The ISU Digital Repository
The Iowa State University Digital Repository is Iowa State’s open access, full-text institutional repository. The digital repository is a powerful tool to collect, manage, preserve and provide free, worldwide access to research and scholarship of Iowa State’s faculty, staff, and students. Through the repository, readers worldwide can access a range of content including, but not limited to:
- Journal articles and manuscripts;
- Conference proceedings, presentations, and posters;
- Theses and dissertations;
- Technical reports and white papers;
- Images, audio and video files; and
- University publications.
The repository is administered by the University Library's Scholarly Publishing Services Unit and is funded in part by the Office of the Vice President of Research.
Important Vocabulary
As publishers are constantly revising their terms, the best way to find out if they support repositories and green OA is to read your publishing contract. If you sign away your copyright when you submit to a journal, you may be unable to self-archive. Understanding the vocabulary these publishers use is important.
Pre-print (Author Original, Author's Version)
The Pre-print is the (draft) paper first submitted to publishers - it has not been through peer review or accepted for publication.
A pre-print may be made available to the public before and/or after a paper is published.
Post-print (Accepted Manuscript, Final Draft)
Post-print refers to a paper that has been through peer review and accepted for publication but has not been formatted by the publisher.
Crossref states that any manuscript draft from acceptance onward, including the version of record, is a post-print.
Publisher's Version (Version of Record, Published Version)
The final, published version of a paper. The Publisher's Version includes the publisher's typesetting, copy-edits, comments, supplemental data, hyperlinks, and other standardized changes.
Embargo (Delayed Open Access)
Some subscription journals have chosen to make all of their content open access after an embargo, a set amount of time, has passed. This time period is usually between 1 to 2 years but can be as short as 2 months and as long as 10 years.
Some jourbals only allow sharing Preprints or Postprints, but others also allow sharing the Publisher's Version after an embargo. You can use Sherpa Romeo to see your publisher's copyright policies about self-archiving.
Benefits of Using the Digital Repository
Open Access
Materials available in Iowa State University Digital Repository can be used by anyone with an internet connection, anywhere in the world. This frees your scholarship from behind subscription paywalls and provides your work with an international platform.
Stability
Content deposited in Iowa State University Digital Repository are given a stable, permanent URL. This means that when you link to your works in the repository, or when your colleagues cite your research, users will always be able to find it—no matter how many times you redesign your Web sites.
Download Statistics
Our repository provides authors with an Author Dashboard and a monthly e-mail indicating the number of times their works were downloaded in the preceding month. In addition to citation counts, download counts provide authors with insight into the impact of their scholarship.