Niner Commons: About Us

About Niner Commons

 

Niner Commons, UNC Charlotte’s institutional repository, is an open access collection of the university’s scholarly output. The repository makes the full text of publications discoverable online, showcasing the work of individuals, departments, institutes, colleges, and other communities of researchers on campus.

 

Benefits to Scholars

Niner Commons hosts and promotes your scholarly work while providing valuable long-term preservation. The repository also makes works discoverable on Google Scholar and comes with a suite of analytics tools to measure the impact and reach of your work.

Benefits of using Niner Commons include:

  • Increased visibility
  • Openly accessible research
  • Long-term preservation
  • Analytics
  • Credibility
  • Diversity of formats/types

 

What can I submit?

UNC Charlotte faculty, staff, and students can contribute work to Niner Commons. This includes works in which the UNC Charlotte contributor is a primary or co-author. Works must be a product of your scholarly activity at UNC Charlotte.
 
Niner Commons hosts scholarly materials such as journal articles (including preprints and postprints), theses and dissertations, working papers, technical reports, datasets, multimedia, learning objects, and more. You can easily submit your materials via our online submission form.

Scholar Profiles

Faculty, staff, and graduate students who have multiple works in Niner Commons can create a Scholar Profile. Scholar Profiles are personal digital profiles that consolidate and showcase your collection of work. To request or update your Scholar Profile, email ninercommons@uncc.edu

 

Copyright and Author Rights

Niner Commons can host published scholarly works (e.g. journal articles and book chapters) as well as scholarly works that are not formally published (e.g. conference presentations and grey literature).
 
If you have a published scholarly work that you’d like to submit to Niner Commons, you can review our copyright guide to determine if there may be any copyright matters to consider.
 
Generally speaking, before you publish your research through a publisher, there are steps you can take to ensure it has the widest distribution and impact possible. This includes negotiating your author contract so that you retain key rights for your content, such as the right to submit your work to Niner Commons. Our publishing guide has guidance on how to retain copyright and other key rights in your author contract.
 
If you have any questions about copyright, author agreements, or determining if your work can be submitted to Niner Commons, our Copyright & Licensing Librarian Arnetta Girardeau (arnetta.g@charlotte.edu) is available for consultations.

Open Access

Niner Commons strives to provide effective, efficient, and permanent access to the resources while embracing the principles of open access, fair use, and intellectual freedom. Learn more about open access publishing at Atkins Library, including our digital publishing services.

 

Contact Us

Niner Commons is developed and supported by the J. Murrey Atkins Library free of charge. We welcome feedback and questions at ninercommons@uncc.edu and aim to respond within three business days.
 
You can also contact Savannah Lake, Digital Scholarship Librarian, for any questions about Niner Commons (savannah.lake@uncc.edu, 704-687-7477).