Policies and Information for Faculty and Employee Authors
- About The Cupola
- Types of Content
- Submitting to The Cupola
- Revising and Withdrawing Work
- Co-Authored Works
- Copyright Considerations for Authors
- Implications for Future Publications
- Email Address Policy
- Name Change Policy
About The Cupola
The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College is an open access collection of scholarly and creative works produced by faculty, students, and other members of the Gettysburg College community. Works shared in The Cupola will be permanently accessible to the public and fully searchable by search engines like Google, Google Scholar, etc. Open access publication increases the visibility of Gettysburg College scholarship by giving access to readers all over the world. For more information, visit The Cupola "About" page.
Types of Content
We are interested in sharing a broad range of content related to Gettysburg College. Some examples follow, but please contact us with ideas or questions at .. We are open to your suggestions!
- The work must be produced or sponsored by a faculty member, employee, organization or department of Gettysburg College.
- Work can be submitted to The Cupola regardless of the institutional affiliation of the co-authors of a work. For more information about co-authors, see co-authored works below.
- The work can be creative or scholarly in nature and should be research-oriented, in support of teaching and learning, or of institutional significance.
- Content in The Cupola can be previously published or unpublished, including (but not limited to):
- Formal publications from journals and books;
- Other products of faculty scholarship, such as data sets, conference presentations, working papers, technical reports, blog posts, editorials/opinion pieces, etc.;
- Faculty-created course materials including textbooks and other open educational resources, lab manuals, data sets, etc.;
- Class projects with digital components that lend themselves to sharing via The Cupola;
- Journals published by Gettysburg College or partner organizations;
- Multimedia presentations, image collections with descriptive metadata, and audio/video content; and
- Annual reports, newsletters, and important documents created by departments and other campus units.
- If works have been previously published (e.g., journal article, book chapter, book), the Library will seek permission from the copyright holder (not necessarily the author) to post the full-text in The Cupola. When copyright permissions to post any portion of the work cannot be obtained, descriptive metadata entries may be added, which enhance discoverability even when the full-text isn’t posted.
- If works have not been previously published, it is the author’s responsibility to ensure that the work does not include illegal reuse of intellectual property created by others, including text, images, video, music, or other materials. Authors should be able to document that such materials are covered under the fair use clause of copyright law, that the works are in the public domain, or that the author has obtained permission from the copyright holder to redistribute the material. For more detail about copyright, see our information on copyright considerations. Also feel free to contact us at with questions.
- The Cupola does not include metadata-only records for unpublished works.
Some material may be made available only to current college faculty, staff, and students, including Faculty Meeting Minutes.
Submitting to The Cupola
Gettysburg College faculty, students, and staff are eligible to submit work to The Cupola.
Faculty and staff interested in submitting recent scholarship to The Cupola should complete the Ovation (formerly College Authors)/Faculty Notebook Form. This allows us to represent the work accurately, with keywords and other descriptive details.
For older publications, please reach out to the Scholarly Communications staff at . These publications are added to The Cupola if we are able to upload the full-text of the work.
Technical requirements:
- There is no file size limit.
- Most file formats are acceptable (pdf, Word, image, audio, video, etc.).
- Digitization of print-only materials will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Human or animal subjects – if your research includes human or animal subjects, please consult the website for the Institutional Review Board for guidelines and procedures. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure these guidelines have been met.
Revising and Withdrawing Work
Digital collections hosted by The Cupola are intended to provide accurate and complete representations of information to advance the private study and research of students, faculty, and the general public. Given our commitment to preserving the authenticity and integrity of the scholarly and historical record, we are unlikely to: correct errors or inaccuracies present in original items; redact digital content or indices; or otherwise remove access to staff- and faculty-authored materials except in cases where there are legal concerns (for example, the presence of HIPAA or FERPA protected information), significant risks to privacy (for example, exposed Social Security numbers), or documented evidence of a clear and imminent threat to personal safety and well-being. (Language adapted from University of Michigan Library’s takedown policy.)
Authors may request to have their work revised or withdrawn. This request will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Requests regarding sensitive personal information or copyright infringement concerns are most likely to be honored.
The only party who may request a revision or withdrawal is the author(s), except in the following cases:
- The work infringes on another author’s copyright. If the work is found to have infringing content, the author will be contacted and the work will be removed either permanently or until the author removes the infringing content.
- The work violates the privacy of someone who is not the author.
Any copies of content or publicity materials that mention content in The Cupola will not be recalled or destroyed. Please note that Gettysburg College is not able to remove cached copies of content.
Co-Authored Works
According to United States copyright law, each joint author has the ability to grant a nonexclusive license to use a work without the permission of other joint authors. The copyright policies of any relevant publisher must also be followed. The Cupola policy is as follows:
- Only the authors from Gettysburg College will be contacted for permission.
- Any co-author can object and request a take-down.
- In cases of disagreement, we wait for co-authors to sort it out among themseleves.
Copyright Considerations for Authors
The copyright holder retains the rights for all works submitted to The Cupola. In the case of previously unpublished works, the author is the copyright holder. For formally published works (journal articles, books, book chapters), authors may have transferred copyright to another entity, like the publisher.
Musselman Library will not knowingly publish works that violate U.S. copyright law. However, the ultimate responsibility to honor copyright rules and regulations lies with the author. If you use whole materials (images, video, audio, etc.) in your work that are protected by copyright, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder to republish them in your own work. Citing a source is not the same as obtaining copyright permission.
Whether or not reuse permission is required, authors should always provide proper attribution and cite sources completely. If you need to obtain permission from a copyright holder, Columbia University Libraries Copyright Advisory Services may be useful.
Information about securing your own copyright and using the copyrighted works of others can be found at the library’s Copyright guide. If you have questions about these procedures, please contact us at or contact the Musselman Library Copyright Committee at .
Implications for Future Publications
Authors maintain copyright of previously unpublished works shared in The Cupola, so works may be submitted for publication elsewhere. Some journals require that manuscripts not be previously published. Most journal publishers do not consider posting a work in a repository like The Cupola to constitute a previous publication. However, if you have concerns about a specific journal, please contact us at .
Email Address Policy
When Cupola authors end their affiliation with Gettysburg College due to retirement or departure, we recommend they update the email address associated with their Cupola account so that they continue to receive readership reports and other updates. Gettysburg College staff are unable to make changes to account information. If you are unable to access your account and need to update your account information, please contact Digital Commons customer support directly at .
Name Change Policy
Current faculty, students, and staff of Gettysburg College may request an update to how their name appears in The Cupola. The Cupola seeks to accurately represent the author at the time they were affiliated with Gettysburg College. Please note that your name will not be changed on the content itself.
Authors no longer affiliated with Gettysburg College will not have their names changed in The Cupola in order to preserve the integrity of the work’s time and place, with the exception of authors who would like to request a name change due to gender transition/affirmation. Authors falling into the latter category should email to discuss options.
Last updated 18 July 2022.
