Institutional Repository Policy

Institutional Repository Policy

Guidelines, Policies and Procedures

Salim Habib University (DSpace Repository)

1.0 Purpose / Introduction

An institutional repository serves as a permanent, centrally managed digital archive that brings together the intellectual, academic, and administrative output of the University's departments under one umbrella. Beyond simple storage, the Repository is intended to preserve institutional memory, increase the visibility and discoverability of SHU's scholarly and departmental output, support long-term digital preservation, and provide a single authoritative source for internal reporting, accreditation, and research assessment exercises additionally positions the SHU-IR as a formal component of the digital-preservation and verification infrastructure required of SHU-published research journals including international journal of business and social dynamics ( IJBSD)

2.0 Policy Statement

This policy outlines the process of contributing material to the SHU Institutional Repository and defines the categories of material that are appropriate for deposit. It further sets out the method of submission, description (metadata), preservation, access, and withdrawal of material, and assigns responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the Repository.

Where the depositing unit is a university-published research journal, this policy operates alongside and does not replace that journal's own editorial, peer-review, copyright, and licensing policies. Journal-specific provisions are set out in Section 5.11.

3.0 Definitions

  • Institutional Repository (IR): A digital archive that collects, preserves, and provides access to the intellectual and administrative output of a university's departments and community, for the purposes of long-term archiving, institutional memory, and discovery.
  • DSpace: The open-source repository software used by the Tariq Amin Library to host, manage, and provide access to the Repository.
  • Depositor / Contributor: Any department, faculty member, staff member, or authorised representative who submits material to the Repository.
  • Metadata: Descriptive information about a deposited item (e.g. title, author/department, date, subject, abstract) that enables discovery and citation.
  • Embargo: A defined period during which a deposited item's metadata is publicly visible but its full text/file access is restricted.
  • Item: Any single deposited unit in the Repository (a document, dataset, record, or file, together with its metadata).
  • Persistent Identifier (PID): A permanent, unique reference (a Digital Object Identifier, DOI) assigned to a digital item so it remains locatable even if its web address changes.
  • Version of Record (VoR): The final, published version of a journal article as it appeared in the journal, including volume/issue, page numbers, and DOI.
  • Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM): The final peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication, prior to journal-specific typesetting/formatting.
  • External Preservation Partner: An independent, third-party digital-preservation network (PKP Preservation Network) that retains a copy of journal content separately from both the publisher's and the University's own infrastructure, so content remains accessible even if SHU's own systems are disrupted.
  • Hosted Journal: A research journal published under the auspices of Salim Habib University (e.g. IJBSD) whose content is deposited into the SHU-IR under Section 5.11 of this policy.

4.0 Scope / Responsibilities

This policy applies to all academic and administrative departments, faculty, staff, and authorised student representatives of Salim Habib University who contribute, manage, or access material through the SHU Institutional Repository. It also applies, under Section 5.11, to the Editorial Office of any Hosted Journal published by SHU.

The Tariq Amin Library, under the supervision of the Chief Librarian, is responsible for the overall administration, technical maintenance, quality control, and long-term preservation of the Repository. Individual departments are responsible for identifying, preparing, and submitting (or facilitating the submission of) their own records for archival within the timelines agreed with the library. Hosted Journals are responsible for triggering deposit under the workflow set out in Section 5.11.

 

5.0 Policy Content

5.1 About the Repository

The SHU Institutional Repository is the university's official digital archive, hosted on the DSpace platform. It collects, showcases, archives, and preserves the intellectual output, records, and departmental data of Salim Habib University.

The purpose of the SHU-IR is to bring together, safeguard, and provide controlled access to the university's institutional record and scholarly output through a single, dedicated digital platform. As the SHU-IR develops, it is expected to include material such as departmental reports, research papers, theses and dissertations, conference proceedings, official records, teaching and learning resources, and other material of archival or institutional value produced by departments, together with the published output of SHU's own research journals.

The SHU-IR is managed by the Tariq Amin Library.

5.2 Organisation of Content (Communities and Collections)

Content in the SHU-IR is organised by faculties and departments, in line with standard DSpace practice, so that each academic or administrative department is represented as a distinct “Community,” with its records organised into relevant “Collections” (for example, by record type, programme, or year).

The library will work with each department's designated coordinator to structure their community and collections appropriately before archival begins, and will maintain a master list of all departmental communities and collections.

5.2.1 Journal Communities

Each Hosted Journal is represented as its own named Community (or sub-Community under its publishing faculty/department), independent of general departmental output, so that its records are not mixed with unrelated administrative material. For IJBSD, the Library will create:

  1. A Community: “International Journal of Business and Social Dynamics (IJBSD)”, nested under the Faculty of Management Sciences Community;
  2. A Collection per Volume, containing sub-groupings by Issue (“Volume 1, Issue 2 – Jan–Jun 2026”);
  3. A standing metadata template pre-populated with the journal's ISSN (print and online), publisher name, and licence terms, so departmental staff do not need to re-enter this information for every article.

5.3 Who Can Contribute

  1. Departments, faculty members, researchers, librarians, and staff of Salim Habib University may deposit, or arrange for the deposit of, appropriate material in the SHU-IR through their designated departmental coordinator.
  2. Initially, and as a general practice, Library staff will assist departments with preparing, describing, and uploading material into the SHU-IR on their behalf.
  3. Retrospective deposit of material created before a department's or an individual's affiliation with SHU is permitted, provided the depositor is currently affiliated with the university or has authorised the deposit.
  4. All contributors and departments must ensure that they have the necessary authority and, where applicable, copyright clearance, to deposit the material submitted.
  5. It is the responsibility of the depositing department/author to obtain any necessary permissions from co-authors or third parties prior to submission.
  6. For Hosted Journals, the Editor-in-Chief (or a formally designated Managing Editor) acts as the authorised departmental coordinator for deposit purposes.

5.4 Material Appropriate for the Repository

The SHU-IR accepts material of genuine institutional or archival value from all University departments. Deposited items may include, but are not limited to:

  1. Departmental reports, minutes, circulars, memos, MoUs and official records of archival value;
  2. Theses, dissertations, and student research projects;
  3. Faculty research articles, conference papers, and presentations (subject to copyright clearance);
  4. Teaching and learning materials, course handbooks, and curricula;
  5. Institutional publications, newsletters, and event proceedings;
  6. Datasets and other digital material produced in the course of university activity;
  7. Published issues and individual articles of SHU Hosted Journals, in the version specified at Section 5.11.2.

As the SHU-IR develops, the scope of accepted material may be reviewed and expanded by the library in consultation with the relevant departments.

Items are individually tagged with their version type and date, review/approval status, and access status (open, restricted, or embargoed), in line with the metadata policy set out below.

5.5 Submission and Deposit Method

  1. Departments should identify and prepare material for deposit; the library will provide guidance on acceptable file formats and description templates.
  2. Material may be deposited at any time; the library will process submissions and make them publicly visible according to agreed timelines, subject to any confidentiality or embargo requirements.
  3. The SHU-IR administrator (Library staff) will review each submission for: relevance to the scope of the SHU-IR, completeness of accompanying metadata, appropriate file format, and absence of duplicate or spam content.
  4. The accuracy, completeness, and authenticity of the content of a submission remains the responsibility of the depositing department or author.
  5. Departments are encouraged to submit material in commonly supported, preservation-friendly formats (e.g. PDF/A for documents, standard image formats for scanned material).
  6. For Hosted Journals, deposit is systematic rather than discretionary: see Section 5.11.1 for the mandatory per-issue deposit workflow.

5.6 Metadata Policy

  1. Every item deposited in the SHU-IR must be accompanied by a minimum set of descriptive metadata (e.g. title, contributing department, date, subject/keywords, and a brief description).
  2. Metadata records are freely accessible to anyone at no charge.
  3. Metadata may be re-used Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) in any medium for not-for-profit purposes, provided that the SHU Institutional Repository is credited and a link to the original metadata record is retained.
  4. For journal articles, the metadata record must additionally include: journal title, ISSN (print and online), volume, issue, page range, the article's DOI (or other persistent identifier), and the licence under which the article is published (CC BY 4.0).

 

 

 

5.7 Access and Data Policy

  1. By default, items are made openly accessible for personal research, study, and not-for-profit educational purposes, unless a department specifies restricted or embargoed access at the time of deposit.
  2. Departments may request restricted access or a defined embargo period for sensitive, confidential, or not-yet-publishable material; such items remain discoverable via their metadata, but the full file is withheld until the restriction is lifted.
  3. Where full items are openly accessible, copies may be reproduced, displayed, or shared for personal, educational, or not-for-profit purposes, provided that: the department/author and full item details are cited; a link to the original repository record is given; and the content is not altered in any way.
  4. Items must not be sold or exploited commercially, in any format, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder and the Salim Habib University.
  5. Hosted Journal content deposited under an open licence (CC BY 4.0) is never embargoed and is made immediately and permanently openly accessible on deposit, consistent with the journal's own open-access statement.

5.8 Preservation Policy

  1. Items accepted into the SHU-IR are, in principle, retained indefinitely as part of the University's institutional record.
  2. The library will take reasonable steps to ensure continued readability and accessibility of archived material, including migrating files to updated formats where necessary.
  3. The SHU-IR is backed up regularly by the Library/IT department in line with current best practice, and the original file is retained alongside any migrated or upgraded version.
  4. Once deposited, an item's content may be modified to correct errors, update information, or improve metadata, subject to the repository's policies and approval procedures. Significant revisions should be documented, and version history should be maintained where applicable.

5.8.1 External Preservation Partner and Minimum Retention Commitment.

In addition to Library/IT backups, published content of Hosted Journals is also deposited with at least one External Preservation Partner (the PKP Preservation Network), so that content remains independently accessible even in the event of a disruption to SHU's own infrastructure or the discontinuation of a Hosted Journal.

Where a Hosted Journal ceases publication or is discontinued, its already-published content will remain accessible through the SHU-IR and its External Preservation Partner for a minimum of ten (10) years from the date of discontinuation, rather than being withdrawn.

This provision is intended to satisfy the electronic backup and preservation expectation set out in the HEC Journals and Publications Policy 2024, which requires a journal to demonstrate a credible plan for continued access to its content independent of the journal's own continued operation.

5.9 Withdrawal Policy

The concerned department is authorized to withdraw items deposited under its collection when justified. Acceptable grounds for withdrawal include, but are not limited to, proven copyright infringement or plagiarism, legal or regulatory requirements, data-protection, confidentiality or security concerns, discovery of falsified or materially inaccurate content, or other valid academic or administrative reasons.

Where item is withdrawn its identifier/URL will normally be retained and will continue to point to a brief “tombstone” record, so as to avoid broken links and preserve the item's history within the Repository.

For Hosted Journal articles, withdrawal (retraction) follows the journal's own Corrections and Retractions Policy; the SHU-IR record is updated to reflect a retraction notice rather than being deleted outright, consistent with COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) good-practice guidance.

5.10 Copyright and Intellectual Property

Depositing a work in the SHU-IR does not transfer ownership of copyright. Departments and authors grant Salim Habib University and the Tariq Amin Library a non-exclusive right to store, showcase, reproduce, disseminate, and preserve the deposited material for the purposes described in this policy.

Any copyright violation arising from a deposit remains the responsibility of the depositing department or author. Where the library receives credible proof of a copyright violation, the relevant item will be promptly reviewed and, where warranted, removed or restricted.

For Hosted Journal content, the licence under which an article is deposited must match the licence stated on the journal's own website and in the article itself (CC BY 4.0); the library’s non-exclusive hosting right does not alter, narrow, or conflict with that licence.

 

 

5.11 Journal-Specific Provisions

This section applies specifically to research journals published under the auspices of Salim Habib University (“Hosted Journals”), including the International Journal of Business and Social Dynamics (IJBSD). It supplements, and does not replace, Sections 5.1–5.10 above.

5.11.1 Mandatory Per-Issue Deposit

Unlike general departmental material, deposit of Hosted Journal content is systematic rather than discretionary. On publication of each issue, the journal's Managing Editor (or designated Editorial Assistant) must, within ten (10) working days:

  1. Submit the complete published issue (front matter, table of contents, and all individual articles) to the journal's Collection in the SHU-IR;
  2. Verify that each article's metadata record includes its assigned DOI, page range, and licence; and
  3. Notify the Library's SHU-IR Administrator so that OAI-PMH harvesting and any linked external preservation deposit (Section 5.8.1) can be confirmed.

5.11.2 Version Deposited

The version deposited for each Hosted Journal article is the Version of Record (VoR) the final published PDF exactly as it appears on the journal's own platform, including volume, issue, page numbers, and DOI. Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAMs) may additionally be deposited by individual authors under their personal contributor rights (Section 5.3), but the VoR remains the authoritative repository copy for verification purposes.

5.11.3 Alignment with DOAJ and HEC Criteria

The library and the journal's Editorial Office will periodically confirm that this deposit workflow continues to satisfy:

  1. DOAJ's expectations regarding a stated repository/self-archiving policy and open, immediate access to published content.
  2. The HEC Journals and Publications Policy 2024 requirement for a demonstrable electronic backup and preservation plan, and for publications to be independently verifiable by HEC and University Quality Enhancement Cells (QECs).

 

 

5.11.4 Support for Publication Verification

SHU-IR records for Hosted Journal articles including DOI, ISSN, and full bibliographic metadata may be used by faculty, QECs, and HEC as an official, University-held verification source for research publications, alongside the journal's own website and Crossref records. The library will respond to verification requests from QECs within a reasonable timeframe, as agreed with the Registrar's Office.

5.12 Roles and Responsibilities

  1. Library Staff: Coordinates the day-to-day operation of the SHU-IR, liaises with departmental coordinators and journal Editorial Offices, oversees quality control of submissions, and reports on SHU-IR growth and usage.
  2. Chief Librarian: Provides overall strategic direction for the SHU-IR, including selection and maintenance of the External Preservation Partner relationship.
  3. Departmental Coordinators: Identify and prepare material for deposit within their department, and act as the first point of contact between the department and the library.
  4. Hosted Journal Editorial Office (Editor-in-Chief / Managing Editor): Triggers and confirms per-issue deposit under Section 5.11.1, and ensures metadata accuracy for journal content.
  5. Library / SHU-IR Administrator: Manages the technical operation of the DSpace platform, performs quality checks on submissions, manages backups and the External Preservation Partner deposit, and implements this policy.

5.13 Why an Institutional Repository Matters

Maintaining a well-governed institutional repository allows Salim Habib University to safeguard its institutional memory, increase the visibility and discoverability of departmental and scholarly output, support internal reporting and accreditation exercises, and give the University lasting, independent control over its own records rather than relying solely on external platforms or paper-based archives. For SHU's Hosted Journals, a properly configured repository additionally underpins credible, independent evidence of open access, long-term preservation

 

 

 

6.0 Policy Review

This policy will be reviewed periodically, and no less than once every two years, by the Tariq Amin Library in consultation with relevant departments and Hosted Journal Editorial Offices, to ensure it continues to reflect the University's needs and current best practice in digital repository management

7.0 Contact Information

For questions about the SHU Institutional Repository, to arrange departmental or journal onboarding, or to submit material, please contact:

Tariq Amin Library: [email protected]