Guidelines for the Institutional Repository of Ulm University and Ulm University of Applied Sciences

OPARU is the multimedia institutional repository of Ulm University and Ulm University of Applied Sciences (THU). The platform is managed by the Communication and Information Centre of Ulm University (kiz) and the library of Ulm University of Applied Sciences and operated technically by the kiz. OPARU offers all members of the University of Ulm and the THU the organizational and technical framework for the electronic publication of documents and data (hereinafter referred to as "data records").

Data sets published via OPARU

• receive persistent identifiers (DOI, URN)
• are indexed in relevant search engines and catalogues
• are kept publicly accessible for at least 5 years
• are stored for at least 10 years

The datasets should be published in accordance with the Open Access Resolution of the University of Ulm and the Open Access Policy of the THU under the most open license conditions possible (CC BY), provided that no restrictions due to third-party rights prevent this. In this context, the submission of secondary publications is explicitly welcomed.

If a secondary publication is not possible, externally published content can be reported to OPARU under special conditions and documented (see point 6 University/university bibliography).

Recommendations and standardizations of national and international initiatives such as the German Initiative for Network Information (DINI), the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) and OpenAIRE are incorporated into the operation and further development of the institutional repository.

1. The published data records can have various formats, which are specified in more detail under §3. Text publications are generally only accepted as openly readable PDF files.
2. An electronic dataset to be published via the Institutional Repository fulfills the following conditions:
   • It is intended for distribution to the public and for making available to the public.
   • It complies with the specified technical parameters.
   • It is not subject to any technical protection measures (e.g. DRM).
   • The data set may consist of several files.
3. The documents and data that make up a dataset are uploaded via the web interface by the author/rights holder or a person authorized to publish. The publication is edited before final publication (see §4c). The kiz and the THU reserve the right to upload documents and data themselves with the consent of the author/rights holder (see §4b).

3a Data sets with digital objects

The following categories of electronic documents and data (digital objects) are accepted for dissemination via the Institutional Repository:

Text publications

Please submit your text publications in PDF format. We recommend using the PDF/A document format for submission to the repository. The following types of text publications can be published:

• Publications by members and affiliates of Ulm University and the THU that have been produced in the course of their work/research. Other publications, e.g. of a popular science nature, can be uploaded after consultation if there are special reasons for doing so.
• Final theses can be published if the supervisor has recommended this.
• Text publications can be supplemented with additional content if this is related to the text publication (in the sense of "Supplementary Materials"). If possible, please choose open file formats and, if applicable, provide information on the subsequent use of the published material.
• Text publications may contain references to external content (e.g. research data published in specialist repositories) if these can be referenced via a permanent and unique link (e.g. DOI, URN).

Research data

Research data can be published as an independent publication.

• Where possible, research data should be offered in non-proprietary formats. A readme file or similar document containing all the information required for reuse is required for the data to be reusable.
• Research data is published in OPARU as an independent publication, receives its own DOI and can therefore be cited on its own. If the data logically belongs to a text publication, the corresponding text publication can be referenced on the landing page of the research data. It does not matter whether the text publication was published in OPARU or elsewhere.

Other resource types

Where possible, open, non-proprietary file formats should be used. If necessary for the subsequent use of the published resources, a readme file or a similar document containing all the information required for subsequent use should also be published.

 3b Data sets without digital objects

In addition, datasets that consist only of metadata can also be entered in OPARU. These can be records of printed or electronic publications. The digital objects may be published or stored elsewhere (e.g. publisher's website, external repository).

4a Users

1. The electronic publication is free of charge for members of Ulm University and the THU.
2. For members and affiliates of Ulm University, authentication takes place via the kiz account. People who do not have a kiz account can still use the repository under certain circumstances during and after the end of their association with Ulm University. For this purpose, a corresponding request can be made to the Publication Management Service Point.
3. For members and affiliates of the THU, the THU Library takes care of submissions. Alternatively, THU professors can create their own OPARU account for submission.

 4b Submission of digital objects

1. The submission of electronic documents and data for publication via OPARU takes place online in a password-protected area within the platform via upload and requires consent to the publication contract.
2. Submission by third parties is possible. The operators provide a separate publication contract for this purpose, which must be completed and signed.
3. The kiz and the THU reserve the right to add documents and data to the system themselves.

4c Quality assurance

1. Quality assurance includes checking and supplementing the metadata entered. In addition, library subject indexing is carried out by the staff (keywords, DDC classification, etc.).
2. The contents of the documents and data themselves are not part of quality assurance. There is no peer review.

 4d Legal matters

1. A publication contract, in combination with licenses chosen by the author/rights holder, regulates the rights and obligations of the author/rights holder and the operators. The authors' copyrights and exploitation rights are protected. In the case of first publications on OPARU, the operators of OPARU shall not prevent further publication of the documents and data in specialist journals or monographs or on other systems.
2. Compliance with copyright and exploitation rights and other third-party rights is the responsibility of the authors/rights holders. In particular, no content or data may be stored whose storage, publication or use violates criminal law, copyright law, data protection law or personal rights. Ulm University and the THU assume no liability in the event of legal violations.
3. Users must observe the rights notices and licenses when using the documents and data.
4. The final published documents and data are not intended for modification or deletion. Such measures can only be carried out by the kiz in special cases, for example if conflict situations arise with commercial publishers in the case of parallel publication. If, in exceptional cases, a blocking or deletion is necessary, the stable URIs will still be resolved, but the original file will no longer be retrievable. The continued existence of the resolvable URI makes it possible to trace that the publication in question existed but was withdrawn.
5. In the case of dissertations, publication is carried out in fulfillment of the publication obligation stipulated in the doctoral regulations and is part of the doctoral procedure.
6. In OPARU, all metadata, with the exception of the abstract, is provided under a CC0 license.

5a Availability and operation

1. OPARU aims to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the exception of unavoidable maintenance work.
2. The service is operated exclusively on the University of Ulm's own servers.
3. The distribution and public accessibility of electronic documents is not restricted in terms of location.

 5b Archiving and verification

1. OPARU is the service intended for the long-term preservation of the publications of Ulm University and the THU.
2. The archiving period of the digital objects is at least 10 years, the online publication at least 5 years. These periods are to be understood as a minimum in terms of long-term preservation in accordance with point 5b, no. 1.
3. The electronic documents and data are provided with individual and permanent addresses - so-called persistent identifiers. For this purpose, OPARU obtains URNs (Unified Resource Names) from the German National Library (DNB) and DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) from DataCite.
4. All publications that fall under the DNB's collection mandate are collected and archived for the long term. This includes the electronically published dissertations of the University of Ulm.

 5c Indexing and discoverability

1. Electronic documents and data can be found via the search function of the platform itself, library catalogs, searches in bibliographic metadata, as well as via regional and national library systems, search engines such as Google Scholar and OAI service providers.
2. International standards such as the guidelines of the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) are used for the indexing, storage and archiving of electronic documents and data as well as for the exchange of metadata.

In the sense of a university/college bibliography, all publications with an affiliation to the University of Ulm or the THU are included in OPARU. These are marked accordingly in OPARU and can thus be distinguished from other publications. Please note the following points:

1. The university/college bibliography is continuously being compiled and maintained by the kiz and the THU.
2. Various methods of data acquisition are used in an attempt to present a comprehensive overlook of the publication output of Ulm University and the THU in OPARU. However, there is no claim to completeness and accuracy.
3. Users at Ulm University can enter individual publications or a list of complete publications in OPARU via the web form or send them to the kiz by e-mail (preferably as a BibTeX file). For the THU, the THU library lists the publications annually, starting in 2021.
4. The university/college bibliography in OPARU is publicly accessible. The recorded publications will also be visible externally after successful retrieval by external providers (e.g. in Google Scholar).
5. Evidence of publications that cannot be attributed to Ulm University or the THU are not part of the university/college bibliography, but can still be included in OPARU so that Ulm scientists can record their complete publication lists.

Status: November 2023