• Section 1 - Summary
• Section 2 - Scope
• Section 3 - Policy Statement
• Section 4 - Procedures
• Section 5 - TEQSA/ASQA/ESOS Alignment
• Section 6 - Definitions

Section 1 - Summary

(1) The objective of this Policy is to provide an accessible, permanent and searchable digital repository that showcases the institutional, scholarly and research output of Victoria University (VU). The repository has the following aims:

1. supporting the University’s commitment to collecting and disseminating the outputs of research and scholarship;
2. facilitating compliance with funder mandates related to open access research outputs;
3. collecting, preserving, and securely hosting digital and digitized institutional artefacts, selected archival and special collection materials.

Section 2 - Scope

(2) This Policy applies to all VU staff and postgraduate research students, and authors affiliated with the University.

Section 3 - Policy Statement

(3) VU is committed to facilitating open access to the scholarly and research output of the University.  The University aims to showcase, disseminate and manage publicly available scholarly and research output through the provision of a digital repository, the Victoria University Institutional Repository (VUIR).

(4) The following outputs of research must be deposited to VUIR:

1. Metadata and fulltext copy of refereed scholarly publications, research articles and non-traditional research outputs (including creative works with a research component) by current VU staff and students;
   1. The full text copy may be deposited either via provision of a persistent url or DOI linking to an externally hosted Open Access version or via upload to repository hosting of an OA compliant full text version of the research output.
2. Research outputs necessary to comply with the open access requirements from funded research (for example research funded by ARC and NHMRC) either by link to externally hosted OA output or uploading to repository hosting of permitted version;
3. Classified Doctoral (PhD and Professional Doctorate) and Masters by Research degree theses by VU students.

(5) In addition to the mandatory deposits listed, VU staff and postgraduate research students are encouraged to deposit the following:

1. University related research material such as grey literature, e.g. working papers, discussion papers, government submissions, reports and inaugural professorial lectures;
2. Conference papers that have been peer reviewed but not published;
3. Significant research data collections and primary materials with accompanying metadata records that are linked to publications, where ethics approval has been granted;
4. Scholarly and research material in a language other than English.

(6) Full text material deposited to VUIR should not include the following:

1. Material which contains confidential information, or data of which the promulgation would infringe a commercial or legal commitment by the University;
2. Material where the granting of unrestricted access would compromise ethical obligations, including those associated with cultural sensitivities. Research outputs for which the author has entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement which prevents inclusion in the VUIR. Note that proposed NHMRC Policy requires authors to retain rights to publications allowing for inclusion in VUIR.
3. Unedited/un-reviewed personal opinion outputs, letters;
4. Unreferenced draft papers or draft versions made available for comment;
5. Theses, other than Masters by Research or Doctorates [except by special request of either an Institute Director, Dean Graduate Research or Executive Dean].

(7) Depositing the material in the VUIR does not transfer copyright to the Repository. Copyright remains with the author or publisher as per the publishing agreement.

(8) The inclusion of material in VUIR does not restrict the author’s right to include the material in any other open archive.  In situations where there is demonstrable benefit for the works to be accessible from another open archive (e.g. subject repository), links will be established from the metadata in VUIR.

(9) As an institutional repository VUIR may also host digital and digitized collections which are not research outputs but have institutional significance and/align with the University’s values and strategy.

Section 4 - Procedures

(10) VU Institutional Repository Open Access Procedure

Section 5 - TEQSA/ASQA/ESOS Alignment

(11) HESF: Standards 1.4 Learning Outcomes and Assessment; 4.1.1 Research; 7.3 Information Management

Section 6 - Definitions

(12) Author: The creator of an original work.

(13) Metadata: Information describing an item, for example title, author, year of publication.

(14) Open Access: Available online and world-wide, free of charge or other access barriers.

(15) Refereed: Papers or articles that have been the subject of external or peer review prior to inclusion in a scholarly journal or proceedings.  For research theses, the examination process is considered equivalent to the external or peer review referee process.

(16) Research Output: The products or outputs generated as part of a research enquiry. Traditional research outputs may include – published journal articles or book chapters. Non traditional research outputs (ntro) may include – original creative works such as exhibitions, live performance, recorded or photographed works and associated documentation, research reports.

(17) Scholarly Work: Work intended for academic publication (e.g. article, book, manuscript or manual regardless of format).