Repository Policy

Last edit: 2024-06-10

About the AfricArXiv Research Repository

UbuntuNet Alliance has established the digital institutional repository AfricArXiv (https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/). It serves as the community-led digital archive for African research items such as research manuscripts, reports, datasets, code, illustrations, presentations, and more. By enhancing the visibility of African research, we enable discoverability and collaboration opportunities for African scientists on the continent as well as globally.

The aim of the repository is to increase the discoverability and visibility of African research output and, at the same time, provide open access to multidisciplinary research outputs as well as digital scholarly collections by institutions and research consortia across Africa.  

The aim of this policy is to ensure that the contents of AfricArXiv reflect and strengthen the tradition of African research excellence, by increasing its visibility, and providing open access to its research outputs. This policy also establishes the framework within which AfricArXiv is managed.

The repository uses a DSpace-based software platform developed and maintained by UbuntuNet Alliance (https://ubuntunet.net/). The software platform is compliant with the OpenAIRE Guidelines for Literature Repositories v3.

Related documents:

Designated Community

The Designated Community of AfricArXiv includes the following user groups:

  • African professional researchers, and librarians. They can deposit research outputs in the repository, browse and search the metadata, and download the Open Access content from the repository.
  • Associates: Non-African international professional researchers who have joint projects with African researchers. They can deposit research outputs in the repository, browse and search the metadata, download Open Access content from the repository, and access the collection dedicated to their project.
  • International professional researchers, citizen scientists, teachers, students, informed citizens, the general audience, etc. They can browse and search the metadata, and download the Open Access content from the repository.
  • Members and staff of UbuntuNet Alliance. They can deposit research outputs on behalf of researchers and institutional administrators upon their explicit written authorisation. 
  • Citizen scientists, teachers, students, informed citizens, the general audience, etc. They can browse and search the metadata, and, in most cases, download content from all repository collections.

Metadata Policy

  • Anyone may access the metadata free of charge.
  • The metadata of the items deposited in AfricArXiv is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain Dedication option (“no rights reserved”, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This dedication applies exclusively to the metadata associated with the items deposited and under no circumstances is a substitute for or affects their licences or permits.
  • Anyone can access, copy, share, modify, harvest and re-use the metadata for any purpose, free of charge and without requiring permission from UbuntuNet Alliance.
  • UbuntuNet Alliance is dedicated to providing high-quality and machine-readable item-level metadata.
  • Mention of AfricArXiv is appreciated but not mandatory.

Data Policy

Content Policy

  • AfricArXiv is an institutional repository.
  • AfricArXiv holds all types of materials.
  • Items are individually tagged with their type, date, as well as version, peer-review status and publication status, where applicable.
  • AfricArXiv holds all types of scholarly materials and formats.
  • Principal languages for content:
    • English
    • French
    • Arabic
    • We encourage submissions and translations in traditional regional African languages

Submission Policy

  • Items may only be deposited by authorised users of AfricArXiv with appropriate credentials.
  • Authorised users include:
    • researchers
    • librarians
    • research administrative staff
  • The submission process must conform to the AfricArXiv submission guidelines, Open Access Principles, and any applicable embargos.
  • Items can be deposited at any time, but will not be made publicly accessible before any publishers’ or funders’ embargo period has expired.
  • Deposited metadata and items are subject to verification by repository administrators
  • The administrators vet items for the eligibility of authors/depositors, relevance to the scope of AfricArXiv, valid layout and format, and the exclusion of spam.
  • Depositors must own all necessary rights required to deposit the data. Data depositors are held responsible for compliance with any national or international legal regulations and publisher embargoes.
  • The validity and authenticity of the content of submissions and any copyright violations are the entirely responsibility of the depositor.
  • If AfricArXiv receives proof of copyright violation, the relevant item will be removed as soon as possible.
  • By depositing metadata and the content into AfricArXiv, the depositors accept the terms and conditions defined in this Repository Policy.

Versioning Policy

  • If necessary, an updated version may be deposited.
    • The earlier version may be withdrawn from public view.
    • There will be links between versions, with the most recent version clearly identified.

Privacy Policy

  • Whenever a user visits the repository, the following information is automatically collected and stored:
    • IP address
    • date and time
    • pages visited
    • location
  • This information is only used internally for technical troubleshooting, to improve the usability of the repository, and to record aggregate statistics. The system collects personal information submitted during the deposit process. Submitted information will be used only for the purpose for which you submitted it, and will not be shared with third parties or used for commercial purposes.

Curation Policy

  • Initial items are retained unchanged and edits are only made on copies of originals.
  • Annotations or edits are made if allowed by relevant licences.
  • The provided levels of curation include:
    • content is distributed as deposited (without any changes)
    • basic metadata curation (brief checking, adding basic metadata, etc.)
    • enhanced curation (conversion to new formats, enhancement of documentation)
    • data-level curation (conversion to new formats, enhancement of documentation and additional editing for accuracy)

Preservation Policy

  • Items will be retained indefinitely.
  • AfricArXiv regularly backs up its files.
  • AfricArXiv aims to ensure continued content readability and accessibility of the deposited items.
  • Where possible, items will be migrated to new file formats when necessary.
  • The repository may work with external partners to convert or migrate file formats, develop and implement software emulations for old file formats, and/or record preservation metadata.
  • Where possible, software emulations will be provided to access un-migrated formats.
  • It may not be possible to guarantee the readability of some less common file formats over time.
  • The original bitstream is retained for all items, in addition to any upgraded formats.
  • Items may not normally be removed from the repository.
  • Acceptable reasons for withdrawal include:
    • publishers’ policies and requirements
    • proven copyright violation or plagiarism
    • legal requirements and proven violations
    • national security
    • falsified research
  • Withdrawn items remain available for audit purposes to administrators only.
  • Data may be removed at the request of the author/copyright holder, but metadata with explanatory notes about interventions must remain.
  • Withdrawn items are not deleted per se, but are removed from public view.
  • Identifiers/URLs of withdrawn items will be retained transiently. AfricArXiv may reveal a deleted status for records upon harvesting requests.
  • The metadata of withdrawn items will not be searchable.
  • Changes to deposited items are not permitted.
  • Errata and corrigenda lists may be included with the original record if required.
  • In the event of AfricArXiv being closed down, UbuntuNet Alliance will endeavour to transfer the database to another archive

Harvesting Policy

  •  Data must not be harvested by robots and aggregators except transiently for full-text indexing or citation analysis. 

Policy Revisions

This policy is subject to revision every 3 years or whenever deemed necessary by changed circumstances or changes in best practice.

About Creative Commons Licences

If deposited under Attribution CC BY licence, data and metadata can be:

  • accessed free of charge
  • shared: copied, reproduced, displayed, performed, given to third parties, redistributed and stored in a database in any medium or format
  • adapted: remixed, transformed, and built upon for any purpose, even commercial

Unless CC0 Public Domain Dedication option is declared, the user must provide the attribution of the original work by giving appropriate credit, providing a link to its licence and indicating if changes were made. The credit is given by providing the name the creator, copyright notice, licence notice and disclaimer notice, as well as a reference to the source. The user may not imply or suggest the licensor’s endorsement of the user or their work.

With the “Share Alike” condition (if CC BY-SA or CC BY-NC-SA licence is declared), any adaptation or derived contributions must be distributed under the same licence as the original or under a compatible one.

With No Commercial Use condition (if CC BY-NC or CC BY-NC-SA licence is declared), only non-commercial uses of the item are allowed (for example, personal research or study, education, and other not-for-profit uses) unless a permission for commercial use (that is, primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation) is explicitly provided by the authors to a licensee.

With any of Creative Commons licences, the licensor may not restrict others from doing anything the licence allows, or revoke the granted freedoms as long as the licence terms are followed. Also, the users do not have to comply with the licence for the elements of the work that are in the public domain or for uses allowed by an applicable exception or limitation.

Creative Commons licences do not give any warranties related to other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights that may otherwise limit the use of the licensed works.

CC0 may be required by the author or funder or be appropriate for databases, datasets, well-known facts, old works, and cultural heritage that are without ownership or copyright or in the public domain in all jurisdictions.

For more information about Creative Commons licences, please visit the CC Licence Chooser.

Created by RePol (https://repol.ni4os.eu) version 4.0, source code at GitHub under EUPL-1.2-or-later, on 2024-06-10 

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