Research Guides: Scholars Junction: Submission Guidelines: Learn How

Scholars Junction, MSU's Institutional Repository

We are honored to accept submissions of scholarship, creative works, and historical records by, for, and about Mississippi State University.

Read on to learn what we accept and how you can submit your own materials!

General Acceptance Criteria

Note: Specific collections may have additional content guidelines.

Submitters must be affiliated with MSU, or have been affiliated at the time the item was created.
Any MSU student, faculty, staff, researcher, or clinician can submit materials to Scholars Junction.
The person submitting the material must hold the copyright, or have express permission from the copyright holder.
For previously published work, check your publishing agreements to ensure that you have retained the right to deposit the work in an institutional repository.
The material cannot contain proprietary, sensitive, or personally identifiable information.
If the material contains research on human subjects, it must have been approved by IRB.
Rights information must be clearly stated and publicly visible.
Regardless of whether the underlying work is available to download, its basic metadata and information on rights and permissions will remain publicly visible.
Undergraduate students: Submissions outside of a special collection (Honors theses, capstone projects, coursework, etc.) must have been produced under MSU faculty mentor.
Include a brief statement of support from your mentor or advisor as a hidden supplemental file.

Acceptable Material Types

The types of materials we accept include (but are not limited to):

Research, Data, and Creative Works

Articles
Books
Book chapters
Conference proceedings
Extension publications
Research data
Theses and dissertations
Presentation slides and posters
Honors theses and other undergraduate research
Photographs, drawings, maps
Audiovisual recordings
Previously published materials (where allowable)

MSU History

Historical documents
University committee minutes and records
Alumni records and publications
Promotional materials
Recorded events and performances (where allowed by copyright)
Student publications
Course catalogs, curricula, bulletins, syllabi, and reading lists
Departmental newsletters
Departmental annual reports
Research center publications
Photographs, maps, blueprints of campus buildings
Statistics

Acceptable Files

File Sizes

There is no restriction on the overall file size of your contribution. The Digital Commons platform offers unlimited storage. However, there are some practical limitations on what you may be able to submit.

Individual files of under 2gb can usually be uploaded successfully via the web interface.
Files larger than 2gb, or large groups of files, will need to be uploaded by Scholars Junction staff.

File Formats

We prefer supported or known file formats.

Supported formats: Public, open formats that can be used in the future through migration or emulation (e.g., .pdf, .html, .xml, .latex)
Known formats: Proprietary but so widely used that they will almost certainly be usable for the foreseeable future (e.g., .docx, .xlsx, .psd, .mov)
Unsupported formats: Filetypes that we can't commit to keeping usable (e.g., .wps, .exe). You can still submit them, but should provide a ReadMe file explaining how to open them, and should not expect them to be preserved forever.

To keep our system secure, any executable software files should be submitted in a .zip archive.

Submission Types

Single Items (1 or more files)

You can submit most items quickly and easily via Scholars' Junction's web interface. A single item record can contain multiple files; files should be no larger than 2gb to successfully upload.

For most items, you should submit to the collection that best fits your general item type:

Audio and Video
Recorded lectures, presentations, music, readings, and more. See tutorial
Books
Books, magazines, reports, and other long publications. See tutorial
Images
Art, photography, and other images. See tutorial
Presentations and Posters
Slide decks, recorded presentations, posters, and related materials. See tutorial
Publications
Articles, book chapters, conference papers, editorials, book reviews, technical reports, and other short publications. See tutorial
Research Data
Published or publication-ready research data. See tutorial

Some items should be submitted to special collections:

Large Files or Collections

To submit large files, or large groups of files, follow this procedure:

Contact the Scholarly Communication Team
Tell us about your project and your files.
Submit your item record via the web interface (see above)
Depending on the nature of your work, you may need to attach a ReadMe or documentation file as your primary file. Do not attach any file above 2gb in size!
Upload your files to OneDrive
Julie D. Shedd will share a folder with you; upload your large files to that folder. The folder may also contain a spreadsheet for collecting information about your items; you'll be asked to edit or review that spreadsheet before upload can begin.

To submit a research collection, begin by contacting the Scholarly Communication Team. We'll talk about your work and how best to organize and display it, licensing options, and more.

Publication Lists

Got an extensive backlog? No need to submit each item individually! Send us your list of citations, and we will add a record for each publication to Scholars Junction with links to the published item wherever possible.

Scholars Junction staff will work with you to also store shareable copies of associated files.

Include only publications produced while you were a student of or employed by MSU.

Submit Your Publication List
Complete this form to submit your list.

More Information about Scholars Junction

About Scholars Junction
A brief introduction to Scholars Junction, MSU's institutional repository.
Questions?
Visit https://ask.library.msstate.edu/scholcomm to ask questions and browse FAQs.

Scholars Junction: Submission Guidelines

Director of Open Scholarship Initiatives