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CaltechAUTHORS: Nuts and bolts

Repository of research papers authored by faculty and other researchers at Caltech. This guide answers many of the basic questions users may have.

What is CaltechAUTHORS?

CaltechAUTHORS is a repository of research papers authored by Caltech faculty and other researchers at Caltech. It includes mainly articles, but also books, book chapters, conference papers and more. It is updated continuously as both Caltech department and library staff add available and recently published documents.

CaltechAUTHORS has been active since 2001, and is the largest and most dynamic of the repositories within CODA.

CaltechAUTHORS is part of CODA, the Caltech Collection of Open Digital Archives, managed by Caltech Library Services. The mission of CODA is to collect, manage, preserve and provide global access over time to the scholarly output of the Institute and the publications of campus units.

The program ‘s priority is to gain up-to-date and accurate information on the output of the institute, and maintain it so that the data can be exported, harvested and used in as many ways as the Institute and its units may desire.  It is the most complete single source for all the research Caltech produces.

Policies on self-archiving in CaltechAUTHORS

The Faculty Board has charged the library with documenting the scholarly output of the Institute. It has not placed any restrictions on Caltech authors in their choice of publication venues or publishing agreements. CaltechAUTHORS documents the scholarly output of the Institute in accordance with the policies of the publishers and in cooperation with our authors.

Many publishers forbid authors from making their published content available on institutional repositories such as CaltechAUTHORS, or at least require an embargo period. They will, however, often allow unrestricted access to author’s accepted versions.  We therefore highly encourage you to upload copies of these if you have them.

We are happy to host the accepted version of the manuscript and to provide access to the referrer link, if the publisher provides one, to enable free access to the final, published version. Library staff will download the published version and preserve it, regardless of redistribution rights provided by the publisher. If publishers forbid making public access available locally, the published version will be stored in a dark portion of the archive.

Policy on adding restrospective holdings

With training by library staff, faculty support staff can add retrospective records to CaltechAUTHORS in order to complete bibliographies. Library staff review all submissions to ensure quality and accuracy of added records and compliance with Caltech’s and publishers’ policies on Open Access.

Important Details

  • Only Caltech-affiliated faculty, staff, and students may deposit records.  Library staff may need to approve and enhance your account before you are able to start adding items.
  • Use the Simple Deposit form to create and deposit records including very basic bibliographic information. Only PDF files (<10 Mb each) can be uploaded using this method, although you can attach multiple files to one record if needed.
  • Use the Advanced Deposit form if you want to create records with complex bibliographic information or if you want to import bibliographic data from another source. Any records that include attached files greater than 10 Mb or are not PDFs must be added using this method.
  • Caltech's Open Access Policy went into effect on January 1, 2014.  Authors can make publicly accessible the attached preprints or submitted versions of published material in CaltechAUTHORS, even if the published versions must be embargoed for any length of time.  Please review the OA Policy guide for more information and how to apply for waivers to the policy.
    • Library staff follow Caltech's Open Access Policy, which went into effect January 1, 2014.
    • Publisher's copyright and archiving policies on display of published material (the PDFs) in institutional repositories will be observed by library staff within the limits of Caltech's Open Access Policy.
      • The library interprets CaltechAUTHORS to be the author's personal repository.
      • Library staff use Sherpa Romeo to find summaries of permissions that are normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement.  As necessary, they also check specific publishers' websites for further instructions.

If you have any questions, or have suggestions for enhancing our service in this particular area, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

Supported Services

Library staff offer support for CaltechAUTHORS services.  Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions or need help.

    • Automatic notification of new publications:
      • RSS feeds
        • Various browsers handle these differently. Please check your browser’s help pages. There are many RSS feed readers available to match any number of personal preferences, including most browsers and Microsoft Outlook. There are also readers that can be used within any browser, such as Google Reader. Perform your search in the database. Once the browse list has been generated on your screen, click on one of the RSS or Atom links
      • Saved searches
        • You must have an account in CaltechAUTHORS and be logged in to be able to use this feature
        • To create a new saved search, carry out a search using either the Simple Search or the Advanced Search feature and select “Save search” from the top of the search results page
        • Advanced Search gives you the option of refining your search and minimizing false hits, especially with personal names
        • Subject keywords, authors, grant numbers, journal titles are popular types of searches available through Advanced Search
        • You may view your saved searches and set up email alerts to receive periodic updates if anything new in the search is added to the database.  Change your settings for the specific search in the “Saved Searches” page from the “Logged in as…” bar at the top of the page.
      • Export of bibliographic information in a variety of formats:
        • Choose one of the desired export formats from the pull-down menu at the top of the search results
          • BibTeX and EndNote are the most widely used. Basic bibliographic information is exported
          • EP3 XML exports the complete metadata set included in the record, inc;uding grant and grant number information

  • Broad-based campus contributions:
    • The library staff provides training to divisional staff and faculty so that they can input faculty publications to the database.
    • The library staff consults with division staff and faculty about adding retrospective materials to CaltechAUTHORS.
    • The library staff reviews and enhances records added by other campus staff to assure completeness and accuracy of data.

    Author Services and Thesis Librarian

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    Kathy Johnson
    she/her
    Contact:
    Sherman Fairchild Library 1-43

    Useful Links