Research and Data Management Services

Scholarly Commons is Augusta University's institutional repository. It's purpose is to support faculty and students in disseminating their scholarly works, such as article preprints, theses and dissertations, poster presentations, white papers, or historical documents.

What is an institutional repository?

An institutional repository is an online resource that offers the members of its community a means to archive, manage, and disseminate their scholarly work. Augusta University's Scholarly Commons aims to collect and digitize scholarly works and historical documents generated by the university community using an open access model.

Reasons to contribute:

• Archival
  • Persistent links, known as "handles," provide long-term access to records
  • Access new and old research in a single location
  • Records remain in repository even in the event an item is pulled from the public
    • This insures continued access through the persistent links 

• Disseminate
  • Scholarly Commons makes Augusta University work available online to the public around the world
  • Scholarly Commons records are also available through Google Scholar which broadens the reach of the repository

• Organization
  • Records are organized into University colleges, departments, institutions, and groups
  • Records can be mapped into several collections to fully represent the contributing members
    • "mapping" is when a single record appears in more than one collection
    • Increases the record's visibility
  • Metadata, including subject terms, publisher, and author, allows users to browse various limiters

• University Supported
  • Scholarly Commons is managed by the University Libraries 
  • University Libraries provide support with copyright, metadata development, and record development
  • Articles previously included in PubMed may already be in Scholarly Commons
  • Scholarly Commons reflects the strength of the Augusta University scholarly output 

• Visibility
  • Users can view entire communities or collections for item records, or limit their search by year, subject, type, and author
  • Google Scholar also searches Scholarly Commons, increasing the number of visitors from around the United States and the world
  • Google Analytics and Open Repository Site Statistics allow you to follow the breadth and reach of your work