Penn State Libraries Open Publishing Bibliography Policies

The Penn State Libraries Open Publishing Program publishes scholarly, annotated bibliographies. The editor(s) and publication must adhere to the following policies in addition to the Open Publishing Program’s Policies.

In line with the eligibility criteria in the Open Publishing Policies, all scholarly bibliographies accepted into the Open Publishing Program must either have a Penn State University connection or be of interest to Penn State University and/or Pennsylvania community and must be of a scholarly nature. Being fully annotated is not required but is encouraged. Each new potential publication will be reviewed by our Open Publishing Advisory Board before acceptance.

Responsibilities of Open Publishing

The Open Publishing Program strives for integrity and professionalism and as such we will provide production support for your publication by:

• Creating, maintaining, and hosting the bibliography website.
• Managing and supporting the publishing platform and coordinating the addition of content according to the workplan agreed upon by Open Publishing and the editor(s).
• Preparing, ensuring quality control of, and uploading initial data.
• Registering a DOI.
• Providing a press release to PSU News. We share the press release with any editors prior to publication.
• Training the editor on how to use the Drupal platform.
• Ensuring the bibliography website is fully accessible and providing accessibility training to editors as needed.
• Open Publishing shall list the Publication on the Open Publishing website and ensure a record for the Publication is added to the Libraries’ catalog.
• Providing guidance on choosing a Creative Commons license.
• Providing the editor an annual broken link report. Any editing or updating of links is the responsibility of the editor.

Responsibilities of Editors

The editor(s) of the bibliography must ensure that their content is accurate, up-to-date, and that they have the rights to publish it.

• It is the responsibility of the editor to provide accurate and up-to-date content. This is accomplished by:
• Ensuring quality control of data prior to upload.
• This is a joint responsibility between the editor and Open Publishing to review content prior to upload for any errors or inconsistencies. After uploading initial content, another quality control check is essential.
• Updating broken links when the Open Publishing Program provides the annual list.
• Updating records as needed.
• Continual adding of content, as needed.
• Editors must ensure that they have the right to publish or re-publish all materials.
• Editors must select one of the following Creative Commons Licenses:
• Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY)
• Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License (CC BY-NC)
• Editors retain copyright to their content.
• Editors must select their citation style.

DEIA and Ethics

Penn State University and Penn State Libraries are committed to “disrupting racism, hate and bias whenever and wherever we encounter it and to creating the most inclusive and diverse community that we possibly can.” All content published with Open Publishing should be presented according to Penn State’s policies on accessibility, diversity, equity and inclusion.

Accessibility and Open Access

Accessibility is a vital component of Open Publishing as it allows every reader the ability to use our publications without barriers, including vision or mobility barriers. In accordance with Open Publishing’s Policies, for all bibliography publications hosted by the program, Penn State Libraries Open Publishing will:

• Ensure that content conforms to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 or greater by running accessibility checks with WAVE Web Aim accessibility tool prior to publishing.
• Run regular audits on pages to ensure continuance of accessibility.
• Provide web accessibility training to editors who are interested in maintaining bibliography records.

Process for Suggested Edits

In response to feedback from the comments/suggestions form, Open Publishing will work with editor(s) to review and apply suggested changes. Any decisions on the suggested changes or additions to the bibliography are left to the editor(s).

If there are concerns around DEIA or policy violations, we will review them per the Open Publishing policies.

Name Change Policy

Open Publishing recognizes the importance of inclusion in all aspects. We recognize and are committed to honoring name change requests for any reason, including gender identity, marital status, religious reasons, etc.

We will work with editor(s) to implement a name change across our publications, records and documentation, and our Catalog in a timely and thorough manner in accordance with the COPE principles for the editor involved in the creation of the publication.

We will work with editor(s) for name changes for the publications listed in the bibliography by the best of our ability. We understand that name changes may not take effect in other publications not hosted by our Open Publishing program.

Preservation and Retention

Penn State Libraries and Open Publishing are committed to ensuring that the intellectual content of projects remains available in perpetuity and strive to preserve published content according to current digital preservation best practices. This commitment includes making reasonable efforts to ensure that the Publication’s underlying files are preserved and that access to the Publication is provided.