University Libraries

These are a few of the presentation & workshop topics that the Scholarly Communication Officeoffers. However, we’re also willing to tailor these or other presentations related to scholarly communication to your particular needs or those of your group.

Please contact scholarlycommunication@unt.edu if you would like to schedule one of these presentations.

Scholarly Communication

Scholarly communication includes all of the ways that scholarly work may be produced, disseminated, shared, and preserved. This may include traditional print or online books & journals, digital scholarship, Open Access publication, online scholarly communities, and institutional or disciplinary repositories, among others. Scholarly communication may also address the ways in which scholarly work is evaluated, rewarded, and valued by various communities through peer review, promotion & tenure, or scholarly impact metrics.

Possible presentations:

• “How does an academic journal work?”: A hands-on look at the editorial and production process of a typical academic journal, including a group card-sorting activity to help illustrate the various aspects of journal publication.
• “Models of peer review”: A discussion of scholarly peer review models, including the advantages and disadvantages of each, and how journals in various disciplines utilize peer review.
• “Evaluating scholarly journals”: A workshop on how to evaluate and select journals for publication, as well as how to avoid “predatory journals” or other bad practices.
• “Why can’t scholarship be free?”: In this workshop, we’ll look at the Open Access movement and discuss the potential of free, open, re-usable scholarship that’s available to anyone online. We’ll also talk about publication opportunities and how to utilize Open Access venues to help your scholarly work reach a wider audience and have a greater impact.

Copyright

Copyright gives authors the exclusive right to control their creative works in a number of ways. At the same time, however, copyright is not absolute, and exceptions like Fair Use create ways that people can use copyright protected works without infringing on the author’s rights. Ultimately, copyright strives to achieve a balance between the rights of authors and users to drive forward the creative arts.

Possible presentations:

• “Copyright basics”: The key to understanding copyright law is to know the basics. This program surveys the foundational concepts of US Copyright law, including why we protect copyright, the “copyright balance,” the “bundle of rights,” and the fair use doctrine.
• “Making sense of fair use”: Fair use is everyone’s favorite exception to copyright, but figuring out what constitutes fair use is often quite confusing. This presentation will break down the fair use factors and discuss how you can use this copyright exception in your research and in your classes.
• “Author’s rights issues”: Traditionally, publication contracts required authors to transfer ownership of their copyrights over to publishers. However, as an author, you have a number of rights, and may not have to relinquish your rights to publish. In this presentation, we will talk about your rights as an author, what to look for in publication agreements that affect those rights, what options you may have available to retain your rights, and whether you should consider making your work available to the public in some form.

Repository Services

UNT Digital Libraries provides repository services for UNT community members (faculty, staff, and students) in order to provide long-term preservation and access for UNT scholarship. These services consist of two repositories: UNT Scholarly Works, a special collection of items contributed by the UNT Community and hosted in theUNT Digital Library, and the UNT Data Repository, which serves as a central archive for the research data of our UNT scholars.

Possible presentations:

• “Using the UNT Data Repository”: An overview of the types of data available in the UNT Data Repository, how you can deposit your data, and methods for sharing.
• “Introduction to UNT Scholarly Works”: An overview of how UNT Scholarly Works increases discoverability and access to your work.