About CSUSB ScholarWorks

CSUSB ScholarWorks promotes discovery, research, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and instruction by collecting, preserving, and providing access to scholarly work created at CSUSB .

The goals of the repository are to:

  • Provide persistent and centralized access to research at CSUSB
  • Promote research and collaboration within the scholarly community
  • Preserve the history, growth and development of CSUSB

Members of the CSUSB academic community are invited to contribute completed scholarship for long-term preservation and worldwide electronic accessibility through CSUSB ScholarWorks.

Coordinated by John M. Pfau Library, CSUSB ScholarWorks provides for the dissemination of a full range of scholarship, including artwork, conference proceedings, monographs, peer-reviewed journals, post prints, publicly funded research, reports, teaching and learning resources, theses and dissertations, and working papers.

The content of the repository is discoverable by Google, Google Scholar, and other search engines, which makes it easy to share and collaborate with anyone connected to the Internet. The content is available to be used responsibly under fair use for personal and educational purposes or with the permission of the authors or copyright holders.

Consult the Frequently Asked Questions for more information on CSUSB ScholarWorks. You may be interested in our Library Guide: Introduction to CSUSB ScholarWorks.

Policy

CSUSB ScholarWorks is an Open-Access digital repository (also referred to as an institutional repository) representing and preserving the research, scholarship, and creative endeavors of California State University San Bernardino faculty, staff, and students.

ScholarWorks is administered by Pfau Library in cooperation with other campus units such the Office of Graduate Studies, which has responsibility for current theses, projects, and dissertations.

In addition to preserving works created by members of the CSUSB community, ScholarWorks provides a platform for digitized collection materials from Pfau Library’s Special Collections department, including significant local publications or other historical or archival content.

Contributors

Current students, faculty, and staff of CSUSB are eligible to submit materials they have created or contributed to as part of their academic work at the university. CSUSB Faculty & Staff Emeritus are also eligible. Part-time Faculty and Visiting Scholars may submit their work so long as it was created during their time at CSUSB.

Graduate students must submit their thesis, project, or dissertation in order to graduate. Works by undergraduate students may be included as part of collections already archived in ScholarWorks (for example, as part of a student research conference series or an existing course or departmental project).

Content Guidelines

Materials submitted should reflect the accepted paradigm for scholarly work within each of the university’s disciplines, whether research in the sciences or productions of fine or performing arts.

Materials appropriate for posting in CSUSB ScholarWorks include but are not limited to:

  • Masters’ Theses/Projects and Doctoral Dissertations produced to satisfy the requirements of CSUSB degree programs
  • Published Scholarly Articles
  • Conference Presentations (such as papers, posters, PowerPoints)
  • Scholarly Open-Access Journals (with a CSUSB editor)
  • Journals/Magazines of student-produced work
  • CSUSB-sponsored Conferences
  • Lecture Series
  • Monographs
  • Materials supplementing published articles or books
  • Open Educational Resources (such as textbooks, curricula, or lesson plans)
  • Performances
  • Exhibits
  • Data Sets
  • University-sponsored publications (such as departmental newsletters, annual reports)
Because contributions are intended for permanent archiving, works in progress are not recommended for submission.

Pfau Library, as ScholarWorks administrator, reserves the right to reject any content submitted, and to remove any content that is found to be in violation of the Submission Agreement.

Rights

By submitting material to ScholarWorks, the contributor grants ScholarWorks a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to distribute the material. All other intellectual property rights remain unchanged. Contributors may revoke this non-exclusive license by contacting scholarworks@csusb.edu to request take-down.

In the case of co-authors, at least one author listed on the work must be affiliated with CSUSB. Said author may submit the work without permission from their co-authors, but any co-author can object and request take-down (which will be honored). In cases of disagreement, the work will be suppressed from public access until the co-authors can reach an agreement about its status. To avoid conflicts, Pfau Library recommends that you talk to your co-authors before submitting your work.

Embargoes and Access Restrictions

In some cases, a contributor (or their publisher) may request an “embargo,” that is, a specified period of delay before their work becomes publicly available in ScholarWorks. Common embargo periods are 6 months, 1 year, or 2 years. Additionally, contributors may request that access be restricted to on-campus and authenticated off-campus CSUSB users only. Pfau Library strongly encourages contributors to choose the most minimal embargo period or restriction necessary. Embargoes and access restrictions are contrary to ScholarWorks’ mission as an Open-Access scholarly repository.

Some journals require that manuscripts not be previously published. Most journal publishers do not consider posting a work in an institutional repository to constitute a previous publication, because no peer review occurs. However, if you have concerns about a specific journal’s policies, please contact us for assistance. Student authors collaborating with faculty members should consult their faculty collaborator before posting. If student work involves ongoing faculty research that is not appropriate to share publicly, an embargo may be appropriate.

Removal or Suppression

ScholarWorks seeks to preserve CSUSB’s record of scholarship. In most cases, items in ScholarWorks will not be removed. However, items may be removed or restricted from public access under certain conditions, including:

  • When the contributor revokes ScholarWorks’ non-exclusive license to distribute the material.
  • When there is a dispute over who can grant the non-exclusive license to ScholarWorks.
  • When there is reasonable concern that the material may be infringing upon another’s copyright, patent, trade secret, or trademark.
  • When the material may involve defamation, hate speech, invasion of privacy, plagiarism, falsified results, or other conduct in violation of CSUSB’s policies or applicable laws.

Requests for removal may be sent to scholarworks@csusb.edu. If an item is removed, a record with metadata describing the original will remain in ScholarWorks at the same URL, along with an explanatory note (such as “removed at the request of the author”).

Please see also the Takedown Policy for Special Collections & University Archives.

Contributors can request revisions to their already posted material by contacting the ScholarWorks administrator. Please state in your request the reason the revision is needed. Minor corrections such as spelling, grammar, etc., will be uploaded without further notation. Significant revisions to an existing work should be uploaded as new versions/editions, preserving both the original and the revised work. Linkages between versions will clarify their relationship.

Statement on Potentially Offensive and Harmful Content in our Digital Collections

CSUSB ScholarWorks provides online access to digital collections of images, videos, documents, and other materials. By making these materials openly available online we aim to not only increase the accessibility of this content for scholarly and research use, but to also expand the public’s understanding of our society’s cultural heritage.

Items in these collections often reflect the attitudes, ideas, and norms of the era and culture in which they were created or collected. We acknowledge that as a result of this, some materials present on our site may contain potentially offensive and harmful content. Furthermore, as we follow library/archival best practices when describing materials in our digital collections, we recognize that adhering to these standards may sometimes result in harmful or outdated language appearing in our descriptive (metadata) records. It is not our intention to promulgate or legitimize historical or ongoing biases, rather these materials are presented to preserve documentary evidence that supports a more complete understanding of the historical record.

The presence of these items and descriptions on our site does not constitute an endorsement by CSUSB. We are committed to fostering an inclusive, welcoming, and respectful environment dedicated to serving the informational needs of all members of society as is articulated in our Core Values. We continually work to identify and address potentially offensive items currently available on CSUSB ScholarWorks and as part of the digitization and description process for new items. Our goal is to be thoughtful in our processes for providing access to these potentially offensive and harmful materials in an effort to reduce the negative impact that this content may have on user communities.

If you encounter materials on our site that are offensive, disrespectful, or inappropriate, or if you have questions or comments about this statement please contact us at scholarworks@csusb.edu.