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About Propylaeum-DOK

What is Propylaeum-DOK?

Propylaeum-DOK is the full-text server of Propylaeum,, the Virtual Library for Classical Studies and provides an opportunity for publishing, indexing and long-preservation of documents on Classical Studies. Propylaeum-DOK is a service of the University Library of Heidelberg, which within the scopes of its special subject collections Classical Archaeology and Egyptology funded by German Research Foundation, offers members of the academic community worldwide the opportunity to publish their texts (monographs, articles, lectures) under terms of Open Access in electronic format on the Internet at no charge.

The documents will be stored and their long-term availability guaranteed by using standardized addresses (URN) and metadata (OAI-PMH). They are also accessible through the German union catalogues and search engines. In this way you gain wide availability for your texts.  Propylaeum-DOK supports the aims of the "Budapest Open Access Initiative" (BOAI) and the principles of Open Access.

The goal of the Open Access movement is to make scholarly articles freely available in digital form worldwide with minimal restrictions on their use. Self-Archiving and a new generation of open-access online journals (Self-Publishing) with peer-review are the ways to attain this goal. Self-Archiving refers to the depositing of postprints (documents which have already been published) and preprints (contributions which are intended for publication in a journal) in an institutional or discipline-specific open-access repository, e.g. Propylaeum-Dok. Further information on Open Access here.

According to the recommendations of the Wissenschaftsrat academics are encouraged to retain their right of posting the document on institutional repositories - if necessary after a certain retention period - in the copyright agreements with the publisher [see Empfehlungen zur digitalen Informationsversorgung durch Hochschulbibliotheken. Hrsg. v. Wissenschaftsrat, Greifswald 13. Juli 2001, http://www.wissenschaftsrat.de/texte/4935-01.pdf (10.12.2001), S. 26].  Authors/Editors of electronic documents are responsible for complying with the applicable copyright and exploitation right.

How do I publish documents on Propylaeum-Dok?

All documents will be uploaded, launched and made available by the Propylaeum-Dok staff. To publish your documents on Propylaeum-Dok, please contact the Propylaeum-Dok team . In order to publish your work, we need your signed copyright agreement, your document in electronic format (PDF-files are preferred) and a brief abstract (max. 5,000 characters), preferably in German and English. For more information, please read "Publishing".

What kind of documents can be published on Propylaeum-DOK?

Propylaeum-DOK publishes the following document types:

If your institution compiles or makes available documents for download on its own internet pages, Propylaeum-Dok provides a repository platform for permanent, secure and citable long-term archiving. Departments or faculties, which publish their own monographic series can store those on Propylaeum-Dok, too. Individual listings showing the documents of the their own institution can be generated for prospective customers. For customers taking part in the publication of an online journal we offer to take care of the back-archiving of your journal issues.

Can I republish my Propylaeum-DOK documents?

In compliance with the copyright law authors retain all rights of use of their documents. Authors who publish a document on Propylaeum-Dok transfer to the University Library of Heidelberg a single, non-exclusive right of use. This permits the author to publish the document later, e.g. as an article in a journal or monograph.

What file formats are recommended?

Our file format we prefer is PDF (Portable Document Format) . However documents can be submitted as a PostScript or HTML version, too.


Is there a way of changing or deleting Propylaeum-DOK? How long will documents be available online?

With regard to long-term availability a modification or deletion of the document is not intended. Thus – in analogy to printed publications – authenticity and stability of the published documents are ensured as far as possible. Only at the explicit request of the author will the staff of Propylaeum-Dok delete a document. If the author wishes to revise the document it has to be submitted to Propylaeum-Dok anew, similar to a new edition in conventional publishing. Efforts will be undertaken to store documents permanently, currently a limited warranty of 5 years is guaranteed. Further archiving is dependent on the availability of the format, the viewer software and conversion possibilities.

Is it possible to cite ART-Dok documents?

Similar to print publications online documents can be cited without any problems. Documents published on Propylaeum-Dok are assigned a Uniform Resource Name (URN), which guarantees a unique and permanent identification of digital objects, independent of their storage location. Thus, the citation of an URN is a reliable way of a long term reference for digital objects. The citation of online publications varies according to the subject area. Here you should observe the rules of your own subject area.

More information here.

What about illegal copying and usage of Propylaeum-DOK documents?

Free access to online documents makes possible download to personal workstations, copying and further use, too. Copyright law is applicable to online publications as well as to printed publications. To use electronic online documents without making reference to them or to use them for commercial purposes without paying royalties is illegal and will be punished.

Do databases, search engines and reference systems provide references?

University Library provides reference in:

What about subject indexing of the documents?

All Propylaeum-Dok documents are indexed by using the terminologically controlled vocabulary of the Subject Heading Authority File (SWD) and a DDC notation. Subject indexing is carried out by the Propylaeum-Dok team of the University Library of Heidelberg.  Authors can propose free and controlled subject headings (of the SWD).

In addition the staff of the Propylaeum-Dok team indexes the documents by subject fields, countries, document types and institutions to make possible a browsing entry to the document collection.

Is a Print-on-Demand service provided?

Print-on-Demand: On condition that the author has agreed before, the Print-on-Demand Service Epubli is entitled to make a printed copy of the document. Epubli provides central printing, delivering and billing services. The user/buyer takes the full cost. The first page of the document will inform you if Print-on-Demand is possible.

Which technology is used for Propylaeum-DOK?

Propylaeum-DOK is based on the development of OPUS from the University of Stuttgart (Online Publications Organization of the University of Stuttgart), which is available cost-free to institutions of higher education. OPUS has been established in many technical and academic universities as the primary publication platforms. The software has met national and international standards for Open-Access-Servers. The Library Service Centre of Baden-Württemberg is responsible for the OPUS application development system.

The Propylaeum-DOK server is provided and maintained by the University Library of Heidelberg. Daily data backup of the online documents and of the database is carried out in the central backup system of the University of Heidelberg which is organised by the Computer Centre of Heidelberg University.

An automised query of the metadata can be done using an OAI-2.0 interface.