Open Access Publications policy

The Open Access Publications policy contains guidance for St George's researchers on making the full text of research outputs available on an Open Access basis, including via the Institutional Repository.

Metadata Policy

For information describing items in the repository:

1. Anyone may access the metadata free of charge.
2. The metadata may be re-used in any medium without prior permission for not-for-profit purposes provided the OAI Identifier or a link to the original metadata record are given.
3. The metadata must not be re-used in any medium for commercial purposes without formal permission.

Data Policy

For full-text and other full data items:

1. Anyone may access full items free of charge.


2. Copies of full items generally may be:
   • reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium;
   • used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge provided:
   • the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given;
   • a hyperlink and/or URL are given for the original metadata page;
   • the original copyright statement is given;
   • the content is not changed in any way.
3. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holders.


4. Mention of SORA is appreciated but not mandatory.

Content Policy

For types of document & data set held:

1. This is an institutional repository.
   
   
2. Subject Specialities:Health and Medicine.


3. SORA is currently restricted to:
   
   • Journal articles;
   • Bibliographic references;
   • Conference and workshop papers;
   • Books, chapters and sections;
   • Patents.
4. Deposited items may include:
   • accepted versions (author's final peer-reviewed drafts);
   • published versions (publisher-created files);
5. Items are individually tagged with:
   • their version type and date;
   • their peer-review status;
   • their publication status.
6. Principal Languages: English.

Submission Policy

Concerning depositors, quality & copyright:

1. Items may only be deposited by accredited members, and academic staff of the institution, or their delegated agents.


2. Eligible depositors must deposit bibliographic metadata for all their publications.


3. The administrator only vets items for the eligibility of authors/depositors, relevance to the scope of St George's Repository, valid layout & format, and the exclusion of spam.


4. The validity and authenticity of the content of submissions is the sole responsibility of the depositor.


5. Items can be deposited at any time, but will not be made publicly visible until any publishers' or funders' embargo period has expired.


6. If St George's will do its best to not infringe anyone's copyright and/or moral rights. To this end, we will remove content for any legal or administrative reason as quickly as possible.

Preservation Policy

1. Items will be retained for the lifetime of the repository.


2. SORA will try to ensure continued readability and accessibility.
   
   • Items will be converted as necessary to ensure they can be read by computer systems in the future;
   • It may not be possible to guarantee the readability of some unusual file formats.
3. SORA regularly backs up its files according to current best practice.


4. Items may be removed at the request of the author/copyright holder, but this is strongly discouraged.


5. Acceptable reasons for withdrawal include:
   • Proven copyright violation or plagiarism;
   • Legal requirements and proven violations;
   • National Security;
   • Falsified research.
6. Withdrawn items are not deleted per se, but are removed from public view.


7. Withdrawn items' identifiers/URLs are retained indefinitely.


8. URLs will continue to point to 'tombstone' citations, to avoid broken links and to retain item histories.


9. If necessary, an updated version may be deposited:
   • The item's persistent URL will always link to the latest version;
   • There will be links between earlier and later versions, with the most recent version clearly identified.
10. In the event of SORA being closed down, the database will be transferred to another appropriate archive.

Take-down Policy

1. If you have any issues regarding the items that are available in SORA, please notify the SGUL Repository Team at: sora@sgul.ac.uk or write to:
   
   
   • The Library,
   • Hunter Wing,
   • St George's, University of London,
   • London,
   • SW17 0RE,
   • United Kingdom
2. Please include the following information in your complaint:
   • Your full contact details;
   • Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL;
   • Details of the nature of the complaint.
3. Legitimate grounds of complaint include:
   • Proven copyright violation or plagiarism;
   • Legal requirements;
   • National Security;
   • Falsified research.
4. On receipt of your complaint the SGUL Repository Team will:
   • Return an acknowledgement in writing that the complaint has been received;

   Make an initial judgement of the validity of your complaint. Where we believe that you may have legitimate grounds of complaint we will remove the item from the public access area of St George's Repository, pending further investigation. If we reject your complaint, we will notify you of this and of our reasons;

   If we remove the item from public view, we will investigate your complaint in full. This may include seeking professional legal advice where we believe it to be necessary. We will also inform the original contributor of the item about the nature of your complaint, in order to give him/her an opportunity to rebut it;

   We will communicate our decision to you and to the original contributor of the item;

   If our investigation finds in your favour, we will remove the item from SORA. However, a metadata record indicating that the item was previously stored in SORA will remain visible in perpetuity.