Rice Research Repository Policies and Procedures

Version 2, November 2023 (updated to include new repository name)

The Rice Research Repository (R-3) makes accessible, manages, and preserves digital versions of scholarly and cultural heritage materials associated with Rice University.  In doing so, we aim to maximize the global reach and impact of our research and ensure the widest possible dissemination of our scholarship.

Examples of works that fall within R-3's collecting focus include articles, reports and white papers by Rice researchers; datasets; theses and dissertations; archival materials; learning objects; conference presentations; and unique digitized materials from the Rice community. By sharing your scholarship through R-3, you can make it available to a global audience, secure a DOI (digital object identifier) that will make it easier to cite, and ensure that it will be managed and preserved by the library.

Depositors’ Responsibilities

By depositing content in R-3, you agree to the following conditions:

  1. The work must be produced or sponsored by Rice faculty, researchers, staff or students. Undergraduate students typically will be asked to secure sponsorship from a faculty member or Rice organization.
  2. The work must be scholarly, educational, creative or related to the university's mission.
  3. The work must be in a digital format (or able to be converted to a digital format).
  4. The work must be complete, permanent and ready to be distributed publicly.
  5. The depositor must have copyright over the work or permission to share it through R-3. Further, the creator/ copyright owner must grant Rice University the non-exclusive right to publicly distribute and preserve the work via R-3.
  6. Making the digital object publicly available must not violate Rice policies on privacy or  intellectual property, and must comply with other applicable laws or guidelines.
  7. Research that contains human subjects data must be properly anonymized, and sharing this data should generally have been cleared (or envisioned) through an approved Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol.
  8. Items must be accompanied with sufficient documentation and metadata so that others can find and understand them. For datasets, the depositor should provide basic metadata for the dataset as a whole (such as title and creator) along with a readme file describing the contents of the data package.
  9. Items must not contain corrupted files or malware.
  10. Due to storage and technical limitations, generally the maximum size of a file is 1 GB, while the maximum size of the total item (such as a dataset) is 10 GB. (If you use the online submission form, the maximum file size is 100 MB due to technical limitations, but we can use other methods to transfer the data file). For cases that do not fit these parameters, please email cds@rice.edu.
  11. While the repository will accept almost any file, we recommend using non-proprietary or normalized types to facilitate long-term access and preservation.  Supported file formats.

Depositors’ Rights

Depositors have the right to:

  1. Retain copyright, and select the license terms for distributing content (including those that may have been established by a journal or other agent). For written materials and images, we suggest that depositors use a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/), which states that anyone can freely share or adapt material as long as it is properly attributed. For datasets, we recommend that researchers use a public domain license such as the CC-0 license or Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License (PDDL).
  2. Request an embargo to delay release for a defined period of time (such as 6 months or 1 year).  For theses and dissertations, embargo requests should be made to the Dean of Graduate and Postgraduate Studies.
  3. Request that item be withdrawn, in accordance with our withdrawal policy. If a file is removed, a “tombstone” page will remain documenting that the item is no longer available.

Users’ Responsibilities

By using the digital images, texts, data sets, audio and video recordings, and other materials in R-3, you agree to follow these conditions:

  1. You will not try to identify individuals included in data or infringe upon their privacy or confidentiality. If you do unintentionally identify anyone, you will contact DSS at cds@rice.edu.
  2. You will review and abide by the stated copyright status of the item, which is typically recorded in the rights statement. If you are unsure of the copyright status of an item, you will request clarification from cds@rice.edu.
  3. If you wish to make any use of the content that requires authorization under copyright, trademark or other legal principles, you agree to obtain all necessary permissions.
  4. When using items from R-3, you will give proper credit to the creator and source, including persistent URLs.
  5. You understand that statistics about usage of R-3 content are collected through Google Analytics and other services.

Users’ Rights

Users may:

  1. Access publicly accessible materials.
  2. Ask questions about content by contacting cds@rice.edu.

Digital Scholarship Services Responsibilities

Fondren Library’s Digital Scholarship Services (DSS) develops, administers, and maintains the Rice Research Repository.

DSS will:

  1. Provide access to content, so long as it is not embargoed or otherwise restricted.
  2. Preserve content to the best of its abilities in accordance with library best practices, such as distributed back-ups and file integrity checks. However, DSS makes no promises that the data will be perpetually accessible or consistently preserved.
  3. Follow Rice University policies and general best practices for information security and privacy.
  4. Strive to increase the visibility of and access to R-3 content by making it visible to services such as Google Scholar and by making metadata available for third party dissemination.
  5. Provide support to depositors and users.

Digital Scholarship Services Rights

DSS may:

  1. Withdraw content in accordance with our withdrawal policy (or for other good cause).
  2. Refuse to accept items not consistent with our collection policy.
  3. Share publicly available metadata and content with third parties, such as search engines and library services.
  4. Migrate content to new formats and perform other preservation tasks.
  5. Administer collections, including by editing metadata for correctness or consistency.

Related Resources

This policy draws upon similar policies at peer institutions, including Duke Libraries, Dataverse, and Ohio State.