RUA Policies

The policies of the University of Alicante Repository (RUA) are defined below with the aim of highlighting the results of the University scientific and teaching production and thus, increasing the impact and ensuring the preservation of such production.

The University of Alicante (UA hereafter) supports the open access to research financed with public funds.

This Portal is owned by the UA and its Library.

Content and collection policy

RUA is a digital document multidisciplinary repository to collect the institutional, research and teaching activity of the UA staff. Its main goal is to serve as a tool for any research and teaching work to be filed, centralised and made accessible for the global community and preserved in the long term.

RUA is the result of the signing of the Berlin Declaration by the UA President on 9 November 2006, by which the UA is committed to disseminating its research community’s production through an open Access platform.

RUA can host any type of scientific and teaching material, provided that:

The material deposited in the RUA is hierarchically organised, as follows:

RUA deposit supports the following scientific and teaching material:

RUA also accepts the filing of works published before authors and/or co-authors become UA members, as long as they have the permission of those institutions they were previously affiliated with.

This scientific and teaching material is organised by typologies, according to the present collections of the repository. You should contact RUA administrators (rua@ua.es) if you wish to suggest a different document collection in the sub-community you belong to (Research Groups or Technological-Educational Innovation Groups –GITE).

Also, with a reasoned request, RUA may consider including scientific or teaching contents produced by entities related to UA under a formal agreement.

RUA accept scientific and teaching material in any language.

RUA does not accept the deposit of contents expressing personal, religious, political opinions or on sports not related to the communication of scientific, teaching results or dissemination and/or technical results derived from the UA community professional activity.

RUA accepts most commonly used document formats; however, due to reasons of accessibility and digital preservation, an easily readable web format is recommended (such as PDF). As a general rule, open formats are preferred (RTF, TIFF or JPG) as opposed to proprietary formats (Word, GIF, etc).

The maximum size established for an individual file is 500MB approximately. Further information on document formats and RUA can be found on the sections on digital preservation policy and format policy.

This content policy may be modified by RUA’s administrators.

Service policy

RUA offers its UA community of users a range of services to promote an easy and efficient use of the repository.

RUA administrators:

This service policy can be modified by RUA administrators.

Metadata policy

Metadata is the minimum information necessary to identify a resource. Metadata, generally referred to as data about data, is all that descriptive information on the context, quality, status or features of a resource, data or object in order to make their retrieval, authentication, evaluation, preservation and/or interoperability easier. There are different types and models of metadata. Dublin Core (DC) metadata schema is used in RUA. Any user can access RUA metadata free of charge. This metadata can be reused for non-profit purposes without explicit permissions provided that users mention OAI identifier or the link to the original registration of metadata on RUA.

Data policy

The content of RUA is accessible to the international community of users for free.

Users can make copies of full-text records to be played, displayed or represented in any form or in any medium for educational, study, and non-profit purposes, without asking for explicit permission, provided that (1) the authors’ name, title and full bibliographical details are given, (2) a hyperlink or URL to the original metadata is included and (3) the content is not changed in any way.

Full-text records can be harvested by robots in time. If full-text records are systematically collected, an explicit authorisation by the UA is required.

Full-text records cannot be sold in any form or medium without formal authorisation from the copyright holders.

Deposit policy

This section defines who can deposit in the RUA and how to do it.

RUA is based on a work distributed model whereby either UA researchers can self-file their work or RUA administrators can upload these documents as delegates.

RUA administrators are responsible for activating the file permissions for researchers, teachers and administrative and service staff. Permits to deposit contents in RUA are activated as collections (types of materials) and a researcher, teacher or administrative member can ask for deposit permission in as many collections of their sub-community as they wish. Only RUA administrators can upload records in all RUA sub-communities and all collections. The following requirements should be met for RUA administrators to give permission to UA members to deposit their work in the repository:

Also, RUA administrators can authorise any research group or GITE member even if they are not UA members.

For the work to be successfully deposited, a non-exclusive distribution license should be included as the final step, for which the author authorises RUA the filing, open dissemination and preservation of such a work.

This license is compatible with other uses and distribution channels that authors consider appropriate for their work: in the case of articles, most of the journals allow prints and post-prints to be deposited in open repositories and SHERPA/ROMEO datadase collects permission policies of major scientific journals publishers. DULCINEA is a database under construction aimed to collect permission policies of Spanish journals.

If the permission policy of a certain publisher is not explicitly found in these databases, we recommend visiting the publisher’s website to find this information. In the case of books, you need to visit the publisher’s website to discern their permissions policy for deposits in open documents. In any case, before you place a text for open access in the repository, RUA administrators will check the editorial policy about it.

Next, the text of the non-exclusive distribution license is reproduced, which must be accepted by authors when they file materials in RUA:

Non-Exclusive Distribution License

For the University of Alicante Repository to reproduce and transmit your documents publicly, you are required to accept the following terms. Please read the following license terms:

By accepting this license, you (the copyright’s author/s or owner/s) transfers to the University of Alicante the non-exclusive right to file, reproduce, convert (as defined below), communicate and/or distribute your document in open-access electronic format.

You also agree that the University of Alicante can keep more than one copy of this document and, without changing the content, convert it into any file format, medium or support, for security, preservation and access purposes.

You declare that the document is an original work, and/or you have the right to grant the rights contained in this license. You also state that your document does not infringe, as far as you possibly could know, the copyright of any other person or entity.

Should your document contain material whose copyright is not yours, you declare that you have obtained the unrestricted permission of the copyright owner to grant the University of Alicante the rights required by this license, and that material whose rights are third party’s is clearly identified and acknowledged within the text or content of the document submitted.

Should the document be based on a work that has been sponsored or supported by an agency or organisation other than the University of Alicante, it is assumed that it has complied with any right of review or other obligations required by this contract or agreement.

The University of Alicante shall clearly identify your name/s as the author/s or owner/s of the rights of the document and shall not make any change in your document other that those permitted in this license.

If an author is interested in modifying a work that has been deposited in RUA, you should contact RUA administrators (rua@ua.es). Read more on section of  Retention, Replacement and Deletion of Records Policy.

Editing, retention, replacement and deletion of records policy

Because RUA’s main goal is to reproduce and develop a documentary report on the research and teaching activity carried out by the UA community, RUA is intended to retain all documents deposited in the repository. Therefore, the deletion of records is not envisaged for the time being, except for the cases described below. Therefore, UA’s official agreement on open access forces the repository to safeguard the integrity of its documents.

If a UA researcher or lecturer does a substantial modification of the content of their work and wish to deposit a new version, they are recommended to deposit it as a new record and a new document. RUA administrators will help link the two versions of the work and include information on which version is preferred; however, RUA’s overall policy is to keep all versions of the work deposited.

RUA will retain deposits of works by authors from the UA even when they change their institutional affiliation. Exceptionally, RUA administrators will delete, without asking prior consent of the authors, those records that:

Statistics policy

RUA automatically generates statistics as a tool for analysis of the scientific production of UA members, as well as of the degree of dissemination, international visibility and accessibility. The statistics module also analyses the growth rate of content and the type of scientific and teaching material available in the repository, as well as patterns of visits and downloads.

Except for several data subject to restricted access for privacy reasons, these statistics are freely accessible in the public section of RUA’s website and help manage the repository efficiently by identifying use and development patterns to inform all UA members of the visibility and accessibility of the research and teaching activity they produce. Reproduction of these statistics are not authorised for profit.

Digital preservation policy

RUA was aimed at digitally preserving in the long term all the documents it contains. To this end, an action plan is being carried out that includes basic measures to ensure digital durability of the scientific material hosted in the repository:

For the purposes of digital preservation, RUA recommends its users the deposit of documents with easily readable formats (such as PDF). In general, open formats such as RTF, TIFF and JPG are preferred over proprietary formats (Word, GIF, etc). Should usability of all existing formats in RUA be impossible to maintain, administrators would return files to their authors. See more about the formats supported by RUA in section Format support policy. This digital preservation policy will be reviewed annually by RUA administrators.

Format support policy

RUA is trying to support as many formats as possible. However, in the case of specific proprietary formats this cannot be guaranteed due to the characteristics of their software. Our format support policy is particularly relevant as it is closely linked to accessibility and digital preservation in the long term. While electronic access to all RUA files is ensured through unique and permanent identifiers, preservation and support in the long term depend largely on the document formats. Notwithstanding, the probability of success to ensure long-term digital preservation is much higher when formats of the files deposited possess the following characteristics:

It is therefore recommended that RUA users should deposit files with open format such as RTF, TIFF, JPG, or most popular proprietary formats.

DSpace software divides files into 3 different categories according to the format support level:

Next, the level of support provided by DSpace is stated according to the existing formats.

Format support

Name

Extensions

MIME Type

Support level

Unknown

application/octet-stream

unsupported

Adobe PDF

pdf

application/pdf

supported

XML

xml

text/xml

supported

Text

txt, asc

text/plain

supported

HTML

htm, html

text/html

supported

CSS

css

text/css

Known

Microsoft Word

doc

application/msword

Known

Microsoft Powerpoint

ppt

application/vnd.ms-powerpoint

Known

Microsoft Excel

xls

application/vnd.ms-excel

Known

MARC

application/marc

supported

JPEG

jpeg, jpg

image/jpeg

supported

GIF

gif

image/gif

supported

image/png

png

image/png

supported

TIFF

tiff, tif

image/tiff

supported

AIFF

aiff, aif, aifc

audio/x-aiff

supported

audio/basic

au, snd

audio/basic

supported

WAV

wav

audio/x-wav

supported

MPEG

mpeg, mpg, mpe

video/mpeg

supported

RTF

rtf

text/richtext

supported

Microsoft Visio

vsd

application/vnd.visio

supported

FMP3

fm

application/x-filemaker

supported

BMP

bmp

image/x-ms-bmp

Known

Photoshop

psd, pdd

application/x-photoshop

Known

Postscript

ps, eps, ai

application/postscript

supported

Video Quicktime

mov, qt

video/quicktime

Known

MPEG Audio

mpa, abs, mpega

audio/x-mpeg

supported

Microsoft Project

mpp, mpx, mpd

application/vnd.ms-project

Known

Mathematica

ma

application/mathematica

Known

LateX

latex

application/x-latex

Known

TeX

tex

application/x-tex

Known

TeX dvi

dvi

application/x-dvi

Known

SGML

sgm, sgml

application/sgml

Known

WordPerfect

wpd

application/wordperfect5.1

Known

RealAudio

ra, ram

audio/x-pn-realaudio

Known

Photo CD

pcd

image/x-photo-cd

Known

OpenDocument Text

odt

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text

Known

OpenDocument Text Template

ott

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-template

Known

HTML Document Template

oth

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-web

Known

OpenDocument Master Document

odm

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-master

Known

OpenDocument Drawing

odg

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics

Known

OpenDocument Presentation

odp

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation

Known

OpenDocument Spreadsheet

ods

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet

Known

OpenDocument Chart

odc

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.chart

Known

OpenDocument Formula

odf

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.formula

Known

OpenDocument Database

odb

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.database

Known

OpenDocument Image

odi

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.image

Known

Video Flash

flv

video/x-flv

Known

Video MP4

mp4

video/mp4

Known

Video WMV

wmv

video/x-ms-wmv

Known

Video ASF

asf

video/x-ms-asf

Known

Microsoft Office Excel 2007 workbook

xlsx

application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet

Known

Microsoft Office Word 2007 document

docx

application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document

Known

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 presentation

pptx

application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation

Known

ZIP archive

zip

application/zip

Known

Privacy policy

RUA respects the privacy of its users, so that all information received by RUA administrators through DSpace is used only for those authorised users to deposit documents to log in the intranet repository and to activate the custom alerts service. RUA subscribers can activate this alert service that provides a daily report of the new deposits included in each collection.

Pursuant to the Personal Data Protection Act 15/1999, RUA does not disclose user information on individual visits to the repository or personal data necessary to log in the system.

We thank those responsible for the institutional repository of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Digital.CSIC, their authorisation to adapt the text of its policies for the UA repository.