Submitting an Item

A Simple Process to Contribute Works WCU's Institutional Repository (IR).

Any faculty member interested in contributing works to WCU's IR, NC DOCKS, should contact Scottie Kapel, skapel@wcu.edu

To begin the process, send Scottie a list of your works. The WCU Libraries will then verify which publishers allow self-archiving and may also be able to scan some of your works. However, for some items, you may need to send a copy to Scottie (usually as an e-mail attachment). We aim to make the submission process as simple as possible.

Content Criteria for NC DOCKS

  • Each work must be the intellectual property of a WCU faculty member. (Exception - theses and dissertations will also be included in the IR.)
  • It must be complete and in final form. For articles, most publishers allow pre-prints to be placed in an IR
  • It must be a scholarly, research, or educational work.
  • It must be made available for global access at no cost via the Web.
  • The author/creator of each work must grant to WCU Libraries the non-exclusive right to preserve and distribute the work in perpetuity.
  • The library will verify if the publisher allows for IR archiving. Most academic publishers allow this. For those that do not, it will be the responsibility of the submitting faculty member to obtain written permission to place material in the IR.
  • Contributions to NC DOCKS are entirely voluntary; should the author later wish to remove any contribution, the Libraries will comply with the request.

Faculty Benefits from Archiving Works in the WCU IR

  • Works are archived permanently, with a stable server and a URL that will never break.
  • Authors with works in NC DOCKS enjoy a larger community of readers.
  • Researchers worldwide have continuous and perpetual access to publications in NC DOCKS.
  • Although the WCU IR has its own searching interface, most researchers will use an Internet search engine, such as Google, to discover works archived in the IR.
  • Google is a primary discovery tool for a vast number of researchers.
  • Google "crawls" IRs for new material, provides full-text keyword access, and gives preferential treatment to works in IRs.
  • Studies show that, across all disciplines, open-access articles, such as those in an IR, have greater research impact than traditional publications—open-access articles are discovered and read by more scholars and cited more frequently.
  • For WCU, NC DOCKS is a great way of validating and showcasing the value of the university's faculty to society outside the classroom (UNC Tomorrow, NC taxpayers, and more).