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Merrimack ScholarWorks

Information about Merrimack ScholarWorks (MSW), Merrimack College's Institutional Repository

Call for Faculty Submissions!

Benefits

Discoverability.  Publications are indexed by Google, Google Scholar, etc, and are easily findable on the free web.

Citation impact. Works published in repositories are cited more frequently than those that reside only behind a paywall.

Permalink.  The URL of your article will never change!  Share it with anyone via your website, c.v., email, or in any way you like.  

Author rights.  Publishing in MSW asserts your copyright ownership. Retain your right to freely and legally share your research.  [Note: copyright does NOT transfer to Merrimack College or McQuade Library.]

Visibility.  Broadcast your research to the widest possible audience.

Metrics.  Authors receive a montly download report detailing the number of times a work was viewed and downloaded.  

Grant criteria.  Publishing in MSW meets the data-sharing requirement of some grant-funded research (ex: NIH). 

Journal Articles

Not seeing some of the articles on your publication list in Merrimack ScholarWorks? The reason is due to copyright restrictions enacted by journal publishers that prohibit the inclusion of published works in institutional repositories. 

  • Many journal publishers (about 65%) allow authors to place some version of their articles in an institutional respository like MSW, so we may only be able to add a limited amount of your previously published work.
  • Most publishers have specific rules for publishing in an institutional repository, look for the terms "self-archiving" or "green open access" in your author agreement to see what your publisher will allow.  
  • Publisher policies vary widely- some allow authors to post the publisher's pdf, but many only allow the post-print (post-refereed document) or pre-print (pre-refereed manuscript) to be shared.  Some impose an embargo period of 6-18 months.
  • Check SHERPA/RoMEO (search by journal title) to learn the policy of a specific journal, or contact the repository administrator and we will investigate for you.

Depositing your article in Merrimack ScholarWorks before it is published is the easiest way to make your work available to the widest audience possible.

  • This is the archiving method that most publishers prefer, as the majority will not allow you to include a final published article in an institutional repository. 
  • Once the final version of your articles is available, we will provide a link from your work in Merrimack ScholarWorks to the official published version.

Publisher's version / pdf. This is the final and most desirable version of your article (sometimes called "version of record").  It is formatted in the style of the journal, complete with running headers/footers and with journal issue pagination.  Authors usually receive a publisher pdf from the publisher. 

Post-print / author's post-print.  This is the "final draft" of your article, after refereeing.  It is probably a Microsoft Word document.  It does not have journal pagination.  

Pre-print.  This is your pre-refereed manuscript, as initially submitted to a publisher.  It is probably a Microsoft Word document.

MSW Slides

For questions or feedback contact the McQuade Library
Call us: 978-837-5177 | Text us:  978-228-2275 | Email us: mcquade@merrimack.edu