Policies

Scope

The Iowa State University Digital Press provides publishing services for:

  • active scholarly, academic, and co-curricular publications; and
  • hosting services for active and ceased scholarly, academic, and co-curricular publications;

from Iowa State faculty, staff, campus units, student organizations, researchers from other institutions, independent authors, and scholarly, professional, and community organizations. The disciplinary focus of the publication must be reflected in Iowa State University’s academic and/or research programs.

Student Publications

Student organizations interested in utlizing the Digital Press's publishing services must identify a faculty adviser and be either sponsored by a campus unit or recognized by the Student Activities Center.

Copyright and Open Access

The Iowa State University Digital Press strives to increase access to the scholarly record through the publication of Open Access journals. All publications published or hosted by the Digital Press must be fully Open Access.

Copyright in journals published on behalf of Iowa State faculty, staff, campus units, and student organizations is held by Iowa State University. Copyright in journals published on behalf of scholarly or professional organizations will be held by the organization. Copyright in individual articles will remain with the author(s). The Iowa State University Digital Press strongly encourages publishing under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) or Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (CC BY-NC) to maximize the distribution and reuse of articles. 

Diversity

The Iowa State University Digital Press is committed to increasing the diversity of voices that are represented in the scholarly record. We welcome journals, conferences, and edited volumes that seek to publish submissions from students, emerging scholars, authors from underrepresented groups, in languages other than English, and voices from outside academia. We strongly encourage journal editors and conference organizers to build editorial boards and peer reviewer pools that are inclusive of a diversity of identities, geographies, perspectives, and lived experiences appropriate to the scope of the journal or conference. 

Tools, Services, and Responsibilities

The Iowa State University Digital Press utilizes the following publishing platforms: Janeway, Open Monograph Press, and Pressbooks. The Scholarly Publishing Services librarian will work with authors and/or editors to determine the most suitable platform for each publication. The following tools and services provided by the Iowa State University Digital Press:

  • A custom-designed site
  • Software to manage editorial and peer-review workflows
  • Training and technical support 
  • Readership statistics for editors and authors
  • Registering ISSN, ISBN and DOIs and other relevant identifiers
  • Assistance with marketing and indexing in relevent disciplinary databases
  • Information and advice on copyright and licensing

Optional services provided by the Iowa State University Digital Press include:

  • Digitization and hosting of journal back issues

Publication editor(s) are responsible for:

  • Establishing editorial, authorship, and copyright policies
  • Establishing review policies and procedures
  • Publication administration and management, including submissions and peer review
  • Ensuring reference lists include DOIs for citations of journal articles, when available
  • Copyediting, proofreading, and creating article templates
  • Ensuring the continuity and sustainability of journals

Author(s) are responsible for:

  • Delivering text and images in file formats and specifications requested by the Digital Press
  • Including DOIs for citations of journal articles in reference lists, when available
  • Proofreading

The division of production labor, including typesetting, formatting, and layout, will be determined on a publication-by-publication basis.

Costs and Fees

There are currently no costs and fees for using Iowa State University Digital Press's publishing services as outlined in the tools, services, and responsibilities policy. Additional services, including, but not limited to, complex layout and design, copyediting, and back issue digitization, may incur additional fees on a cost-recovery basis. Journals published through the Iowa State University Digital Press should not charge authors any publication fees.

Back Issues

In addition to publishing and/or hosting current and new issues of journals, the Iowa State University Library can digitize and host back issues of existing journals. A timeframe for the digtiization and upload of back issues will need to be negotiated and will be dependent on the availability of resources. If there is a significant amount  to add, funding may be requested to support the hiring of student assistants who can assist with the processing and upload of back issues.

Publishing Services