TSpace Repository Policies and Guidelines

University of Toronto’s research repository, TSpace, is built through partnerships between the University of Toronto Libraries and the University of Toronto academic communities to disseminate and preserve the scholarly record of the U of T faculty and students. As in any partnership, it is important that each stakeholder understands and agrees to the policies, guidelines, and procedures required to build TSpace. The following policy statements have been developed with input from TSpace stakeholders.

Authorized Submitters
Content Guidelines
Format Support
TSpace License
TSpace Structure and Stakeholders
Responsibilities of a Submitter
Rights of a Submitter
Responsibilities of a TSpace Community/Sub-Community Administrator(s)
Rights of a TSpace Community Community/Sub-Community Administrator(s)
Responsibilities of the University of Toronto Libraries
Rights of the University of Toronto Libraries
Withdrawal and Modification Policy
Disclaimer

1. Authorized Submitters

Any member of the University of Toronto community can submit materials to TSpace, including:

Individual faculty members and librarians
Faculties
Departments
Research teams
Administrative units and associated staff members
Graduate students, with faculty sponsorship
Undergraduate students, with faculty sponsorship
Researchers at other Canadian institutions using the CARL Adoptive Repositories Program (in consultation with the UTL)

2. Content Guidelines

The work must be authored, produced, or sponsored by U of T faculty.
Submissions must be scholarly, research, or pedagogical materials (e.g. manuscripts, journal articles, books/book chapters, conference presentations, theses and dissertations, etc.).
The work must not be ephemeral; deposits are intended to be permanent contributions to the repository.
The work should be final and complete (e.g. papers that are ready for publication or have been published, books or book chapters that are complete on their own).
The work should be ready for public dissemination in open access environment immediately upon submission or after an embargo period.
The files should be made accessible in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), where practicable (examples of not practicable situations may include materials formatted by the publisher, or files you have no authority or control over). Refer to Formatting your document before upload for instructions.
Related works (e.g. sets or series) should be submitted together where possible
All works must be submitted in a manner consistent with Canadian Copyright law: i.e. the author must have copyright, permission from a rights holder, or must avail themselves of one of the permitted uses of copyrighted content in the Copyright Act of Canada. Refer to Checking and obtaining permissions for instructions.
For each submission, one or more file(s) must be uploaded. Links to external websites or standalone pages can be included in addition to the file(s) but cannot be the only source of content, since TSpace cannot guarantee long-term access to external pages

3. Format Support

TSpace strives to provide support for as many file formats as possible and to ensure that files are preserved as is using best practices for digital preservation. However, when it comes to specific formats, the proprietary nature of many file types makes it impossible to guarantee their preservation. Put simply, our policy for file formats is:

Everything put in TSpace will be retrievable
We will recognize as many file formats as possible
We will support as many known file formats as possible

When a file is uploaded to TSpace, we assign it one of the following categories:

Supported: we fully support the format
Known: we can recognize the format, but cannot guarantee full support
Unsupported: we cannot recognize a format; these will be listed as "application/octet-stream," or Unknown

With that in mind, it is recommended to choose “supported” file formats over “known” or “unsupported”, where possible. For the current list of format and level of support see our Format Support page.

4. TSpace License

Authors/copyright holders or their designated representatives submitting materials to TSpace must agree to a non-exclusive distribution license which allows the University of Toronto to reproduce, distribute, and migrate the submitted work to new formats where necessary and feasible.

Granting the license is different from transferring copyright. Copyright is never transferred to TSpace. Rather, by granting the non-exclusive license, copyright holders permit the University to distribute their work while retaining the right to pursue any other publishing ventures.

For more information, please see:

5. TSpace Structure and Stakeholders

TSpace content is organized around Communities, which generally correspond to administrative entities such as faculties, schools, and research institutes or other groups that produce research. Communities may contain Sub-Communities and Collections to reflect the structure of the unit and the nature of research conducted. Repository submissions and content management may be carried out at individual (submitter), Collection, Sub-Community or Community levels. In the absence of a Community/Collection administration, content is managed by TSpace staff.

6. Responsibilities of a Submitter

Ensure that materials submitted comply with TSpace Content Guidelines
Ensure that materials are submitted in a manner consistent with Canadian Copyright law: i.e. the author must have copyright or must obtain copyright holder's permission to submit content (e.g. for previously published articles or books for which copyright was transferred to publisher)
Embargo (temporarily restrict access) to an item if necessary to comply with publisher’s requirements. Generally, TSpace materials must become publicly available after a defined embargo period.
Agree to the TSpace non-exclusive distribution license

7. Rights of a Submitter

Decide on which materials to submit within TSpace Content Guidelines
Decide on the format for submission, as recommended by the Format Support page
Describe the materials as appropriate within TSpace submission form
Select and assign a Creative Commons license for materials consistent with the item’s copyright status
Request that a record or item be modified or removed within TSpace Withdrawal and Modification Policy
Request that a copy of deposited material be transferred to another institution's repository when submissions are done under the CARL Adoptive Repositories Program

8. Responsibilities of a TSpace Community/Sub-Community Administrator(s)

Make decisions about Community and Collection definitions
Arrange for submission and description of content
Decide upon a submission workflow for each Collection
Approve submissions and/or edit metadata, when these steps are part of the submission workflow
Notify TSpace staff of any organizational changes affecting submissions
Notify TSpace staff of the need to modify or withdraw a submission after it was published
Understand and follow University policies related to TSpace and educate Community/Sub-Community submitters about these policies

9. Rights of a TSpace Community/Sub-Community Administrator(s)

Decide upon a policy regarding content to be submitted, within TSpace Content Guidelines
Decide who may submit content within the Community
Grant and withdraw users’ authorizations to submit
Approve addition of or elimination of Collections and/or Sub-Communities
Request a customized submission form and/or metadata to reflect the content in the Community
Customize interfaces to reflect Community content as permitted by TSpace functionality; extensive customization may be performed by UTL for a fee

10.Responsibilities of the University of Toronto Libraries

Retain content submitted to TSpace
Preserve content using accepted preservation techniques
Perform system support, troubleshooting, and upgrade as deemed necessary by TSpace staff
Provide guidance and instruction on TSpace submission process, retrieval of materials, and Community/Sub-Community/Collection setup and management
Notify Community/Sub-Community Administrator(s) of significant changes to content, e.g. format migration
Comply with Uoft policies on issues that affect TSpace

11. Rights of the University of Toronto Libraries

Make content and metadata publicly available unless temporary embargo restrictions have been applied
Amend metadata for items in TSpace
In communication with Community/Sub-Community Administrators, move, merge or re-organize Communities, Sub-Communities or Collections
Refuse or de-accession items or Collections in accordance with TSpace Withdrawal and Modification Policy
Migrate items if format is in danger of obsolescence
Perform appraisal for long-term archiving when Communities cease to exist or within thirty years of the creation of a Collection
Set quotas (size of files, number of items, level of support) to determine what constitutes free service and consider possibility of charging a fee beyond that point
Charge fee for activities requested by TSpace users requiring extensive centralized support from UTL (e.g. requests for extensive customization or a large amount of de-accessioning)

12. Withdrawal and Modification Policy

TSpace has been established to create permanently accessible digital record of the U of T scholarship. TSpace non-exclusive distribution license grants a license to the university to keep copies of deposited items available for purposes of preservation and access. However, the University of Toronto Libraries foresees times when circumstances may warrant modifications or withdrawals of deposited items. This can be done at the following levels:

Modifying item description. Errors in item metadata may be corrected by TSpace staff on request.
Modifying a TSpace item. Since any TSpace item that has existed at some time may have been cited in its original form, modifications are only permitted in the form of updated versions posted alongside the original documents.
Withdrawing a TSpace item. TSpace is intended to provide persistent public access to deposited material. As such, requests for withdrawal are evaluated on a case-by-case basis and must include a justification for the request. An option to temporarily withdraw (embargo) an item may be considered where warranted by circumstances.
Requests for withdrawal/embargo of theses and dissertations should be directed to the School of Graduate Studies; all other requests should be directed to TSpace staff.

The University of Toronto Libraries reserves the right to withdraw content in cases that may include but are not limited to copyright infringement, invasion of privacy, or where content does not meet TSpace Content Guidelines.

13. Disclaimer

The University is not responsible for the content of the items contained within TSpace.
The University is not responsible for the maintenance and/or performance of external web links within documents and records in the repository