General Questions

How do I contact someone with questions?

Contact Macalester library staff:

What is Digital Commons @ Macalester?

Digital Commons @ Macalester is a digital repository and publication platform for the scholarly and creative output of Macalester College faculty, students, and staff. It is designed to collect, index, perpetually store, and publicly disseminate the intellectual works of the Macalester community.

What sort of things can I put in the repository?

Digital Commons @ Macalester repository is a great place for pre-prints, unpublished research papers, reports, presentations, student scholarship, and creative works. Current content includes:

  • student honors projects
  • other student works approved by an academic department
  • faculty research papers and books
  • datasets
  • multimedia materials
  • special collections and more.

The repository can also support media formats such as videos, podcasts, and other digital scholarship projects.

What are the benefits of putting scholarly and creative works in the repository?
  • Discoverability: For student works and other works that are not published elsewhere, Digital Commons @ Macalester provides stable URLs and structured metadata to make sure your research outputs are readily available to the public and remain searchable and accessible far into the future. Faculty and staff depositing publisher-permitted copies of their publications in the Digital Commons repository can increase the discoverability of their research and drive more traffic to the published version of the paper, which can result in higher citation rates.
  • Access: Scholarship in the repository is indexed by search services such as Google Scholar, making it accessible to a wide audience.
  • Preservation: The repository provides an optimal place for archiving Macalester College scholarship for long-term access, promotes authors’ rights to control their intellectual property, and encourages open access to research.
How do I access items that state "On-Campus Access Only"?

Select articles display "On-Campus Access Only." Current students, faculty, and staff may access when connected to campus ethernet or Wi-Fi. Or, when off campus through VPN connection, ITS VPN set-up info. Non-affiliates are not able to access these articles.

Can I use something from Digital Commons @ Macalester for my own purposes?

All material in Digital Commons @ Macalester, unless stated otherwise, is freely available for users around the world to view, download, and print. Users may not reproduce, republish, perform, alter, transmit, distribute, or use for commercial purposes any work from this website in any physical or digital form without the permission of the copyright owner except as allowed by fair use (Title 17, §107 U.S.C.) or any purposes allowed under applicable law or granted by a Creative Commons license. Please contact the author regarding copyright ownership and proposed reuse.

Submissions

Who can submit?

Current students, faculty, and staff of Macalester College may submit their scholarly and creative works. Student works must be approved by their academic department.

We do not accept guest posts or advertisements from authors not affiliated with Macalester College. An exception is work submitted to journals or events managed by Macalester faculty or staff that accept external scholarship. See the individual journal submission guidelines for submission details.

How do I submit my honors project?
  1. Select "My Account" from the menu at digitalcommons.macalester.edu/ to create an account or login.
  2. In the left sidebar select "Submit Research".
  3. Find and select the honors projects link for your department, for example "Geography Honors Projects".
  4. Fill out the submission form and upload a copy of your work.
  5. Fill out the Permission To Deposit Honors Projects form.
  6. You will receive an email with the URL address when your work is published live. Works are usually published in batches over the summer.
  7. For more information, see the Honors Projects Research Guide.
Will I lose the copyright to the works that I submit?

By submitting works, you attest that you own the copyrights to make the work openly accessible through the repository. You will retain your copyright and have the option to apply a Creative Commons license to let others know how they may use your copyrighted work.

If I post something in the repository, can I still publish it?

Most journals allow posting earlier versions of articles later accepted for publication. Library staff can help you understand the journal's policies and select the correct version for posting.

Can I change or withdraw my submission?

Submissions of student work are considered a permanent record of the student’s scholarship while attending Macalester College. Later revisions of works are not permitted. In general, works will remain in Digital Commons @ Macalester in perpetuity; however, withdrawals will be considered on a case by case basis. Contact .

How do I revise a submission?

If the submission has been submitted, but is not yet live, you may revise it via your "My Account" page:

  1. Log in to your account at digitalcommons.macalester.edu/.
  2. Locate the article on your My Account page, and select it.
  3. Click Revise Submission from the list of options in the left sidebar.
  4. Enter your changes in the Revise Submission form and/or upload a new version, and click Submit at the bottom of the page to submit your changes. You only need to modify the portion of the form that corresponds to the changes you wish to make.

To revise a submission that has been posted, or to post a new version, contact . Posted submissions of student work may need permission from the sponsoring department.

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