Frequently Asked Questions
Why should I deposit my work with George Eliot Scholars?
George Eliot Scholars connects your work with others in your field who are eager to read it.
Depositing your work with a repository ensures that it is archived and attributed to you and makes it quickly and widely available to others who are interested in your topic of research. George Eliot scholars are a generous community of researchers. Open up your work for review and discussion, and learn from others on the same research journey of discovery.
We believe in open access to scholarship. Many of us conduct research at academic institutions funded by taxpayers, yet publish in journals that have been locked up behind paywalls that don't allow the public--those who paid for the work--to read it. Publishers are charging insane amounts for subscriptions to digital journals and public institutions have been forced to pay whatever is charged. We believe in the democratization of research. We believe in in the sharing of knowledge by those who create it to everyone who is seeking it.
What kind of works can be deposited to George Eliot Scholars?
Although the majority of our documents are peer-reviewed scholarly articles and reviews that we collect from Open Access repositories, we encourage scholars to contribute their own institutional copy here in our educational, non-commercial digital commons site.
In addition to peer-reviewed journal articles, we also welcome "gray literature" such as blog posts, syllabi, conference papers, data sets, presentations, and video and audio files. Some of the items we accept include: abstracts, articles, bibliographies, books, book chapters, catalogs, charts, conference publications, course materials, data sets, documentaries, dissertations, essays, fictional works, finding aids, images, interviews, maps, music, performances, photographs, posters, PowerPoint slides, presentations in any format, reports, reviews, software or GitHub resources, syllabi, technical reports, theses, translations, and visual art.
What file types can George Eliot Scholars accept?
George Eliot Scholars accepts the following file types (and is working on making more options uploadable):
- Audio: .mp3
- Data: .csv, .xls, .xlsx
- Image: .gif, .jpeg, .jpg, .pdf, .png, .tiff
- Text or mixed media: .doc, .docx, .htm, .html, .pdf, .pps, .ppt, .pptx, .rtf, .txt, .xml
- Video: .mp4, .mov
Please note that if you are uploading a word-processed document, PDF files are preferred for reasons of cross-platform compatibility and security.
How do I cite an item I find in George Eliot Scholars?
We recommend that you include the following information: author name(s), title, date of creation, edition (if relevant), and then cite our project as the source the same as you would an edited collection (George Eliot Scholars, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, and the permanent URL, https://GeorgeEliotScholars.org)
How do I make my work available for others to use?
Works deposited in George Eliot Scholars are covered by our Terms and Conditions, which stipulate that members may not use your content without your specific consent or unless you share it under a Creative Commons license.
We do, however, encourage you to adopt our usual Creative Commons license: CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0. You have the option to attribute such a license to your work at the time of deposit.
How do I know if I can legally deposit an article I’ve published elsewhere?
Policies vary by publisher and journal. Look up the journal or publisher by name in the SHERPA-RoMEO database to find out its policies covering archiving.
For example, if your article was published in PMLA, you may deposit preprint versions of the article (without the journal's page styling or pagination) as well as post-print articles (as they appeared in their final published form). You may also publish the PDF file available from the publisher as long as you comply with certain conditions.
If your article is published in French Studies, for instance, you may deposit a preprint version before it is accepted and a post-print version after a two-year embargo but not the publisher’s PDF file. If you wish to deposit a book chapter or a monograph, please check your agreement with the publisher.
We are striving to share open access materials that comply with all copyright requirements. If we make a mistake, we will respond to takedown notices within 30 days.
Help! I made a mistake while entering information about my deposit. What can I do?
Email us, at GeorgeEliotScholars@gmail.com or bdr0032@auburn.edu. We’re working out some issues with our current interface but for now, you can simply contact us with the corrections and we will update your information.
I’m intrigued, but have reservations. If I change my mind, can I remove something I have uploaded to George Eliot Scholars?
Although we discourage the withdrawal of items from George Eliot Scholars, we will remove documents within thirty days of confirming a withdrawal request. If you have published a version of the work elsewhere and wish to point to that version in the Notes field of your deposit, please let us know. If we remove an item at the author’s request, we will add a note to the record of the item explaining why it is no longer available.
Where can I find more information about the George Eliot Archive, the George Eliot Review, or the George Eliot Scholars?
Please see our History of the Project on each website:
https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org
https://GeorgeEliotReview.org
https://GeorgeEliotScholars.org
If you still have questions, please get in touch with the project's editor and inaugural director, Dr. Beverley Park Rilett, bdr0032@auburn.edu.
*These frequently asked questions have been adapted from those of the MLA's CORE Humanities Commons (https://mla.hcommons.org/core/).