, individual works or an entire collection of works may be affected. Access restriction options must be defined when a Collection is created.

The types of access to works supported by TSW are:

All users can access the work (default)
UT EID only access to the work
Password only access to the work
Private: meaning even the metadata is restricted

Should it become necessary to amend access restrictions for a work already in TSW, the Repository Curator must be contacted.

Even if the work is restricted, all users can view the descriptive information about the work (the metadata). Only private items have restricted metadata.

Each Collection is part of a Community, and the Collection Curator and/or Community Administrator will determine what constitutes appropriate works for submission. For general information on a specific Collection, please see below.

Established Communities

UT Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Content: Electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs)

Submission: All master's theses and doctoral dissertations awarded after 2009 are automatically submitted into the collection after approval by the Office of Graduate Studies and published by the UT Libraries.

Access: The majority of works can be accessed by all users. Some works submitted prior to 2009 are restricted to users with valid UT EIDs.

UT Faculty/Researcher Works

Content: Pre-print and post-print articles, published articles, technical reports, white papers, presentations, conference posters, field notes, etc.

Submission: UT faculty or staff may contact the Repository Curator to request mediated deposit or to request access to upload their own content.

Access: Works can be accessed by all users.

Student Works

Content: Student Works-research projects, journals, and papers produced by students at UT.

Submission: Students may request to submit work. Undergraduate students requesting to add content should get a faculty sponsor. See the Student Works collection for more information about requesting a sponsor.

Access: Most student Works can be accessed by all users. Venture Labs and Bat City Review can only be accessed by authorized users with a password.

Conference Proceedings and Journals

Content: Conference proceedings and serial content like journals

Submission: UT faculty, staff, or students may set up collection(s) of conference proceedings or journals after the Repository Curator gives them authorization.

Access: Works can be accessed by all users.

UT Communities

Content: Determined by the department/research unit submitting the content.

Submission: Determined by the department/research unit submitting the content.

Access: Determined by the department/research unit submitting the content. The default is for access to all users.