About NWCommons

Purpose

NWCommons is an institutional repository for Northwestern College. The repository’s purpose is to provide open access to a number of different types of publications for faculty, staff, and students of the College as well as to highlight and promote the College’s academic achievements to its larger Christian, academic communities. The library staff’s goal is to ensure perpetual access to the scholarly output of Northwestern College and to disseminate as broadly as possible the fruits of the College’s scholarship and research.

Adding Content - Guidelines

  • The work must be (co-)sponsored or originally produced by a NWC faculty or staff member, student, student organization or other department of NWC.
  • The work must be scholarly, research-focused, creative or of institutional significance.
  • The work must be in electronic/digital format. Most file formats are acceptable.
  • The author must own and/or retain the copyright to all contents and parts of the work or have and be able to provide permission that the work can be uploaded and posted to NWCommons.
  • The author or departmental/organizational representative must sign a permission form or, for self-uploaded works, accept the click-through agreement in order for the College to preserve and distribute the material via NWCommons.

Content Specifications

NWCommons accepts a broad range of content, including text, image, video, and audio files. Possible types of content include but are not limited to:

  • Articles or papers (including previously published and pre/post prints)
  • Theses and dissertations
  • Technical papers
  • Unpublished papers, presentations, and pamphlets)
  • Working papers
  • Books
  • Creative Works
  • Software and Data Sets
  • Lectures and Seminar Series
  • Products of Student Research
  • Peer-Reviewed Journals
  • Various file formats are accepted
  • Archival Materials Relating to NWC, NWJA, NWCA, RCA, and local/regional history

Suggestions for other types of works are welcome. Please contact the NWCommons administrator with your request.

Removing a Published Work

  • NWCommons is intended as a permanent repository. Once deposited, items will not normally be removed unless there are valid legal reasons for doing so (e.g. copyright infringement).
  • Should authors become aware that a deposited item may constitute a copyright infringement, they should notify a NWCommons administrator with all pertinent details, including clear identification of the works in question, the notice from the complaining party that the material in question is not authorized for distribution by NWC, and contact information to allow an NWCommons administrator to contact the complaining party.
  • In the rarest of cases, an administrator of NWCommons may find it necessary to remove a published work. The administrator of NWCommons reserves the right to remove any published work.

Author Rights & Agreements

  • Authors grant a non-exclusive, non-commercial license to NWC to distribute and preserve any document submitted.
  • Authors retain all copyright and interests in their work(s). That copyright protects against unauthorized use of your content.
  • Authors agree to provide proof that they hold the copyright to the work or have received authorization by the copyright holder to upload the work to NWCommons.
  • The work must be the orignal work of the author and must not contain any libelous or unlawful statements, infringe on the rights or privacy of others, or contain material or instructions that might cause harm or injury.

Important that author reviews publication agreements with the publisher to ensure that depositing an article in the repository is allowed. Many publisher agreements can be found online at: http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.

User Rights

  • Material may be downloaded for non-profit, educational and research purposes provided that due recognition is accorded to the author.
  • Unless otherwise specified by a Creative Commons license, materials may not be used, copied, disseminated, or altered for commercial purposes.