u:scholar – Institutional Repository

• u:scholar is the University of Vienna's Institutional Repository for scholarly publications. Documents uploaded to u:scholar are technically being stored in Phaidra, where they constitute a separate collection. Objects uploaded to u:scholar receive a Phaidra permalink.
• Phaidra is the University of Vienna's Institutional Repository for research data and digital collections (e.g. educational resources, cultural heritage objects, and other materials documenting or supporting research and teaching activities at the University).
• u:cris is the University of Vienna’s research information system. It is used to document and present research activities and serves as the basis for reports and analysis. In contrast to u:scholar, u:cris does not provide publication full texts. u:cris metadata does, however, reference the corresponding u:scholar full text if available.

You may upload scholarly contributions and materials by University affiliates, e.g. journal articles, pre- and post-prints, monographs, edited volumes, congress proceedings, research reports, working papers, etc. These may be primary or secondary publications. 

Other types of objects – e.g. research data, digital collections, educational resources, media – should be uploaded to → Phaidra directly.

Uploading requires a University → u:account. On the → uscholar.univie.ac.at page, click the "Upload" menu entry and follow the eight steps of the upload wizard:

• Step 3 allows for metadata import via DOI if available. This enables importing metadata such as title, author, etc. without manual entry. 
• In step 5, choose the file to be uploaded. You may restrict access here, e.g. by setting an embargo period for full text access if this is a publisher requirement for secondary publication.

Since u:scholar is a curated collection of scholarly contributions, the Open Access Office provides quality assurance after the upload. Once an object is accepted into the u:scholar collection, the "Institutional Repository" user account assumes ownership.

Document upload to u:scholar is only permitted if you hold the necessary rights (e.g. as granted by the publisher or by other rights holders)! If you plan on uploading a larger number of publications, please contact us beforehand.

Upload to u:scholar is permitted for the following kinds of contributions:

• Contributions for which you are the rights holder. These are contributions for which you have not transferred any rights to others, e.g. to a publisher via a copyright transfer agreement. 
• Contributions bearing a Creative Commons licence. This is permitted without the need to ask the rights holders. CC licences are usually displayed on the first or the last page of a publication.
• Contributions where secondary publication is allowed as outlined in a publisher self archiving policy. Publisher requirements have to be met, e.g. using the author accepted manuscript (AAM) instead of the typeset version of record or setting an embargo period for full text access (this can be configured in u:scholar). See also the next question on self archiving policies.
• Contributions for which the rights holder (e.g. a publisher) has given express permission to make them available in u:scholar. In this case please provide this permission alongside your upload (to: support.uscholar@univie.ac.at).
• In certain cases contributions may be uploaded if the criteria for secondary publication under Austrian law as per → §37a öUrhG are met.

You can look up individual journals and publishers using the → Open Policy Finder. Large publishers usually have dedicated websites concerning OA publication: Self Archiving Policy Quicklinks.

Open Access is legally established by applying → Creative Commons licences. Among the six core licences only CC BY and CC BY-SA are compatible with the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge".

CC licences in u:scholar can be applied in step 5 of the upload wizard: 

• Should the object already bear a CC licence please select it here. This ensures the existing CC licence can be displayed in the repository and accordingly distributed.
• Should the object not bear any CC licence or other licence you can apply a licence here. This requires you to have the necessary rights.

If necessary, DOIs can be requested using the → DOI service of the University of Vienna.

The following kinds of contributions will be uploaded as a matter of course:

• publications supported by the University of Vienna (including publications resulting from FWF projects)
• publications that are Open Access according to their u:cris metadata

In urgent cases please upload the publication yourself or contact us directly.