Frequently Asked Questions


Georgia Southern Commons Accounts / Signing In


Submitting Works to Georgia Southern Commons


Reviewing in Georgia Southern Commons


Promoting Your Research in Georgia Southern Commons

  • How do I promote my research in Georgia Southern Commons?

    • Sponsoring and Managing Content in Georgia Southern Commons



    Do I need a Georgia Southern Commons Account?

    You do not need a Georgia Southern Commons account to access collections. You only need a Georgia Southern Commons account if you will be uploading or maintaining content in a Georgia Southern Commons collection, or if you are being granted administrative rights for a particular collection. If you are unable to access a resource, contact digitalcommons@georgiasouthern.edu to see if we can provide you with a copy.

    I am unable to log into Georgia Southern Commons. Help!

    The system could be denying you access for a variety of reasons. Consider the following:

    1. Have you confirmed your account via email? You should have received an email to confirm your account. It may be in your Spam folder. If you did not receive an email, contact support@dc.bepress.com
    2. Did you recently change your email? If you recently changed emails, you may need to login with your previous email address and edit your profile to change your email address.
    3. Do you have the correct password? Click on Forget your password and follow the instructions in the email you receive.
    Is the Georgia Southern Commons login connected to Georgia Southern’s MyGS login?

    Georgia Southern Commons login credentials are not connected to your MyGS login credentials. However, you will want to use your Georgia Southern email address to set up a new Georgia Southern Commons account.

    How do I know if my submission has been received?

    You should see a confirmation screen and receive an email after successfully submitting a work to Georgia Southern Commons. Submission forms will time out. If so, you may need to resubmit your answers. Contact digitalcommons@georgiasouthern.edu if you did not receive confirmation of your submission.

    When I copy and paste abstracts into the Submit form, some formatted text reverts to plain text. What's going on?

    Georgia Southern Commons supports the ISO 8859-1 character set (this includes the numbers 0-9, upper- and lower-case letters A-Z, and standard English punctuation). Although you may take advantage of the complete character set, we recommend you consider not using special characters as these may inhibit user searches, both on the web and on the Georgia Southern Commons site.

    How do I include accents and special characters in abstracts and titles?

    Combine all of the sections together as one Microsoft Word document or PDF file and submit that.

    To make one PDF file from multiple files using Adobe Acrobat, open the first PDF file, then choose Document>Insert Pages to insert the second file (indicate that the second file should go after the last page of the first file). Repeat for all documents. The result will be one compound PDF file.

    What types of files can I upload to Georgia Southern Commons?

    You can upload any discrete file type to Georgia Southern Commons, including all Microsoft Office files; PDFs; and audio, video, and image files. Additionally, you can stream media from third-party services like YouTube or Vimeo on Georgia Southern Commons metadata pages.

    How do I revise a submission?
    1. Click My Account.
    2. Log in to your account.
    3. Click on the title of the submission you want to revise.
    4. Click Edit Submissionin the menu at the top of the screen.
    5. Click Revise Submissionin the left-hand menu.
    6. Revise your submission, then click Submit
    Do I lose copyright when I submit works to Georgia Southern Commons?

    Generally, no. In most cases, authors retain copyright for works they submit to Georgia Southern Commons. Authors may also have options to embargo their works, restrict access to the Georgia Southern University campus, or assign a Creative Commons License to their submissions. Consult the Copyright Information page for more details on Georgia Southern Commons’ copyright policies.

    How do I request the removal or modification of works in Georgia Southern Commons?

    The Georgia Southern University Libraries make every effort to ensure that all works submitted to Georgia Southern Commons are archived and disseminated in accordance with United States copyright law, University policy, and the wishes of content creators. If for any reason you believe that a work included in Georgia Southern Commons should be removed or modified, please email the GS Commons Team at digitalcommons@georgiasouthern.edu. A member of the Team will contact you as soon as possible during regular business hours.

    Why is the system denying me access when I try to log in?

    For reviewers, you must sign in with the email address at which you received the Request to Review email.

    If you are using the correct email address, the system could be denying you access for a variety of reasons. Consider the following:

    1. Have you confirmed your account via email? You should have received an email to confirm your account. It may be in your Spam folder. If you did not receive an email, contact support@dc.bepress.com
    2. Did you recently change your email? If you recently changed emails, you may need to login with your previous email address and edit your profile to change your email address.
    3. Do you have the correct password? Click on Forget your password and follow the instructions in the email you receive.
    How do I obtain the proposal I am trying to review?

    For journals, you should be able to view the article by clicking on the PDF button.

    For conferences, you can view the proposal information either in the email or on the initial review page where you see the Submit Review button. Conference proposals may not include a PDF file.

    If you need help finding proposal information, contact digitalcommons@georgiasouthern.edu.

    I keep receiving reminder emails even though I turned in my review. How can I stop the reminder emails?

    You may not have finished the review. Many reviews are two-part: a rubric in Google Docs and additional comments or confirmation that you finished the review in the Georgia Southern Commons system. You must submit both parts to stop the reminder emails. For further questions, contact digitalcommons@georgiasouthern.edu.

    How do I promote my research in Georgia Southern Commons?

    Georgia Southern Scholars is a public, searchable database that highlights the scholarly and creative activities of Georgia Southern University faculty. GS Scholars advances collaboration, discovery, and innovation by connecting researchers across departments and colleges, with government and industry partners, and with researchers at other institutions. Explore Georgia Southern's extensive research output, including publications and presentations, creative works, sponsored projects and grants, and more.

    All tenure-track faculty at Georgia Southern University have a scholarly profile in GS Scholars. All research-active non-tenure track faculty may request a profile if they want one. In addition, GS Scholars includes profiles for select emeriti, retired, and deceased faculty. All faculty are encouraged to update and enhance their profiles. For more information, see the Libraries' Georgia Southern Scholars Guide.

    Please note: GS Scholars replaces all SelectedWorks profiles, which will become inaccessible in late 2024. For more information, see the SelectedWorks Profiles page.

    I want a conference or journal site in Georgia Southern Commons. How do I get started?

    Contact digitalcommons@georgiasouthern.edu to request a conference and/or journal site. For more information about journal and conference hosting, visit our Georgia Southern Commons Guide.

    As an administrator, how do I obtain information about all the submissions on my site?

    When you are on the Manage Submissions site, click on Batch revise Excel. This will provide you the information submitted by the author. The Batch revise Excel does not include a submissions manuscript number or information on the last event. If you need this information, download the Administrator Report.

    If you do not see these options on the Manage Submissions page, contact digitalcommons@georgiasouthern.edu