Frequently Asked Questions
General- What is The Cupola?
- Who manages The Cupola?
- Who can submit work to The Cupola?
- Is graduate student work eligible for inclusion in The Cupola?
- What kinds of work are suitable for The Cupola?
- What is open access?
- ...submit my work to The Cupola?
- ...contact the author of a work in The Cupola?
- ...access the author dashboard?
- ...remove my work from The Cupola?
- ...update my work to a new version?
- Does submitting to The Cupola mean I lose my copyright?
- How do I choose a Creative Commons license?
- Which Creative Commons license should I use?
General
What is The Cupola?
The Cupola is Gettysburg College's open access institutional repository and the foundation of our commitment to open access and open publishing. We collect and share scholarly and creative works produced by faculty, students, staff, and other members of the Gettysburg College community. The Cupola is an open repository, meaning its content is freely accessible to the world and searchable via Google Scholar and other search engines.
Who manages The Cupola?
The Cupola is managed by the Scholarly Communications and Collections and Technical Services departments at Musselman Library, Gettysburg College.
Who can submit work to The Cupola?
Gettysburg College students, faculty, and staff are eligible to submit work to The Cupola. Work featuring co-authors unaffiliated with Gettysburg College may be included, but the Library will only seek permission from the Gettysburg author(s). Faculty and staff interested in reporting their work to The Cupola should complete the College Authors/Faculty Notebook Submission Form. Faculty and students interested in nominating student work for The Cupola should complete the Student Nomination Form.
Is graduate student work eligible for inclusion in The Cupola?
Yes! Works created by students as a part of the Gilder Lehrman Institute's MA in American History program are eligible for inclusion. The process of nomination and approval is the same as for undergraduates. Nominations for graduate student work are accepted through the Student Nomination Form.
What kinds of work are suitable for The Cupola?
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!
Works by faculty and staff include journal articles, book chapters, books, open textbooks, working papers, conference presentations, blog posts, and more. Works may be unpublished or previously published. If works have been previously published, the Library will seek permission from the copyright holder (not necessarily the author) to post the full-text in The Cupola. Student contributions include class papers, published articles, posters, creative works, artwork, photographs, scores, sound recordings, presentations, and more. The Cupola also hosts six open access, peer-reviewed journals.
What is open access?
Fundamentally, open access means free – free to read and free to reuse. Open access materials are not hidden behind paywalls and can often be customized and redistributed legally as long as credit is given to the copyright holder.
All materials in The Cupola are protected by copyright and are free to read and access by anyone around the world. Items designated with a Creative Commons license may also be free to revise, remix, and redistribute.
How Do I...?
...submit my work to The Cupola?
Faculty and staff interested in reporting their work to The Cupola should complete the College Authors/Faculty Notebook Submission Form. Faculty and students interested in nominating student work for The Cupola should complete the Student Nomination Form.
...contact the author of a work in The Cupola?
All faculty and staff records in The Cupola that do not contain the full-text of the work include a button to contact the author. This allows users to inquire about alternative means of accessing the work. When the “contact author” button is not available, Gettysburg faculty and staff email addresses can be found on their respective department’s webpage of the Gettysburg College website.
Student email addresses are not displayed or given out to users. Correspondence and questions we receive for student authors is forwarded to their Gettysburg student or alumni email account.
If you are experiencing technical issues with a particular item in The Cupola, please complete the User Feedback Form or email us at .
...access the author dashboard?
The author dashboard is a personalized reporting tool for authors with works published in The Cupola. As an author, you can easily access your dashboard to view up-to-date download information for every work you have published. To access your author dashboard, you can sign in from the My Account tab on The Cupola website or visit the author dasboard directly. Enter the email address and password associated with your bepress account if prompted to log in. You may also use the dashboard link in your monthly readership report email. For more information about using the author dashboard, visit bepress’ guide to the author dashboard.
...remove my work from The Cupola?
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 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.
Please contact if you would like to request a take-down....update my work to a new version?
Content in The Cupola typically cannot be revised or updated. Please see “How do I...remove my work from The Cupola” for more information.
Copyright and Creative Commons
Does submitting to The Cupola mean I lose my copyright?
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.
How do I choose a Creative Commons license?
Faculty and employee authors should indicate their interest in using a Creative Commons license on their unpublished work when they complete the College Authors/Faculty Notebook Submission Form. Library staff will also inquire about this option when they contact you about contributing your content to The Cupola. Student authors may select a Creative Commons License when they complete the Cupola Release Form if they so desire. Items that have been previously published may not allow a Creative Commons license to be applied. Please contact with questions.
Which Creative Commons license should I use?
Authors should choose the Creative Commons license that best supports their intended uses for the material. The most open license is the CC-BY, which allows for unrestricted sharing, revising, remixing, and redistributing without the permission of the copyright holder. The most restrictive license is the CC-BY-NC-ND, which allows readers to retain and share the work, but does not allow for revisions or commercial uses. Please visit the Creative Commons website for more information about each individual license, and contact for assistance.
