Policies

Metadata Policy

for information describing items in the repository
  1. Anyone may access the metadata free of charge.
  2. The metadata may be re-used in any medium without prior permission for not-for-profit purposes and re-sold commercially provided:
    • the OAI Identifier or a link to the original metadata record are given
    • LSHTM Research Online is mentioned

Data Policy

for full-text and other full data items
  1. Anyone may access full items free of charge.
  2. All full items are individually tagged with differing rights permissions and conditions.

Content Policy

for types of document & data set held
  1. This is an institutional or departmental repository.
  2. Subject Specialities:
    • Social Sciences General
    • Health and Medicine
  3. LSHTM Research Online is restricted to:
    • Journal articles
    • Bibliographic references
    • Conference and workshop papers
    • Theses and dissertations
    • Unpublished reports and working papers
    • Books, chapters and sections
    • Datasets
    • Learning Objects
    • Multimedia and audio-visual materials
    • Software
    • Patents
  4. Deposited items may include:
    • submitted versions (as sent to journals for peer-review)
    • accepted versions (author's final peer-reviewed drafts)
    • published versions (publisher-created files)
  5. Items are individually tagged with:
    • their version type and date.
    • their peer-review status.
    • their publication status.

Submission Policy

concerning depositors, quality & copyright
  1. Items may only be deposited by accredited members, and academic staff of the institution, or their delegated agents.
  2. Eligible depositors must deposit bibliographic metadata for all their publications.
  3. The administrator only vets items for the eligibility of authors/depositors, relevance to the scope of LSHTM Research Online, and the exclusion of spam
  4. The validity and authenticity of the content of submissions is the sole responsibility of the depositor.
  5. Items can be deposited at any time, but will not be made publicly visible until any publishers' or funders' embargo period has expired.
  6. If LSHTM Research Online receives proof of copyright violation, the relevant item will be removed immediately.

Preservation Policy

  1. Items will be retained indefinitely.
  2. LSHTM Research Online will try to ensure continued readability and accessibility.
    • Items will be migrated to new file formats where necessary.
    • It may not be possible to guarantee the readability of some unusual file formats.
  3. LSHTM Research Online regularly backs up its files according to current best practice.
  4. Items may be removed at the request of the author/copyright holder, but this is strongly discouraged.
  5. Acceptable reasons for withdrawal include:
    • Proven copyright violation or plagiarism
    • Legal requirements and proven violations
    • National Security
    • Falsified research
    • if original submission is superseded by a fuller item e.g. conference paper superseded by journal article, at researcher's request
  6. Withdrawn items are not deleted per se, but are removed from public view.
  7. Withdrawn items' identifiers/URLs are retained indefinitely.
  8. URLs will continue to point to 'tombstone' citations, to avoid broken links and to retain item histories, with:
    • a link to a replacement version, where available
    • a note explaining the reasons for withdrawal
  9. If necessary, an updated version may be deposited.
    • The earlier version may be withdrawn from public view.
    • The item's persistent URL will always link to the latest version.
    • There will be links between earlier and later versions, with the most recent version clearly identified.
  10. In the event of LSHTM Research Online being closed down, the database will be transferred to another appropriate archive.

E-thesis Policy

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine requires the electronic deposit of research degree theses into LSHTM Research Online. If you are a current PhD student you can find out about the policy or read FAQs on how to deposit your thesis into Research Online. Further information is available via the Research Degree webpage.

Takedown Policy

Materials held on LSHTM Research Online are made available in accordance with publisher policies and/or with permission from the rights holders.

If you have a legitimate reason to request the removal of an item from LSHTM Research Online, the request should be directed to the attention of the Research Publications Manager at library@lshtm.ac.uk. Please ensure that you include your contact details, full details of the material in question (including the URL where you found the material), evidence that you are the rights holder, and the reason you are requesting removal of the material.

Examples of acceptable reasons for requesting takedown of material include: copyright violation or plagiarism, a legislative breach (e.g. data protection), national security concerns, falsified research.

Receipt of takedown requests will be acknowledged by email as soon as possible. Access to the material that is subject to the request will be restricted to repository staff only while the request is investigated. If the request is upheld, the material will be permanently removed from LSHTM Research Online.