Auburn University
Repository of Research Assets (AUrora)
AUrora is Auburn University’s scholarly repository. Its purpose is to showcase research by Auburn University faculty, students, and staff and make it more accessible to Alabama residents and the general public.
AUrora welcomes submissions from people who are formally associated with the university. This includes faculty (tenured, tenure-track, clinical, instructors, lecturers, and adjuncts), as well as graduate students, academic professionals, and staff. Each department may also choose to include other categories of users, such as undergraduate students.
Any scholarly output is welcome in AUrora. Each department may determine whether a type of work is appropriate to be included in its collection. The most commonly accepted types of content are pre- or post-prints of journal articles or books; conference papers, presentations, or poster sessions; technical reports or working papers; learning objects or lesson plans; and datasets. AUrora is organized into communities that correspond to the university’s colleges, departments, and research centers and institutes.
Researchers can upload digital files to AUrora, including text files, PDF files, images, videos, and datasets. The repository can be searched by keyword or browsed by college, submission date, author name, and other criteria. AUrora is indexed by Google and Google Scholar, which means that Auburn researchers can count on their research getting wide exposure.
AUrora is designed to be faculty-driven and easy to use. Faculty members decide whether and what to contribute, using a Web-based work form. The submissions are checked by subject librarians and by designated liaisons at the department or college level before being made public. Check the AUrora Web site to find the AUrora liaison person for your college.
Participation in AUrora is voluntary. Since submitting an item to AUrora is essentially the same as publishing it, researchers are encouraged to check publishers’ policies on copyright and self-archiving through the SHERPA/RoMEO database at www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/.
Although rules for prior publication vary across disciplines, we recommend that researchers hold off on submitting work that they would like to publish elsewhere, since publication in AUrora may preempt publication in a traditional journal. Those caveats aside, AUrora is an excellent way for researchers to make their work available to the world in one easy-to-find place, with the support of the Auburn University libraries.
FAQ
Q: Why should I participate in AUrora?
A: First, AUrora is a good way to make your work more visible to other scholars,
to acquisitions editors and reviewers, and to the general public. AUrora is indexed
by Google and Google Scholar, which means that your research is likely to reach
a broad audience. Second, participating in AUrora contributes to the university’s research and outreach missions—a point you might want to emphasize in your P&T dossier. Third, it helps you satisfy a growing number of federal requirements concerning the dissemination and preservation of research that has been conducted with public money (federal grants). Finally, it’s safer than keeping copies of your work on a collection of thumb drives.
Q: How do I submit materials to AUrora?
A: First, go to aurora.auburn.edu. Look for the login box on the right-hand side of the page. Enter your Auburn University login and password. Click ”Submissions,” then follow theprompts. You will be asked to fill out a work form describing the item or items you’re submitting. The AUrora work form is closely modeled on the “Scholarly Contributions” work forms in Digital Measures, for familiarity’s sake and to enable eventual cross-walking between the two systems. When you’ve finished describing your item and uploading attachments, click on the “Submit” button. The AUrora liaison person for your department or the subject librarian for your discipline will review your submission for completeness (not for content!) and clear it for publication in the repository. It should then become immediately available.
Q: What about copyright?
A: When posting published works to AUrora, scholars should verify that this is allowed in their publication agreements. Many journal publishers allow authors to post the final, refereed version of their works to institutional repositories as long as authors include links to the journal website and place an embargo (typically six months to a year) on the version uploaded to a repository. If you have questions, your subject librarian may be able to help you find information about a journal’s publication agreement.
Q: I’m already in Digital Measures. Isn’t that the same thing?
A: Not really. Digital Measures is a database of faculty profiles, and its primary focus is internal. AUrora is a database of research, and its primary focus is external. There is some overlap between the two systems, but they serve different purposes and different constituencies.
Q: How long will my work remain in AUrora?
A: AUrora is meant to be a permanent record of Auburn University’s scholarly output. Once an item has been deposited to AUrora, a citation to that item will always remain. Authors should keep this in mind when deciding what they would like to submit to AUrora.
Q: I’ve got questions about AUrora. Whom can I ask?
A: Your subject librarian is a good source
of information about AUrora. He/she can
also help you fill out the AUrora work
form. You can find the subject librarian for
your discipline at libguides.auburn.edu/subjectspecialists.
