Frequently Asked Questions


What can I post to Fisher Digital Publications (FDP)?

Scholarship published during your time at Fisher may be included in FDP. Some examples include published articles, conference papers, posters, or presentations; technical reports, book reviews, data sets, faculty-student collaborative projects, and student papers or projects sponsored by a faculty member.

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My work has co-authors. Do I need to get permission from them before you post my work online?

Yes. Seeking permissions from co-authors to post your work on FDP is a best practice. If you provide co-authors’ email addresses and they create accounts on FDP, they will also be able to see statistics about where people are downloading your work and more.

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I don’t know if I own the copyright to my work, so can I really post it on FDP?

The FDP Coordinator reviews copyright policies for each publisher and will determine the answer. At the very least, we will include the citation to your work and a link to it. You can also work with the library director before signing a publisher copyright agreement in an effort to retain rights to publish your work on sites such as FDP.

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My work is already available on the publisher's website, and I get download stats for it. Will adding my work detract from my download stats?

Publishing your work on FDP will increase the exposure to your work. While you might see a slight decrease in statistics from the publisher’s website, you will see download statistics (download locations and more) from FDP. This extra exposure could even increase download statistics from the publisher’s webpage. Making your work available on FDP will also enable people without access to academic libraries to view your scholarship. If you move on to a different institution, you are still able to access your download stats on FDP.

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How many times has my work been downloaded, and from where?

Authors can create an account to access their Author Dashboard, which provides download statistics such as the number of times an item has been downloaded, download locations, and more. See Usage Statistics on Fisher Digital Publications for more information.

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I am going to publish my dissertation in a journal or book. Can I still display it on FDP?

Some publishers consider depositing your work in an institutional repository "prior publication". If so, we can display just your citation information until a specific date, depending on your copyright transfer agreement. Alternatively, we can provide a link to your work on the publisher’s site to increase exposure of your work.

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Why would I put my work in FDP rather than in Academia.edu or ResearchGate?

FDP is freely available to everyone with an internet connection and does not require users to create an account or provide personal information to access materials. By working with the FDP Coordinator, you can be sure your work is legally posted. For more details, a great blog post about this is available here.

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Who can see my scholarship?

Anyone in the world with internet access is able to read and download your work. If required by your publisher, we are able to limit access to current Fisher faculty, staff, and students, but this limits the exposure of your work.

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How can I add my work to FDP?

Adding your work to FDP is easy! Email fisherpub@sjf.edu with your recent publication information and the FDP Coordinator will take care of adding your work, including investigating copyright permissions if needed.

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Can I add related files (data sets, images, sound clips, etc.) alongside my published article?

Yes. If you are unsure as to whether you are legally allowed to use these related files, the FDP Coordinator will investigate and seek permission if needed. This tends to be needed most often for images, charts, or tables.

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Are there any file type or size restrictions on what I can include?

No. There are no file type or size restrictions.

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I no longer have the drafts of my article I submitted to the journal publisher. Can you use the version on their website?

Some publishers only allow for certain versions of articles to be posted to FDP. The FDP Coordinator will determine which version of your article may be posted and work with you to obtain the correct file. If you no longer have the eligible version, we can post citation information and link to your work on the publisher’s site.

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How do I add my students’ work to FDP?

FDP is a great place to showcase student scholarship, especially work created in upper or 400-level courses. Email fisherpub@sjf.edu and the FDP Coordinator will create instructions for how your students can upload their work.

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