2023-07-19 Meeting notes

Review proposed timeline for SHAREOK software upgrade

• Early September: OU Libraries team will provide preliminary documentation and training materials for the new SHAREOK

• 9/18/23 - 10/20/23: Graduate College testing period

  • We suggest at least one in-person meeting to kick this off, preferably 1.5-2 hours in length. Would that be feasible in mid-late September?

  • We also suggest scheduling a Zoom meeting towards the end of the testing period (mid-October) to share feedback and questions.

• Mid-late Fall: Coordinate with Emily on communications plan

• Early December: OU Libraries team to provide updated public-facing documentation for Graduate College feedback

• 12/8: Deadline for Fall 2023 SHAREOK submissions

• 1/8/24: The new SHAREOK and public-facing documentation will go live

• Between 1/5/24-1/12/24: OU Libraries team to hold at least one more feedback/q&a session for Graduate College team

• 1/16/24: Start of Spring 2024 classes

• Spring 2024 brown bags/workshops TBD (could target students and faculty) and brief presentation during graduate liaison meeting (mid-to-late February)

1. Confirmed that this testing and training timeline will work for both OU Libraries and the Graduate College
2. Confirmed the need for brown bag/workshops to ease this transition and will firm up exact dates in future meetings.

Brief tour of this site (Confluence) and discuss using it for shared procedural documentation

See, for example:

https://oulibraries.atlassian.net/l/cp/aVkY7ste

https://oulibraries.atlassian.net/l/cp/QVnMat90

1. Agreed that OU Libraries team will take the lead on creating this shared documentation space in Confluence and provide edit access to at least one member of the Graduate College team.

Recommended changes to SHAREOK information in the Authority Notification Letter

Current Versions (as of Spring 2023):

Suggested short-term edits:

• Dissertation Authority Notification only: recommend changing “Completing the SHAREOK Submission” heading to “Submitting to SHAREOK” (to maintain consistency with the Thesis Authority Notification)

• Recommend revising the opening paragraph of that section as follows (additions in red):

  • Dissertation: “Submit your dissertation to the OU Dissertations collection in the SHAREOK repository by the deadline indicated above. SHAREOK is the institutional repository for the University of Oklahoma, and submitting your work to the platform will allow it to be preserved long term and made available to researchers worldwide. OU Libraries provide submission instructions here.”

  • Thesis: “Submit your dissertation to the OU Theses collection in the SHAREOK repository by the deadline indicated above. SHAREOK is the institutional repository for the University of Oklahoma, and submitting your work to the platform will allow it to be preserved long term and made available to researchers worldwide. OU Libraries provide submission instructions here.”

1. Suggested edits have been added to Authority Notification Letters

Suggested edits to take effect in Winter 2024 (plan to discuss in more detail as part of Fall 2023 testing of new platform):

• Revise the following “important tips”:

  • Two files are required:

    • One .pdf copy

    • One copy in the "native format" you used to create the document. This may be a Word .doc or .docx, or a .zip or .tar of LaTeX files.

  • Before uploading, rename your files as follows: 2023_lastname_firstname_Thesis

  • When listing subject keywords, add one at a time.

  • The embargo date field for each file should only be completed if the Graduate College has approved an embargo of your document. If the Graduate College has not approved an embargo, leave this blank.

• Change the link in the following sentence to go to our new guide: “OU Libraries provide submission instructions here.”

Recommended changes to SHAREOK information in the Approval for Thesis/Dissertation Submission to SHAREOK form

Current Version (as of Spring 2023):

Suggested short-term edits:

1) If possible, add introductory text at the top of the form to introduce SHAREOK and link out to the OU Libraries instructions. Suggested text:

“Completing this form is the final step before you submit your thesis or dissertation to SHAREOK, which is the institutional repository for the University of Oklahoma and serves as the home for scholarly output from the OU community. Submitting your work to SHAREOK will allow it to be preserved long term and made available to researchers worldwide. When you are ready to submit to SHAREOK, please refer to the OU Libraries guide.”

2) We recommend that the text above the signature line be revised as follows (additions in red). Note that “non-exclusive license” links to the current SHAREOK license; that link will need to be updated following the software upgrade in January 2024.

“Please note that SHAREOK requires the submitter to grant a non-exclusive license to the University of Oklahoma in order to perform necessary indexing and preservation processes, and make your work publicly available. Submitting your thesis or dissertation to SHAREOK does not transfer your copyright ownership.

By providing your signature below, you agree to the following: I affirm that my SHAREOK submission is my original work and that I have properly cited and obtained permissions for any material produced by or in collaboration with others. I acknowledge that I am responsible for ensuring my document is correctly formatted and complete, and I understand that my submission will be rejected if my document contains formatting errors. I understand that once I submit my complete files to SHAREOK, my submission is finalized, and no further editorial corrections are possible.”

1. Agreed that the suggested text should be added to the Approval for Thesis/Dissertation Submission to SHAREOK form

Suggested edits to take effect in Winter 2024 (plan to discuss in more detail as part of Fall 2023 testing of new platform):

• Change the link in the following sentence to go to our new guide: “. . . please refer to the OU Libraries guide.”

• Update the text above the signature line to link to the new SHAREOK license and modify the rest of the text, as needed.

Discuss plan for updating student-facing documentation

Current Versions (as of Spring 2023):

(current version on Grad College website)

(version shared by Emily in February)

(current version, but we are re-working this into a more navigable guide)

Overall Recommendations:

• Melissa and Mary recommend framing relevant items in the Thesis/Dissertation Instruction Packet as “Things to do before submitting your Thesis/Dissertation to SHAREOK” (or something to that effect). This will enable us to provide guidance on copyright/licensing/embargo considerations that should be taken into account and decided upon before students submit their work.

  • In that case, the instructions maintained by OU Libraries would be framed as “How to submit your Thesis/Dissertation to SHAREOK,” and information related to copyright/licensing/embargo considerations in our guide would focus on how to implement decisions that the student has already made.

Recommendations and Questions on Revised Information Packet (sent by Emily):

• For Section 6: Copyright, Embargoes, and Patents:

  • Melissa and Mary would recommend clearly separating general copyright guidance and information from how to format the copyright page in the thesis/dissertation – questions:

    • Will the revised version of the Thesis/Dissertation Instruction Packet still include sample pages of the front matter (e.g., title page, copyright page)? If so, would it be possible for the sample pages to be placed immediately after content relevant to making decisions on copyright licensing? For example: We think it would be easier to provide guidance on copyright if it were followed immediately with sample pages: one with a standard copyright statement; one with a Creative Commons license; and one with a statement including re-use rights for previously published content.

  • Melissa and Mary would recommend revising the general copyright guidance and information to include the following elements, and we would be happy to collaborate on this, but we’d first like to talk more about how best to integrate these additions into the existing content (given that it’s already a very long document).

    • A link to OU’s Intellectual Property Policy and pointers to relevant sections of that (consult with OU Legal on this)

    • A link to the SHAREOK deposit license so that students know what to expect before they submit. Here’s the current link, but this will change with the software upgrade: https://hdl.handle.net/11244/330073

    • Guidance on Creative Commons licenses (more and more students are expressing interest in these or selecting them when they submit to SHAREOK, which is a concern if they have not updated their copyright page accordingly)

    • Additional guidance on re-using material already published by the author (this is addressed somewhat in Section 4 at present, but it’s also relevant to the copyright page)

    • Basic guidance on using third party materials / fair use evaluations

1. OU Libraries team will create a draft of a copyright and licensing checklist intended for students to share with their committee chairs to address some of these concerns earlier in the process.
2. OU Libraries will collaborate with the Graduate College to organize a brown bag session(s) to help determine the specific copyright and licensing concerns of graduate students.