Sponsoring Content

Digital Commons Conferences and Events

Consistent with its mission to collect and disseminate the intellectual and creative output of the University, Digital Commons is proud to host over 25 University-related conferences and events. In addition to providing a permanent open-access archive for conference and event materials, Digital Commons provides a platform for collecting, evaluating, and selecting proposals, including options for single and double-blind peer review.

Hosting Policies

  1. Hosted conferences and events may be one-time or recurring.
  2. Hosted conferences and events must be sponsored, hosted, or organized with the substantial involvement of the Georgia Southern University community and open to attendance and/or participation by Georgia Southern students, faculty, staff, alumni, or community partners.
  3. As a condition of using the platform for collection, review, and selection of conference and event-related proposals, organizers must actively promote collection, archiving, and open access to conference or event-related materials in Digital Commons.

Services Provided by the Digital Commons Team:

  • Provide perpetual access to Digital Commons or any future platform adopted by the Henderson Library for hosting University-related conferences and events.
  • Offer guidance on, and support for, all site configurations currently supported by the hosting platform.
  • Facilitate setup and maintenance of the conference or event site.
  • Provide training and support to all personnel responsible for managing day-to-day conference or event-related activities in Digital Commons.
  • Serve as liaison between all conference and event organizers and personnel, and the platform vendor (i.e., bepress).
  • Perform administrative updates to the site as needed, including publication of all conference and event schedules, and administration of all calls for proposals and calls for materials.

Responsibilities of Conference and Event Organizers and Personnel:

  • Participate in the initial development of the conference or event site.
  • Participate in the ongoing maintenance of the site, including timely notification to the Digital Commons Team of any needed configuration changes or changes to the event timeline.
  • Request and participate in all training as needed.
  • Perform all tasks related to the review and selection of conference or event proposals, including selection and assignment of reviewers, monitoring the status of submissions, making final selections, and notifying presenters.
  • Publicize the conference or event, including actively promoting the collection, archiving, and open access to conference or event-related materials in Digital Commons.

Hosting Process

Digital Commons can accommodate either basic or custom styling of conference and event sites:

  1. Basic Style: Site styling largely matches the appearance of the Digital Commons repository (http://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/) with minimal customization of appearance. A basic site can be prepared and available within a few business days of request.
    Example: http://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/social_gerontology/
  2. Custom Style: Site styling is fully customized based on banners, logos, and color selections provided by the conference organizers. Preparation of a custom site takes two to three months, and involves several design iterations, review, and final approval before the site is available.
    Example: http://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/

Organizers on a tight timeline to establish a new conference or event site may wish to adopt a basic site design first, then develop a custom site as they are able to participate in the design, review, and approval process. To develop your initial site:

  1. Contact to discuss your conference or event, the kind of site you need, and the timeline on which you will need it to be available.
  2. Complete and return the Conference/Event Proposal Form to the Digital Commons Team.
    1. If requesting a basic site, include any banner or logo images you’d like included as part of the site. Your form and images will be sent to bepress, which will create your initial site within a few business days.
    2. If requesting a custom site, include all banners, logos, and color selections needed to begin the design process. Your form and images will be sent to bepress, which will create up to three design iterations. Once you approve a design iteration, bepress will create a demo site. The design iterations and demo site can take up to four weeks to create.
  3. Once your site is created, work with the Digital Commons Team to edit all submission/review forms and emails, and establish the timeline on which content changes and updates should occur throughout the event lifecycle. This process usually takes a few days to complete. If requesting a custom site, publication of the final site takes an additional one to two business days following all content edits.
  4. Once content edits are complete and your event timeline is set, schedule any needed training with the Digital Commons Team.

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Journal Hosting

Browse our current list of Journals.

Policies

  1. It is encouraged that journals be open access compliant although exceptions can be made if necessary.
  2. Journals must be considered ongoing in nature. All journal hosting requests must be approved by the appropriate department head or dean to ensure sustainability.
  3. Peer-reviewed journals must have an editorial board to manage journal policies and the peer review process.
  4. Editor(s) and editorial board members will be posted in the journal page information.
  5. Authors of articles retain the copyright to their work; however articles accepted for publication become a permanent part of the Digital Commons@Georgia Southern collection and will only be removed for legal reasons or in other special circumstances.
  6. Authors must click through a Submissions Agreement verifying that they hold the copyright to submitted articles or works and that they have obtained any necessary permissions. Authors must agree to deposit their work for permanent archiving in Digital Commons@Georgia Southern.
  7. If no new issues are produced for two consecutive years, the journal will be considered to have ceased publication. Appropriate notices will be added to the journal information page.
  8. If necessary, a Memorandum of Understanding will be completed.

Proposal Process and Timeline

  1. Contact to set a meeting about creating your site.
  2. Fill out the Journal Proposal Form and provide any logos or banners for your site.
  3. The form and images will be sent to bepress to create (up to three) design iterations. Once a design iteration is approved, bepress will create the demo site. The design iterations and demo site can take on average between two to four weeks to create.
  4. After the demo site is created, you will need to edit the submission/review forms and emails. Edits to content normally take a few days to complete.
  5. After you are satisfied with the demo site, we will request the site to go live which takes 24-48 hours.

The average time to create a site is one month.

Services Provided by Henderson Library:

  • Provide DC@GS conference/event publishing platform
  • Offer guidance on content based on systems’ capabilities
  • Train organizers (in-person meetings and written instructions)
  • Act as liaison between organizers and bepress
  • Archive current and past materials
  • Submit to DOAJ and request ISSN after one solid issue published

Responsibilities of Journal Organizers:

  • Complete Journal Proposal Form
  • Provide logos or banner for site
  • Customize content (emails, submission agreement/form, review form, etc.)
  • Manage peer-review and submission selection process
  • Copy edit format
  • Check for plagiarism
  • Post and Publicize journal

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