The official language of the FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland is German. This translation is provided for information purposes only and has no legal force.
The Institutional Repository FHNW (IRF) is the official digital repository of the FHNW for publications of research and teaching. It is used to retrieve metadata from FHNW research and teaching publications and to make publications publicly accessible as complete texts in the sense of Open Access, including student theses. The IRF increases the visibility of the publications and enables the fastest possible access to them. The publications should be publicly accessible in the sense of Open Access. In order to make the contents of the IRF internationally visible, the IRF is indexed in scientific search engines, e.g. BASE. A repository policy is required for indexing. These regulations have the role of a repository policy.
The FHNW has laid down its principles on Open Access in the Open Access Policy Among other things, it was determined that researchers should make the bibliographic details (metadata) of all their scientific products/documents accessible in the Institutional Repository FHNW (IRF) at the time of publication, provided that the interests of the cooperation partners are safeguarded. It is also recommended that researchers publish the full text of scientific products/documents with the associated bibliographical data, including the abstract, in the IRF. Students are allowed to deposit the abstracts and full texts of their theses in the IRF.
This document defines the process of using and managing the IRF and in this sense operationalizes the FHNW Open Access Policy. It regulates the handling of data stored in the IRF, insofar as this cannot be regulated by technical means. It demonstrates to publishers that the FHNW handles content responsibly and in accordance with international standards. It serves as a repository policy for indexing and is based on the corresponding specifications of OpenDOAR and BASE. It supplements the separate IRF-Manual (available in German), which contains details on the use of the IRF and the list of object types (publication types) permitted in the IRF.
Only scientific products/documents by FHNW members may be deposited in the IRF. Authors1 enter their own work themselves or can delegate the submission of their work to FHNW employees. In either case, the authors are responsible for the accuracy and validity of the content.
Documents can be submitted at any time. However, where necessary, they will only be released after the embargo has expired (embargo period for publication in a repository after initial publication by a publisher or after an embargo period by funders). Publications can be stored in the form of descriptive data (metadata) or as metadata with full text. The metadata make it possible to find a publication again.
All entries are individually labeled with their peer review and publication status.
The IRF operator2 is responsible for the correct process of publishing documents in the IRF.
The regulations on copyright are set out in the CLA Section 9.2.
In order to publish a document in the IRF, the author's consent is required. By uploading the publication, editors3 authorize the FHNW to make the publication publicly accessible via the Internet. All rights to the publication remain with the author or the respective rights holder. The right to publish the publication elsewhere is not affected by the IRF regulations.
The authors of a publication are solely responsible for safeguarding the copyrights of third parties to the content to be published and for complying with data protection and personal rights (scientific integrity).
In principle, the editors are responsible for the quality of the published content. According to the requirements of OpenDOAR and BASE, an additional formal quality check (four-eyes principle) is required. The FHNW Library offers the additional formal quality check in cooperation with the schools.
The additional formal quality check is carried out with regard to
According to the Open Access Policy, the IRF also serves to publish the full texts (e.g. PDF) of publications in addition to the metadata. The rights check includes checking and completing the metadata and, in the case of full-text publications, checking the contractual agreements with the publisher (published version, preprint, postprint, license, embargo period).
The rights check is carried out by library staff on behalf of the IRF operator, with situational support for contractual issues from the legal service.
After a successful quality check, including a rights check for the publication of full texts, the content can be released by persons designated by the schools. It is not permitted to edit, release or delete entries from other schools / organizational units.
Entries cannot normally be deleted from the repository. However, the operator of the IRF can withdraw documents from the IRF after consultation with the responsible director if there are justified reasons. Causes for this are in particular:
The documents in question will be deleted immediately. The metadata of withdrawn documents are no longer searchable.
All metadata (descriptive data) in the IRF is freely accessible and free of charge. For non-profit purposes, the metadata may be reused in any medium without prior permission from the author, provided that the OAI identifier or a link to the original metadata record is provided. The metadata may not be reused for commercial purposes without formal permission.
Full texts are free of charge and publicly accessible unless otherwise indicated.
Copies of complete data sets (metadata and full texts) may be:
The following restrictions apply:
The Corporate IT ensures that the IRF data provided on the FHNW's central data systems remains available. The back-up specifications of the Corporate IT FHNW apply to the IRF.
The FHNW ensures the long-term readability of the data during ongoing operations or through migration projects as follows:
Stored documents may no longer be changed. If necessary, an updated version of the document can be deposited. Versions that are no longer current are not deleted by the IRF operator. They can still be accessed.
URLs of withdrawn documents are still referred to a tombstone page7. Where possible, a link to the current/replaced version will be provided.
Should the IRF cease to operate, the entire database will be transferred to another suitable archive.
Issued by the President of the Board of Directors on June 11, 2021
Valid from: June 11, 2021