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Image Credit Header image: Artwork by Professor Lubaina Himid, CBE. Photo: @Denise Swanson
The CLoK Repository Service forms part of the University of Central Lancashire’s provision for supporting digital preservation and Open Access scholarship. Its policies and practices are designed to create a healthy digital culture and to render the University a trusted source and user of digital information and data. We seek to adopt and support national standards around file creation and storage and metadata and to maintain a robust governance framework in the interests of all users and stakeholders.
In support of the objectives stated in the 2017-2020 UCLan Strategy Document (internal only) and in line with the University’s policies and those of funding partners and statutory bodies, researchers are required to record the details of their research outputs on the Research Repository - CLoK. Wherever possible UCLan researchers should also ensure full-text copies of their published work are also deposited as soon as possible, taking into account publisher and other third parties’ policies and rights. In accordance with academic regulations digital copies of theses associated with the award of post-graduate degrees at UCLan are also deposited on the Research Repository - CLoK.
See also Research Strategy and Policy and Research Data Management policy
Copyright in any work made available on the UCLan Research repository remains the property of the owner. Authors retain their copyright unless this has been explicitly transferred to a publisher or other third party via a Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA). In uploading work to the research repository - CLoK, or asking an administrator to do so on their behalf, authors grant UCLan the non-exclusive right to to store, manage and make available on the internet the work in any digital format that is necessary to maintain the integrity of the work and its accessibility in perpetuity. This is done with the understanding that it is the authors responsibility to ensure they have the right to deposit the work and to grant this license.
The University of Central Lancashire has an Open Access Policy (internal only) which follows the principle that the results of research that has been publicly funded should be freely accessible in the public domain. To that end “all research output since January 2008 – or the start of employment with UCLan whichever is the later – must be deposited in the University of Central Lancashire Repository – CLoK, at the latest upon publication” (UCLan Open Access policy Appendix A, July 2015). Deposit includes the registering of bibliographic details of the work and deposit of the full text, usually in the form of the Author Accepted Manuscript or the version of record. The version deposited should be representative of the final published work. This policy operates in line with RCUK Open Access policies and HEFCE requirements for REF evaluation. Requirements for HEFCE and RCUK compliance are regarded as a minimum and deposit of works not covered by these policies is expected as described by the UCLan policy.
The Research Repository - CLoK facilitates the Open Access policy while enabling the interests of the authors and other owners of copyright in the works deposited to be respected and protected. Adherence to Open Access policies takes into account publisher contracts and self-archiving policies. The Research Repository - CLoK offers restricted access and embargo functionality and links to JISC services that aggregate publisher and funder information Open Access policies to assist with policy discovery . CLoK is also integrated into the UCLan services providing funding and support for Article Processing Charges (APCs) for hybrid, or full Open Access publishing options as well as other unfunded Open Access options.
Univeristy of Central Lancashire academic regulations require that theses and dissertations submitted as part fulfilment for qualification for research degrees are presented in an electronic format and that these are deposited on CLoK. However, as unpublished works, Copyright in theses and dissertations remain with the authors. Therefore, we require that a licence to store, distribute and manage the work is also signed by the submitting student. This licence includes details of how the work can be used by people discovering and downloading the work; on how automated internet tools such as harvesters and ‘bots’ will have access to the work; and on how information about the work – bibliographic metadata – will remain visible on CLoK even if the work itself is taken down or hidden from access. This licence is non-exclusive, does not prevent the student from granting similar, non-exclusive rights to others or from publishing the work, or parts thereof, themselves. The licence does not affect the authors’ moral rights and the University has obligations to preserve the integrity and quality of the work while it is in its care.
Where there are specific reasons why a thesis cannot be made publicly on and Open Access basis these can be stated and access to the work will be restricted either indefinitely or for a set period. These reasons will be included in any consideration of any Freedom of information requests.
Authors should consider whether their thesis contains:
They should also consider whether they intend publishing journal articles of books which will substantially reproduce the work presented in their thesis.
Positive answers to these questions do not preclude deposit or Open Access availability of the thesis as long or short term embargoes, redaction and removal of parts of the materials to hidden appendices allow us to comply with the academic regulations while protecting the rights of the author and any third parties.
Deposit of theses on CLoK requires acknowledgement from the author of these issues and a declaration that publication of the work on CLoK will not to their knowledge infringe the rights of third parties. This is in line with the declarations required by publishers of academic journals and books
Responsibility for the content of works uploaded to the repository lies with the authors and creators of the works. The deposit process requires that researchers and research students declare that they have the authority to deposit work and that they have exercised due diligence in ensuring their work is original and that they are not infringing any intellectual property laws or other legislation. They must assume responsibility for any breach discovered and agree that the university does not hold any obligation to take legal action on behalf of any rights holder or the author. This waiver is also applied where an administrator is delegated responsibility for uploading works on the authors’ behalf. For research students the deposit licence includes a statement whereby the student agrees that the university is not responsible for errors of accidental infringements, and neither will it be obliged to take legal action on behalf of any rights holders.
The university is obliged to ensure that reasonable care is taken to prevent general infringement of third party copyright and has in place policies, procedures and advice to ensure that this does not happen. Any doubts or concerns felt by authors should be raised with the Repository Manager who will be able to recommend a course, or courses, of action to ensure that deposits do not infringe the law.
Contact clok@uclan.ac.uk if you have any questions or concerns.
If you feel that your rights have been infringed by any material on the CLoK repository, please refer to the Takedown policy and also contact clok@uclan.ac.uk for the speediest response.
The research Repository - CLoK adopts the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND licence by default. Where an item is presented on the Research Repository - CLoK under a different licence, denoted by CC Attribution (e.g. CC-BY, or CC-0) the terms of that licence supercede the default licence.
This licence does not impact upon, or overwrite any existing Copyright or other legislative requirements and a similar licence is extended over the repository database itself and its collections. Database rights in this repository rest with the University of Central Lancashire.
The Creative Commons licences offer standardized and clear protection for users of works on the repository as well as depositors. It allows end users to copy, distribute, play and perform the work and make derivative works as long as full attribution is given citing both the author and source, the use of the work is non-commercial and derivatives are shared and distributed under the same licence.
To the extent permitted by law, neither the University of Central Lancashire, nor the Research Repository - CLoK is not liable for any loss or damages arising out of the use of its site or content therein. Content within the repository is provided on an “as is” basis without representations or warranties given on quality, accuracy, compatibility, fitness for purpose or currency. It is your responsibility to regularly review the legal notices governing the use of the repository, as by viewing and/or using the content you agree to abide by all the terms and conditions of the site. Content within the repository may contain links to third party websites. Neither the University of Central Lancashire, nor the Research Repository - CLoK endorse or shall be held liable for the contents of any third party websites and does not make any representations or warranties as to the security of any information requested of you by such websites.