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ScholarlyCommons

This guide will help you to become more familiar with Penn's institutional repository, ScholarlyCommons, and the various services provided by the ScholarlyCommons team.

Benefits of Submitting to ScholarlyCommons

ScholarlyCommons maximizes the impact of your research by connecting you with a worldwide audience and preserving your works for future readers.

Visibility

Your work will be freely and openly accessible to researchers around the world and showcased alongside other members of the Penn community. Each item in the repository is stamped with a customized cover page containing recommended citations and other information that ensures authors get credit for their work.

Screenshot of ScholarlyCommons cover page

Every item in ScholarlyCommons is automatically stamped with a Penn branded cover page like the one above (full page not depicted).

Impact

All materials in ScholarlyCommons are fully indexed in search engines like Google and Google Scholar and are additionally available through the Digital Commons Network (a discipline-specific repository search engine). This means that your materials are more easily discoverable online and appear higher in search results. ScholarlyCommons currently receives around 2.5 million downloads per year (and counting). Click here to learn more about ScholarlyCommons' impact.

Screenshot of Google Scholar search results displaying an item from ScholarlyCommons

Screenshot depicting typical Google Scholar search results for an item in ScholarlyCommons.

Statistics

Individual authors will receive access to an Author Dashboard, a personalized reporting tool where you can view real-time download information for every work you publish as well as global insights into the sources of your readership. Series administrators will be able to access a similar dashboard containing statistics for all of the materials in their series. To learn how to access your Author Dashboard, visit the FAQs.

Screenshot of the ScholarlyCommons statistics dashboard

The Author Dashboard provides global download statistics for all of your works.

Preservation & Support

The Penn Libraries takes stewardship over all materials in ScholarlyCommons and is committed to ensuring their longevity as best it can. ScholarlyCommons additionally provides permanent URLs (no dead links!) for each work, a multi-tiered disaster recovery plan for all of its contents, and ongoing support through bepress and the Penn Libraries.

Permissions Expertise

Not all publishers allow you to post your work online; we can help you to find out what you can legally share! Our staff can also help answer Penn community members' questions on author rights, copyright, publishing, and permissions.

Branding

Collections can be customized with individual introductory text, links, banners, images, cover pages, and other options that fit your group. Journal and conference series can be further customized with unique site designs and peer review workflows. Request a consultation with us for more information.

Image of keyboard with "share" button

Image courtesy Niklas Wikström via CC BY-NC 2.0 license.

 

Submit to ScholarlyCommons

Make your works discoverable through ScholarlyCommons, Penn's openly accessible institutional repository. Submit materials yourself, or set up a consultation to discuss your digital project. 

Contact Us

If you'd like more information about Scholarly Commons, please click on the button below to fill out a form.  We'd be happy to answer your questions or set up a consultation.