LAIR (Lenoir-Rhyne Academic Institutional Repository)

To represent the spectrum of Lenoir-Rhyne University's scholarly communications, LAIR maintains an inclusive collection policy based on the principle of open access, which emphasizes broad electronic dissemination of scholarly works.  Content is indexed in major search engines like Google™, Bing™, and Google™ Scholar and are available on the open web.

• The work must be original, produced and submitted, or sponsored by a faculty, staff, student, organization, or department of Lenoir-Rhyne University.
• The work must be creative, scholarly in nature, research oriented, or of institutional significance.
• The author must own the copyright to all components and content within the work or have received and shown permission to have the material available in LAIR.(See copyright section below)
• The author or representative of the organization or department must sign a non-exclusive distribution license prior to material being uploaded to the repository, granting Lenoir-Rhyne University the right to distribute and preserve the material via LAIR.
• Content submitted by students will require the approval of a faculty mentor or sponsor involved in the creation of the work.
• Although most content is open access, some material may be available only to current university faculty, staff and students, or may be the subject of a publishing embargo for a fixed period.
• The work must be in digital form, including supplementary materials. Ideally, all of the components of a submission will be provided as a set.
• Currently only items in PDF format are being accepted.  Soon a wide range of file formats will be accepted, including text files, audio files, and video files. Examples of possible content include:
  • Working papers, conference papers, and technical reports
  • Faculty-student collaborative projects
  • Student thesis and capstone projects
  • Published articles when copyright and/or license allow
  • Faculty course-related output 
  • Books or book chapters when copyright and/or license allow
  • Projects that include digitized content
  • Any materials created by, for, or about LRU

LRU affiliated individuals can submit any items to which they own the copyright, or have permission from the copyright-holder to do so. 

For an overview of copyright, go to Copyright.gov: What is Copyright?

Do you own the copyright for your work?

Yes, if the item is entirely your own work, unless you have transferred your rights to another party, such as a journal publisher.

If your work includes third-party material, you will need to have written permission from that third-party to post the item in LAIR.

What if you transferred copyright to another party?

Standard journal and book publishing contracts require authors to transfer their copyright to the publisher, which means there are restrictions on what the authors can do with that work.  Policies vary by publisher but most journal publishers will permit authors to upload specific versions of the work to an institutional repository or to a personal web page. 

Before you submit a previously-published item to LAIR, you will need to check whether you are permitted to do so. The best way to check is to read the agreement that you signed with your publisher. If you cannot find that agreement, contact the publisher directly by email or by online form from the publisher website to determine its copyright policies and/or request permission. Contact the the LAIR Administrators at RefDesk@lr.edu.for assistance with publisher rights and policies.

Do you retain the copyright after you submit to LAIR?

Yes, you retain the copyright for all works submitted. When you submit an item you are required to agree to a non-exclusive distribution license. Please read the terms of the license before submitting your work. If you have any questions regarding the license and terms, please contact the LAIR Administrators at RefDesk@lr.edu.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that created a set of easy-to-understand copyright licenses. These licenses provide several options for creators to share their works while retaining the copyright. There is a Creative Commons form built into LAIR that allows you to identify the license you want to use for your item. This form is optional and you can skip it if you wish to retain your full copyright. However, it is recommended that you select the license that best suits how you want to share your work. For more information about go to Creative Commons.

• All users must respect the intellectual property rights of the author.
• Material may be downloaded for educational and research purposes provided due recognition is given to the author
• Material may not be copied, distributed, displayed, altered, or used for commercial purposes, unless specified by Creative Commons License.

If you have questions about permitted uses for any content in this database, please contact LAIR Administrators at RefDesk@lr.edu.

Contributors are responsible for determining privacy concerns within their submissions. Items with confidentiality concerns may be redacted, embargoed, or marked as private. Materials of a sensitive nature (as determined by representatives of the University) may be restricted to Community members or to LAIR Administrators only.

LAIR is a permanent repository. Once deposited, an item will not be withdrawn unless removal is legally required. However, under some circumstances a work may be removed from view.

Authors or affected parties may request that works be removed for reasons of factual inaccuracy, plagiarism, or potential copyright infringement.

No material will be removed without an attempt to reach the author.

If a work is removed, a citation including original metadata will remain with a note regarding removal, e.g. "removed at request of author" or "removed by legal order." 

Requests for withdrawing works must be directed to Frank Quinn.

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Lenoir-Rhyne University Libraries thanks Macalester College for permission to use the DigitalCommons@Macalester College Policy for Submitting and Requests for Withdrawing  Content as the basis for this document.