About Research Commons
Research Commons is the University of Waikato’s digital institutional repository. Its purpose is to publicise, freely disseminate, and preserve the work of the University of Waikato’s scholars and ensure the research activities of staff and students are well known locally, nationally and internationally. Research Commons is powered by DSpace, an open source digital repository software provided by the DuraSpace organisation.
We offer:
- Free, open access to university digital works
- Increased visibility of your work through higher rankings in search engines
- Long-term digital preservation
- A stable, unchanging URL that remains with the item in perpetuity
- Expert consultation on copyright, digital formats, and authors' rights
- Digitisation of items
A Place for Academic Research
We host research from our academic staff, such as journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, working papers and reports. University of Waikato academic staff are encouraged to submit their work to Research Commons. Please see our Deposit for Staff page for more information.
Access to Theses
We provide access to the University of Waikato's digital Higher Degree and Masters Degree theses. Students can deposit a digital copy of their completed thesis using the Research Commons Thesis Deposit Form. For more information on how to deposit your thesis, see our Digital Thesis Deposit page.
Search Optimatisation
The repository is optimised for use with search engines and metadata aggregators so your work becomes much easier to find. Items on Research Commons are picked up by search engines such as Google and Google Scholar. We are also indexed by open access harvesters such as OAIster, nzresearch.org.nz: the Kiwi Research Information Service, and aggregators such as Digital NZ.
Using Research Commons
Research Commons is an open access site, which means that anyone with an internet connection can view the content. In cases where we are prohibited from hosting the full-text file of an item, it can only be accessed by persons affiliated to organisations that subscribe to the database of the publisher. This is why we endeavour to host the full-text of the research output wherever possible.
Finding Material
You can search with keywords in the basic search box on the Research Commons website or by using the Advanced Search option. You can also browse for papers by community or collection, titles, authors, dates, subjects, types and degree names.
Usage Statistics for Authors
Authors can find out the number of times their research's abstract page has been viewed and the full text of the work has been downloaded using our easily accessible Research Commons Usage Statistics.
Research Commons Copyright Policy
All items in Research Commons are provided only to permit fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study. They are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Authors will retain all rights of copyright in work deposited in Research Commons prior to deposit. Where the publisher has granted permission for the author to deposit a previously published item, the author continues to retain those rights. There are often copyright restrictions we must consider when deciding if a paper can be submitted to Research Commons. When an article is published, the author often assigns copyright to the publisher. The rights the author retains will depend on the type of agreement signed.
Theses
University of Waikato Theses are protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). The theses may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use:
- Any use you make of these documents or images must be for research or private study purposes only, and you may not make them available to any other person.
- Authors control the copyright of their thesis. You will recognise the author’s right to be identified as the author of the thesis, and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate.
- You will obtain the author’s permission before publishing any material from the thesis.
To the best of our knowledge, all material is made available through Research Commons with the permission of its rights holders. However, if you believe there to be a rights infringement, please contact us and we will remove material if necessary.
Contact Us
Research Commons is a service provided by the University of Waikato Library. For any queries please email the Research Commons Administrators at [email protected].