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SOAR Submission Policy - Faculty & Staff Scholarly and Creative Works

Guide for faculty and staff to contribute scholarly and creative works into SOAR.

SUNY New Paltz’s OA Policy

  • Why do we need an OA policy?
    • The SUNY Board of Trustees resolution distributed in 2018 mandated that each SUNY campus develop and implement an OA policy.
  • What is the goal of the OA policy?
    • The goal of the OA policy is to establish expectations and guidelines for creating an online digital repository for collecting scholarly and creative works by SUNY New Paltz faculty and staff. All SUNY institutional repositories will be linked and searchable through a single interface, the SUNY Open Access Repository (SOAR).
  • How does the OA policy affect me?
    • The OA policy allows New Paltz faculty and staff to participate in depositing their scholarly and creative works into an OA repository. This is an “opt-in” policy which allows you to deposit your work if you wish.
  • Will the policy affect where and how I publish my work (e.g., do I have to publish in an open access journal)?
    • The policy does not affect where and how you publish your work. Publishing in open access journals is not required. For more information on open access journals, refer to this online guide.
  • What do I have to do to comply with this policy?
    • The policy is opt-in meaning you are not required to submit your work to our institutional repository.
  • Will the STL Librarians be able to tell me if my publication can legally be hosted on SOAR?
  • No, while the STL librarians can commit to archiving works that faculty contribute, they do not have dedicated time to provide educational programming about copyright, open access or to offer direct outreach to faculty, staff, and students about publications that may be eligible for inclusion in the repository. Please work with your editor and/or publisher prior to submitting to ensure correct permissions are in place.
  • Does this policy cover student works and theses?
    • Theses are not covered by this policy and students are expected to deposit them in SOAR as part of degree completion (or opt out).
  • Will those who review my personnel file for reappointment, tenure, and /or promotion know whether I have opted to deposit my work? Will it affect the outcome of my review? 
    • The decision to deposit or not will not have any bearing on personnel decisions.