The George Washington University

Scholarly Communication

Frequently Asked Questions

NOTICE: THIS SITE IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION

I am an undergraduate. Can I put my undergraduate research paper into the institutional repository?

Yes. As long as a professor authorizes you to put your paper into the repository. He/she can write to us at the email address at the bottom of the page with a short explanation indicating that you are authorized to have your paper put into the repository.

I am a member of a research project. We need a place to share our files but need them closed to public view until the project publishes its findings. Can we use the institutional repository this way?

Yes. We can set up a project-specific collection and initially authorize only the members of the project to view, add, or delete items from the collection. Once the research findingds have been published, if the project wants to make the files public, the project leader(s) can confirm with us that the files can be viewed by the public, and we will make the appropriate changes to the collection settings to open the collection up.

Can I hide the fact that a document exists in the repository?

No. All items loaded into the repository have to have associated metadata entered in. Access to items can be restricted. Doing so also restricts most of the associated metadata, but the fact that the item exists plus the item's title are still discoverable when a search is done in the repository.

I don't feel comfortable trying to describe the content that I want to put in the repository. Can someone at the library do the description if necessary?

Yes. As mentioned, all items going into the repository need some associated descriptive information (aka metadata) entered in when they are loaded. While we encourage scholars who feel comfortable entering this information themselves, especially for closed collaborative projects, we nevertheless can and will do the description for you if requested. We will, however, need from you a list of files that belong together, the titles of the documents, and the individual or institutional author of each document.