Frequently Asked Questions
What is UQ eSpace?
UQ eSpace is The University of Queensland's institutional digital repository for research and teaching materials. It contains publications and other forms of teaching and research data, including multimedia, image collections and datasets, as well as 'grey' literature such as working papers and technical reports from schools and centres. It stores and showcases the research output of academic staff and postgraduate students (both past and present) at this University. It includes a range of subjects and disciplines. The UQ eSpace server provides free, searchable access to open collections of this research and manages its long-term archiving and preservation. Datasets and other forms of digital research data are welcome.
Who can deposit materials in UQ eSpace?
Current academic staff and postgraduate students of the University of Queensland may deposit research. Former staff and students who may wish to make use of the service should contact the Manager, UQ eSpace, to arrange access. Users need to log in to deposit materials.
Do I have to log in to deposit materials?
Yes, only logged in users can deposit materials. Your log in is associated with any files you deposit for audit purposes.
How do I log in?
If you are a current UQ staff member or student, log in with your usual UQ name and password using the <b>UQ Log in</b> link in <a href="http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/">UQ eSpace</a>. Other people, such as <a href="#exstaff">retired staff</a> or <a href="#exstudents">former students</a>, should contact the <a href="#help">Manager, UQ eSpace</a>, for information about obtaining a log in username and password set. You do not need to log in to browse collections, but you do need to be logged in to create records.
Where do I deposit material within UQ eSpace?
Log into UQ eSpace and then click the My UQ eSpace link on the top right of the screen. Click on Collections. The collection(s) to which you can contribute will be listed. Click on the desired collection and create a record from there.
Does UQ eSpace hold the full text of all theses listed?</a></b><br /><br />
UQ eSpace holds the full text of some, but not all, of the theses listed in the different Theses collections. If there is a visible full text file for the thesis in a given record, then the thesis is available. If there is no full text file showing, then the text of the thesis is either not available at all, or is only available to UQ staff and students after log in. In general, theses within the <a href="http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/collection/UQ:130846">UQ Thesis Collection (MPhil and PhD)</a> and the <a href="http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/collection/UQ:151710">Professional Doctorates</a> collection are only available to UQ staff and students after log in. The full text of theses within the <a href="http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/collection/UQ:11408">Open Access Collection of UQ Honours, Masters and PhD Theses</a> is available to anybody, where provided, but many of these records are citation only, and have no full text attached.</p><br />
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<p><b><a name="getthesis"></a>How do I obtain a full text copy of a UQ thesis?</b><br /><br />
If the thesis is in the<a href="http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/collection/UQ:11408">Open Access Collection of UQ Honours, Masters and PhD Theses</a>, and there is a thesis full text file attached, then the thesis is avaiable. If the thesis is housed within the <a href="http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/collection/UQ:130846">UQ Thesis Collection (MPhil and PhD)</a> or the <a href="http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/collection/UQ:151710">Professional Doctorates</a> collection, then full text electronic access is only available to UQ staff and students after log in. Anyone wishing to obtain copies of a thesis in either of those collections, can find out the procedure at the <a href="http://www.library.uq.edu.au/ias/docdeliv/uqtheses.html">Ordering copies of UQ Theses</a> page.</p><br />
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<b><a name="help"></a>How do I get help?</b><br /><br />
Please contact the Manager, UQ eSpace on (07) 3365 8281. You can also email enquiries to espace AT library.uq.edu.au. The liaison librarian for your school, centre or institute may also be of assistance.<p><br />
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<b><a name="contact"></a>Who is the best person to ask about technical problems?<br /></b><br />
Please contact the Manager, UQ eSpace on (07) 3365 8281. You can also email enquiries to espace AT library.uq.edu.au. The liaison librarian for your school, centre or institute may also be of assistance.<br />
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<b><a name="owncoll"></a>I want to create my own collection. How do I do that?</b><br /><br />
If you want to set up a new collection, please contact your <a href="http://www.library.uq.edu.au/about/liaison.phtml">school or centre's liaison librarian</a>, or the <a href="#help">Manager, UQ eSpace</a>.<br />
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<b><a name="myself"></a>Why can't I set up a collection myself?</b><br /><br />
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The permissions to create collections within UQ eSpace communities are currently quite limited. However, please contact the Manager, UQ eSpace to discuss this issue. It is very possible that you could be granted this right.
Which collection should I use?
You are able to create records in any collection that shows up in the Collections tab of My UQ eSpace. Choose the collection that best suits the item you have to deposit.
How do I limit access to my work? I only want my research team to see it.
Please contact the Manager, UQ eSpace, to arrange this.
Do I need to deposit the full text for anything I decide to store in the repository?
No. For publications, you can just upload the citation for a publication if you wish. Full text is certainly welcome, but in some cases, copyright restrictions preclude the deposit of publisher versions of published articles, conference papers, book chapters and other publications. In those cases, deposits of 'author' versions of the final refereed work may be permissible. To check the copyright position of the major journal publishers, try consulting the OAKList database or SHERPA. You can also seek advice from your school or centre liaison librarian or from the Manager, UQ eSpace.
For research datasets, if you do not wish to make all the data openly available, you are welcome to upload descriptions of the data only. This alerts other researchers to the existence of the dataset. Please also provide information on the appropriate person researchers should contact to discuss access. If you are uploading datasets, please also provide information on any tools or software researchers might need to use or manipulate the data.
My work doesn't really fit the available models for my school - it isn't a published article or a book chapter. What do I do?
It is possible to deposit work as a preprint, an audio or video file, or as a generic document. However, you are welcome to consult the Manager, UQ eSpace, about establishing a model for your work.
Is there a limit on what formats I can deposit?
Open access formats such as Adobe PDF, HTML or PostScript are preferred since users require no expensive software to access them. However, any digital format can be uploaded. If your format is unusual, or requires specific software to run, please state this in the Additional Notes field of the record so users will know what they need to do to see and use the work.
Is there a limit on how large a file I can upload?
File upload size is currently set at around 60MB. Any file larger than that may cause the system to reject the record, which may cause your data not to be saved by the system. Please consult the the Manager, UQ eSpace. if you have large files to deposit. It is possible to arrange for bulk upload of large files.
Can I attach more than one file to a record?
Certainly. For a book chapter, you might want to upload your chapter, the book's table of contents and possibly the cover art (copyright permitting). All those objects (datastreams) will form part of the single record.
Can I clone a record? I used to be able to do this in ePrintsUQ.
Yes, you can. Click on the Spanner icon, which will list additional workflows for the record. Click the Clone record link. You will need to specify the destination collection for the new record. You can clone a record to another record of the same type, i.e. journal article to journal article, or to a different type, i.e. conference paper to journal article. Some fields may not transfer if the record types are very different. Be sure to edit the clone before submitting or publishing it.
I'm supposed to 'acknowledge' and link to the journal I published in. How do I do that?
You can use the Additional Notes field to record any wording the publisher expects you to provide. Any links, e.g. to DOIs, can be added in the Add Links section of the record. However, UQ eSpace staff will check to ensure that any wording required to satisfy copyright demands is added before the record is made public.
How do I cite the Web address of a work in UQ eSpace?
Works in the repository - whether communities, collections or individual item records - all have unique identifiers in this format: http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:nnn where nnn stands for the work's unique ID within the repository. Use that link for citations. To find an address for a citation, browse to the item you want and copy the URL from the address bar of your browser.
Can I see my own deposits?
Yes. Log in via the UQ Login link, go to My UQ eSpace, and click My Created Items.
If records were created on your behalf by someone else, your best option is simply to use the UQ eSpace search tool to look for your surname, and then click on the surname link within any record in the results that is yours. That will provide a list of all records associated with your UQ Author ID.
Can I upload multimedia?
Yes. We currently have content models for digital audio and video. The default option is for audio and video files to be available for streaming only. Files are converted to Flash on deposit. If you require your audio or video file to be downloadable, please contact the Manager, UQ eSpace.
I deposited some information into UQ eSpace for research assessment trials. Can I use that data again for the upcoming RQF?
Yes. We have converted all RQF trial records to RQF-friendly formats for use with the RQF, the HERDC and, eventually, for open access.
My screen just went blank when I tried to deposit a work. What went wrong?
There are a number of possibilities. In some cases, using the Internet Explorer browser software can cause this problem. Mozilla Firefox and Netscape work better with UQ eSpace. In some cases, certain special characters, such as angle brackets, can cause the system to reject the record. Trying to attach a file with spaces in the file name, e.g. UQ eSpace.pdf, will cause a blank screen, as will trying to upload a file larger than 60MB. Please contact the Manager, UQ eSpace, for help if this problem occurs.
Can a single record belong to more than one collection?
Yes. In the record, you can select more than one collection name by holding down the CTRL key when you click the second, third, ... collection names.
Can I set up a private collection just for my research team?
Private collections with specified memberships can be easily set up on your behalf, although this is not currently something you can do yourself. Please contact the liaison librarian for your school, centre or institute about creating a new collection. You can also contact the Manager, UQ eSpace, who will arrange to have the collection created. Please advise us of the desired name for the collection, the names and email addresses of the people you want to have access to it, and what kinds of records will be stored in the collection. If the collection is likely to contain very large data files, please consult with the Manager, UQ eSpace, about the best way to have this data ingested.
I'm logged in but I don't seem to have any collections. What do I do?
There could be more than one reason why you do not seem to be linked with any collections. Firstly, did you log in using the <b>UQ Log In</b> link? If so, please click the <b>Preferences</b> link that appears after you log in. Then please email the Manager, UQ eSpace, with the contents of the Shib-EP-PrimaryOrgUnitDN: field under the Shibboleth Atributes section. This will help us to diagnose your problem. If you logged in via the Other log in link, this could be the cause of the problem. Log out and log in again using the UQ Log in. If the problem still persists, please contact UQ eSpace for assistance.
I lost the record I was working on. Did the system time out?
For security reasons, the system will time out after about ten minutes of inactivity. If you are in the middle of creating a record, and you are suddenly called away, please just Submit the work you have entered so that any data you have entered is saved. You can always go back and edit the record later. If you leave the data in the record unsaved, any entered data will be lost when the system times out.
Where is the repository content indexed?
The content is indexed in major Internet search engines such as Google and Google Scholar. It is also harvested by services such as ARROW and OAIster.
Is depositing a lot of work?
It should not take more than a minute or two to upload an item. To deposit an item, you need to log in. Navigate to your home collection. Click 'Create' and then select the record type you wish to create, e.g. a journal article, conference paper, book chapter, image and so on. Be sure to choose the right option as this cannot currently be changed after the event. Fill in your data and click 'Submit for Approval'. An editor will then vet your record for completeness and for copyright clearance and make it publicly available.
Why does something I deposited not show up straightaway?
Most work in the repository is checked by an editor before being finally 'published' to the open repository. This check is made to ensure that openly available records are as complete as possible, that no errors have crept in, and that any attached files comply with publisher copyright requirements.
What about my older papers? Can I deposit material even if it is not currently in electronic form?
Please contact the Manager, UQ eSpace, to discuss the digitisation of research materials.
Can I host non-UQ material on UQ eSpace?
Please consult the Manager, UQ eSpace to discuss this.
Can former staff deposit materials?
Former academic staff and postgraduate students are welcome to deposit materials in UQ eSpace. Your collection is entitled Papers and Publications of Former UQ Staff and Postgraduate Students and it sits under the community called the UQ Community. Before you can deposit material, you will need to obtain a UQ eSpace username and password. This will allow you to log in to your collection. Please contact the Manager, UQ eSpace, to arrange this access.
Can former students deposit materials?
Former academic staff and postgraduate students are welcome to deposit materials in UQ eSpace. Your collection is entitled Papers and Publications of Former UQ Staff and Postgraduate Students and it sits under the community called the UQ Community. Before you can deposit material, you will need to obtain a UQ eSpace username and password. This will allow you to log in to your collection. Please contact the Manager, UQ eSpace, to arrange this access.
How does SCHK calculate statistics?
The aim of UQ eSpace’s download statistics is to show the extent of genuine human interest in the material we showcase within the repository.
UQ eSpace statistics are calculated and updated hourly. Generally, each click on a record counts as a download. A ‘download’ may be of a view of the record’s abstract page or it might be a click to open a file attached to that record, e.g. a full text PDF or an image.
Abstract views and full downloads are counted separately, and separate tallies for them are available for each record. Where a record shows counts for abstract views only, this is generally because the record has no attached datastream (or file).
However, there are certain types of access that are not included in final counts. These accesses are collected in logs, since logs record all activity to do with records, but are excluded from final counts. There are two main exclusions from counts:
- 1. Many activity by search engine crawlers, e.g. the Googlebot for Google, and crawlers from other services such as Yahoo!, ninemsn, and so on
- 2. Any double clicks emanating from the same person on the same record within the same timeframe for either an abstract view or a full download.
The exclusion of double clicks is designed to keep statistics as meaningful as possible.
Other exclusions from counts include ‘Bad Requests’, ‘404 File Not Found’ errors, and clicks by people who do not have sufficient rights to view the object in question. Since such clicks would not be successful, they are discounted.
Statistics were brought in to SCHK from our former ePrintsUQ service. That service did not exclude crawlers, bots or double-clicks from counts, so statistics from that service were always higher than those of UQ eSpace. However, before being added to the UQ eSpace counts, the ePrintsUQ statistics were made to conform, as much as possible, with UQ eSpace requirements.
One of the aims of our statistical reporting it to comply as closely as possible with the standards of Project Counter (http://projectcounter.org/). Launched in March 2002, COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources) is an international initiative serving librarians, publishers and intermediaries by setting standards that facilitate the recording and reporting of online usage statistics in a consistent, credible and compatible way.
Can I get figures on how often my papers are being downloaded?
Yes, there are statistics provided on the web site. You can see statistics on the Top 50 papers and the Top 50 authors. The figures are broken up into Full Downloads and Abstract Views. The figures are updated overnight, not in real time. Downloads per item are listed in the view of each individual item, or when items are returned in search results.
Where are my download statistics?
Download statistics per item are stored with the item. To see all your statistics, search on your surname. Download counts for abstract views and file downloads are stored with each item. An upgrade of the statistics functionality in UQ eSpace is planned for this year.
What is measured?
Currently, downloads by individuals are the only counts we include in our statistics. Our statistics service specifically excludes downloads of metadata or files by search engine crawlers or other automated harvesters. This may result in smaller download numbers than in ePrintsUQ, but the UQ eSpace counts probably represent a truer picture of actual document usage.
Why should I deposit my research in UQ eSpace?
Archiving work maximises the visibility and accessibility of one's research, and hence its usage and impact. Research freely available online is much more highly cited than work available only in print. (Lawrence, S. (2001) Free online availability substantially increases a paper's impact: Nature Web debates).
Many UQ eSpace users report increased citation rates for their deposited papers, and also increased contact or requests for collaboration from researchers elsewhere who work in similar fields.
Even if your research papers have been published in online journals, many academics and researchers, particularly those from poorer institutions or from developing countries, will still not be able to read them, because of access barriers such as passwords, subscription costs, licensing agreements or IP restrictions. This means your research may not reach many people who might otherwise be interested in using it and citing it. Its presence in an open repository archive such as UQ eSpace guarantees your work can reach a truly global audience on a scale impossible to achieve on paper. This maximises the impact of your work within the global academic community.
Depositing research datasets guarantees their safekeeping. It also makes it possible for other researchers to use your data in their own research, which helps speed up world scholarship. Data curation is increasingly seen as important by government and funding bodies such as the ARC. Using UQ eSpace to store your research data can help you comply with these new requirements of grant-making bodies.
Why do I need to deposit work here when my papers are already archived by the online journals in which they are published?
While many journal publishers are creating online archives of published articles, there is no guarantee that this material will be available and accessible long term. Also, if library subscriptions to journals lapse, there is no guarantee that UQ researchers will still have access to the materials covered by earlier subscriptions. Also, as those sites reorganise, URLs may change. UQ eSpace can guarantee you long-term access and secure storage with permanent URLs for any work deposited.
What has happened to ePrintsUQ?
ePrintsUQ is still operating as a storehouse for UQ research publications. No further content can be added to it. All the content has been successfully migrated to UQ eSpace, so some materials are currently housed in both repositories. Since people may have recorded the URLs of ePrintsUQ deposits, we are keeping ePrintsUQ going until we can redirect all existing ePrintsUQ URLs to their new UQ eSpace addresses. In time, ePrintsUQ will be decommissioned, but that will not occur for some time.
Why did you move from ePrintsUQ to UQ eSpace?
In ePrintsUQ, we stored deposits of publications in a single collection. However, publications form only a minor part of the research output of this university. We needed a system that could accommodate more than just publications - one that could house datasets, image libraries, multimedia and other research materials, all with different metadata and different subject classification needs, and all housed in different communities and collections with very different security rules. UQ eSpace gives us that flexibility. In addition, UQ eSpace provides us with preservation metadata to enable us to keep your data sustainably over the long term. We are also using UQ eSpace for the 2008 Higher Education Research Data Collection and will use it to deliver some of the functionality required for the upcoming ERA exercise from DISR.
How secure is my work?
The repository is backed up every day on to the Library's Storage Area Network. We also record all changes to an object so that we can 'rollback' to earlier versions if problems occur. Even deleted items can be restored, if need be.
How long will my work be kept?
UQ eSpace cannot guarantee your work will be saved 'forever'. However we do guarantee that we will keep it for a long time. We currently apply preservation metadata to all deposited work - this is an XML stream attached to the object that provides the necessary information about the object to preserve it and keep it usable. We also record all changes to an object so that we can rollback to earlier versions if problems occur. Even deleted items can be restored, if need be. We may migrate some deposited work to new formats as formats change or become obsolete.
What is UQ eSpace planning to do about format changes?</b>
We are incorporating the Automated Obsolescence Notification System (AONS), which analyses digital repositories to determine whether any digital objects contained therein may be in danger of becoming obsolete. It uses preservation information about file formats and the software which supports these formats to determine if the formats used by digital objects are in danger. The information used is gleaned from various registries (PRONOM and LCSDF) and stored in a MySQL database. AONS then periodically checks the repository contents for formats at risk. When the repository is found to contain such formats, a notification report is sent to the repository manager. A notification report may trigger a migration event for a group of objects stored in the at-risk format.
What about copyright?
The author holds the copyright for any pre-refereed pre-print, so that version can be self-archived without seeking anyone's permission. For refereed post-prints, it all depends on what rights you transferred to the journal publisher when you signed a contract with them. Check your contract. Some publishers do not ask for exclusivity; some seek to use the material only under license. Should copyright have been fully transferred to the publisher, authors can use UQ eSpace's sample permissions letter to ask for permission to deposit a copy in the archive. (Many publishers also have an email permissions form on their Web Site, which is quicker.) For future contracts, authors can try to modify the copyright transfer agreement to allow such archiving by including a clause such as 'I retain the right to distribute my paper for free for scholarly/scientific purposes, in particular, the right to self-archive it publicly online in a Web-based institutional repository such as UQ eSpace (http://espace.uq.edu.au/).' Failing that, authors can deposit a corrigenda file (a file explaining changes between pre- and post-print versions) to accompany an already archived pre-print. The Manager, UQ eSpace, can advise you about copyright issues. More information on publisher policies about copyright and permissions can be found in either the OAKList database or SHERPA, though these should not be taken as final. Journal publisher policies in this area are constantly evolving. OAKList includes policies for many Australian publishers and publications.
What version of my work can I deposit?
What version, if any, you are permitted to deposit will vary from publisher to publisher. Some major scientific publishers such as Springer-Verlag, Elsevier, Blackwell, and Wiley, allow authors to deposit a post-print in repositories such as ours, provided we credit the publisher and link to the online version, if any, of the article or paper. (A post-print is an author-created, post-refereed version of an article or paper.) Publishers generally do not allow authors to deposit publisher-formatted PDFs in repositories. We are happy to comply with these publisher deposit conditions and can assist with the wording of any required acknowledgements. We can assist you with DOIs and links to online versions.
Is UQ eSpace OAI-compliant?
Yes. The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) develops and promotes interoperability standards to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content. The OAI championed scholarly digital repositories as a means of increasing the ongoing availability of scholarly communications. Since UQ eSpace complies with these standards, information about the works deposited in our archive is open access and can be harvested, for example, by Internet search engines or by cross-archive search tools such as OAIster. Open access greatly increases the visibility of your research.
What is UQ eSpace's base URL for OAI harvesters?
The URL is http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/oai.php
I've already got all my publication records in EndNote. Can they be imported?
Yes. We can bulk import items for you from EndNote. Please send us the EndNote Library and we will notify you when the records are ready to be viewed.
I'd like to export my publication list from UQ eSpace. How do I do that?
We can arrange an export of your publications list for you. Or you can create an RSS feed of your publication list that can populate your own Web page or services such as Facebook or MySpace. To create the feed, do an Advanced Search for your name. When results appear, click on one of the records for your name. This will bring up all the records associated with your UQ Author ID. Click the RSS icon. The URL at the top can be pasted into any RSS reader.
What format will my export be in, e.g. CSV?
The export will be in CSV (comma separated values). We can also provide you with XML. Please contact us if you require other formats.
Can I supply colleagues a feed of my works?
Yes, you can create an RSS feed of your publication list. To create the feed, do an Advanced Search for your name. When results appear, click on one of the records for your name. This will bring up all the records associated with your UQ Author ID. Click the RSS icon. The URL at the top can be pasted into any RSS reader.
Can I display an RSS feed of my works on my home page? On my Facebook page?
Yes, you can create an RSS feed of your publication list that can populate your own Web page or services such as Facebook or MySpace. To create the feed, do an <b>Advanced Search</b> for your name. When results appear, click on one of the records for your name. This will bring up all the records associated with your UQ Author ID. Click the RSS icon. The URL at the top can be pasted into any RSS reader. For Facebook, choose an RSS application to display on your page and paste the URL into that.
What is an AuthorID?
Each UQ author has a unique ID so that you can easily separate your own publications out from other authors of the same name. We also use the AuthorID to credit you with statistical download counts. The ID is linked to your staff Aurion ID.
How do I search for my own work?
Use the Advanced Search and enter your name in the Author field. When results appear, click on one of the records for your name. This will bring up all the records associated with your UQ Author ID.
Can I save searches?
You can bookmark the link of any search you run, so that you can easily run it again. Equally, you can subscribe to the RSS feed for the search.
Can I give colleagues an URL for my work?
Yes, give them the URL for your unique AuthorID as that will be the quickest way for them to see all your deposits. Or you can give them the URL for one particular paper, if that is preferred.
Will that URL link to any new works I deposit, or do I have to keep changing it?
The URL for your unique AuthorID will always link to all current deposits.
Can I search on phrases?
Yes, you can. Just enclose the phrase you are looking for in double quotes, e.g. "rarefied gas dynamics".
What punctuation do I use?
Multiple terms can be combined together with Boolean operators to form a more complex query.
Can I stem search, or use wildcards?
Our search tool supports single and multiple character wildcard searches within single terms (though not within phrase queries).
To perform a single character wildcard search use the "?" symbol.
To perform a multiple character wildcard search use the "*" symbol.
The single character wildcard search looks for terms that match that with the single character replaced. For example, to search for "text" or "test" you can use the search:
te?t
Multiple character wildcard searches looks for 0 or more characters. For example, to search for test, tests or tester, you can use the search:
test*
You can also use the wildcard searches in the middle of a term.
te*t
However, you cannot use a * or ? symbol as the first character of a search.
Can I search for people by first AND last name?
Not at present.
Can UQ eSpace data be used for research reporting to Government, e.g. the annual Higher Education Research Data Collection?
Yes, the data for the HERDC 2008 collection is currently being entered in UQ eSpace. We will also most likely use UQ eSpace to deliver electronic research for assessors in the upcoming ERA exercise to be conducted by DISR (ERA is the replacement for the cancelled Reseacrh Quality Framework (RQF).)