Skip to content

What Goes Where?

Important note and disclaimer

This document is intended as a courtesy to provide an overview of platforms administered by Digital Scholarship Infrastructure (DSI), their features, and relevant policies. It is derived from departmental and platform policies; in case of disagreement, platform and departmental policies take precedent. This document does not guarantee that the eligibility of any documents or publications for inclusion in DSI platforms. Please contact DSI at diginit@yorku.ca to discuss the suitability of any material for inclusion on these platforms.

About

Purpose

The What Goes Where (WGW) project aims to harmonize and resolve ambiguities in DSI practice around which types of materials would be published and/or preserved on which platforms. It is not intended to supersede platform-level policy or the work of the Digital Scholarship Working Group (DSWG) and the RASCI matrices (Responsible, Accountable, Support, Consulted, Informed) it developed; rather, it provides practice guidelines.

The goal of the project is two-fold:

  1. To provide decision-making support for DSI members, YUL colleagues, and external users to understand which type of material belongs in which DSI platform;

  2. To help these same groups understand and compare the affordances of each platform.

This document is the project’s first output; we expect to derive more specific outputs tailored to user groups in the future.

History

The What Goes Where Working Group (WGWWG) formed in Fall 2023. Initial membership consisted of chair Tomasz Mrozewski, Kris Joseph, Harriet South, Anna St. Onge, and Priscilla Carmini. After the departure of Anna St. Onge and Priscilla Carmini, it became a department-level DSI project in summer 2024 featuring input from all members.

The group started by reviewing policy documents for each DSI platform and doing a partial content audit of each platform. Then, we reviewed our findings for overlaps and ambiguity, then arranged our findings into a matrix of affordances. We then drafted and refined the matrices into their present form over summer and fall 2024.

Past practice

This document is meant to be forward-looking and does not describe past practice. Legacy practices should not necessarily be taken as a guide for future decisions. Prior decisions may have been made on the availability of platforms, on the capacity of those platforms at the time, and in the absence of harmonized departmental policy. Likewise, this document and the guidelines therein are likely to change in the future.

Discretionary decision-making

This document should be taken as a general practice guideline. We expect edge cases and unanticipated situations to arise in which the department members can and should exercise discretion about where to publish materials. Discretionary decision making should not be arbitrary and should consider the mission of the department, the stated purpose and policies of the platforms, and the RASCI matrices developed by the DPWG. Ideally, discretionary decisions will be discussed by the department before being finalized.

Policy documents that have informed this include:

Update cycle

DSI will undertake periodic review of this document for timeliness and accuracy. The timing of the update cycle has not yet been determined. The document may also be updated on an ad hoc basis if platform or departmental policies change.

Platform summaries

YorkSpace

Contents will be preserved in perpetuity beyond the life of the platform. In exceptional circumstances, content may be removed. Stable versions only. Versions are visible to admin and only the most recent is available to public. Primarily used for author deposit of scholarship and for electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) ETD / Masters Research Papers (MRP) repository. May also be used for grey literature, some open educational resources (OERs), and other materials per DSI discretion. Primarily used for self-deposit by faculty authors and graduate students, as well as for ETD and MRPs. Authors control the content. DSI may make changes to metadata or content in exceptional circumstances. Mediated deposit by DSI upon author request. Some authorized external users can deposit on behalf of departments. Material can only be publicly available. YorkSpace is discovery-oriented and is indexed and harvested by various discovery tools. It allows for DOIs, short URLs, basic metrics, multimedia upload.

YUDL

Contents will be preserved in perpetuity beyond the life of the platform. In exceptional circumstances, content may be removed. Stable versions only. Versions are visible to admin and only the most recent is available to public. Primarily used for digitized or born digital cultural heritage objects rather than scholarly works. Primarily used for digitized or born digital cultural heritage objects regardless of author’s affiliation. Content is subject to deposit agreements with DSI or ASC. Content is not expected to change once deposited, although metadata may be added or corrected. Mediated deposit by DSI upon owner request. Material is either open to the public or restricted to authorized account holders. YUDL is preservation-oriented and designed for multimedia works.

YDJ

Contents will be preserved for the life of the platform. All journals are encouraged to register with Scholars Portal Journals for perpetual preservation. Stable versions only. Versions are numbered and are accessible publicly. Primarily used for the original publication of scholarly, creative, and academic business under the guidance of external editorial teams. All works are subject to the individual journals’ submission and editorial policies. Journal editors control the content. DSI may make changes to metadata or content in exceptional circumstances. Content is submitted by authors to the editors for approval and publication. Depending on editorial policy, authors submit directly to OJS or to editors for ingest. Material is mostly open; some legacy journals are toll-access. YDJ is discovery-oriented and journals may be indexed or harvested by indexers. It allows for DOIs, ORCID iDs, bibliometrics, and the integration of content and multimedia hosted elsewhere.

Scalar

Contents will be preserved for the life of the platform. Users may also remove their content. Works in progress supported. Content authoring possible on-platform. Versions are visible to admin and only the most recent is available to public. Primarily used as an authoring platform for generating outputs to be hosted elsewhere, such as YorkSpace or eCampus Ontario. Primarily used by faculty to author works for hosting elsewhere. Authors control the content. DSI may make changes to metadata or content in exceptional circumstances. Authors create and ingest content as required. Material may be open or restricted to specific user groups with accounts. Pressbooks is an authoring tool that permits the integration of locally hosted and outside content and multimedia.

Pressbooks

Contents will be preserved for the life of the platform. Users may also remove their content. Works in progress supported. Content authoring possible on-platform. Versions are visible to admin and only the most recent is available to public. Primarily used as an authoring platform for generating outputs to be hosted elsewhere, such as YorkSpace or eCampus Ontario. Primarily used by faculty to author works for hosting elsewhere. Authors control the content. DSI may make changes to metadata or content in exceptional circumstances. Authors create and ingest content as required. Material may be open or restricted to specific user groups with accounts. Pressbooks is an authoring tool that permits the integration of locally hosted and outside content and multimedia.

Archivematica

Contents will be preserved in perpetuity beyond the life of the platform. In exceptional circumstances, content may be removed. Stable versions only. Versions are visible to only admin. Primarily used for digitized or born digital cultural heritage objects under the custody and control of ASC. Content is subject to deposit agreements with ASC. Content is not expected to change once deposited, although metadata may be added or corrected. Mediated deposit by DSI or ASC. Material is restricted to authorized account holders (Nick Ruest in DSI and ASC archivists).

Web archives

Contents will be preserved in perpetuity beyond the life of the platform. In exceptional circumstances, content may be removed. Stable versions only. All versions are visible to the public. Primarily used to capture and preserve web content that falls under York University's Common Records Schedule, as well as occasional crawls of York University web properties where resources can permit so. Content is not expected to change once deposited, although metadata may be added or corrected. Web crawls and deposit by DSI upon request. Material is open to the public.

Use – “what kinds of materials can go there?”

Summary

  • YorkSpace: Primarily used for author deposit of scholarship and for ETD/MRP repository. May also be used for grey literature, some OERs, and other materials per DSI discretion.
  • YUDL: Primarily used for digitized or born-digital cultural heritage objects rather than scholarly works.
  • YDJ: Primarily used for the original publication of scholarly, creative, and academic business under the guidance of external editorial teams.
  • Scalar: Primarily used for digital exhibits featuring digital resources hosted on other platforms.
  • Pressbooks: Primarily used as an authoring platform for generating outputs to be hosted elsewhere, such as YorkSpace or eCampus Ontario.
  • Archivematica: Primarily used for digitized or born digital cultural heritage objects under the custody and control of ASC. Content is subject to deposit agreements with ASC.
  • Web archiving: Primarily used to capture and preserve web content that falls under York University's Common Records Schedule, as well as occasional crawls of York University web properties where resources permit.

Comparison Table

YorkSpace YUDL YDJ Scalar Pressbooks Archivematica Web archives
Scholarly articles – initial publication1 No No Yes No No No No
Scholarly articles – deposited2 Yes No No No No No No
Scholarly monographs – initial publication1 No No No Yes Yes No No
Scholarly monographs – deposited2 Yes No No No No No No
Novel digital scholarship and interactive works No No No Yes No No Yes
Grey literature Limited3 No Yes No No No Yes
Non-scholarly serial runs Yes4 No Yes5 No No No No
Digitized heritage objects No Yes No No No No No
Creative works Yes6 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
OERs and learning objects Yes7 No No Yes Yes8 No No
Conference proceedings – collected proceedings No No Yes No No No No
Conference proceedings – individual contribution Yes No No No No No No
Conference documentation Yes No No No No No Limited12
ETD & MRPs Yes9 No No No No No Limited12
Research in progress No No No Yes Yes No No
Class projects No No Yes10 Yes Yes No Limited12
Datasets No No No11 No11 No11 Limited12 Limited12
University records No No No No No Yes Yes

Authorship – “whose content will we accept?”

!!! note: "Important note" Authorship may be related to but is distinct from custody and control. See Control of content – “who is responsible for content after deposit/publication?” to learn about control of content after deposit.

Summary

  • YorkSpace: Primarily used for self-deposit by faculty authors and graduate students, as well as for ETD and MRPs.
  • YUDL: Primarily used for digitized or born digital cultural heritage objects regardless of author’s affiliation.
  • YDJ: All works are subject to the individual journals’ submission and editorial policies.
  • Scalar: Primarily used for faculty teaching and research projects.
  • Pressbooks: Primarily used by faculty to author works for hosting elsewhere.
  • Archivematica: Primarily used for digitized or born digital cultural heritage objects under the custody and control of ASC. Content is subject to deposit agreements with ASC.
  • Web archiving: Primarily used to capture and preserve web content that falls under York University's Common Records Schedule, as well as occasional crawls of York University web properties where resources permit.

Comparison table

YorkSpace YUDL YDJ Scalar Pressbooks Archivematica Web archives
Undergrad – internal Yes13 No Yes14 Yes15 No Limited18 Limited18
Undergrad – external No No Yes14 No No Limited18 Limited18
Graduate student – internal Yes16 No Yes14 Yes No Limited18 Limited18
Graduate student – external No No Yes 2 No No Limited18 Limited18
Faculty – internal Yes No Yes14 Yes Yes Limited18 Limited18
Faculty – external No No Yes14 No No Limited18 Limited18
Community Yes17 Yes Yes14 No No Limited18 Limited18

Control of content – “who is responsible for content after deposit/publication?”

Summary

  • YorkSpace: Authors control the content. DSI may make changes to metadata or content in exceptional circumstances.
  • YUDL: Content is subject to deposit agreements with DSI or ASC. Content is not expected to change once deposited, although metadata may be added or corrected.
  • YDJ: Journal editors control the content. DSI may make changes to metadata or content in exceptional circumstances.
  • Scalar: Authors control the content. DSI may make changes to metadata or content in exceptional circumstances.
  • Pressbooks: Authors control the content. DSI may make changes to metadata or content in exceptional circumstances.
  • Archivematica: Materials are under the custody and control of ASC, with DSI support.
  • Web archiving: Materials are under the custody and control of DSI.

Comparison table

YorkSpace YUDL YDJ Scalar Pressbooks Archivematica Web archives
Authors Yes - Yes19 Yes Yes - -
Journal editors - - Yes - - - -
YUL (DSI) Yes Yes Yes20 Yes Yes Yes Yes
YUL (ASC) - Yes - - - Yes Yes

Temporality – “how long will we maintain this stuff?”

Summary

  • YorkSpace: Contents will be preserved in perpetuity beyond the life of the platform. In exceptional circumstances, content may be removed.
  • YUDL: Contents will be preserved in perpetuity beyond the life of the platform. In exceptional circumstances, content may be removed.
  • YDJ: Contents will be preserved for the life of the platform. All journals are encouraged to register with Scholars Portal Journals for perpetual preservation.
  • Scalar: Contents will be preserved for the life of the platform. DSI may crawl WARC files for bit-level preservation beyond the life of the platform. Users may also remove their content.
  • Pressbooks: Contents will be preserved for the life of the platform. Users may also remove their content.
  • Archivematica: Contents will be preserved in perpetuity beyond the life of the platform. In exceptional circumstances, content may be removed.
  • Web archiving: Contents will be preserved in perpetuity beyond the life of the platform. In exceptional circumstances, content may be removed.

Comparison table

YorkSpace YUDL YDJ Scalar Pressbooks Archivematica Web archives
Finite No No No Yes Yes No No
Long-term No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Perpetual Yes Yes Off-platform only21 No22 No Yes Yes

Editing – “is this for work in progress or finished works only?”

Summary

  • YorkSpace: Stable versions only. Versions are visible to admin and only the most recent is available to public.
  • YUDL: Stable versions only. Versions are visible to admin and only the most recent is available to public.
  • YDJ: Stable versions only. Versions are numbered and are accessible publicly.
  • Scalar: Works in progress supported. Content authoring possible on-platform. No versioning possible.
  • Pressbooks: Works in progress supported. Content authoring possible on-platform. Versions are visible to admin and only the most recent is available to public.
  • Archivematica: Content is not expected to change once deposited, although metadata may be added or corrected.
  • Web archiving: Content is not expected to change once deposited, although metadata may be added or corrected.

Comparison table

YorkSpace YUDL YDJ Scalar Pressbooks Archivematica Web archives
Authoring No No No Yes Yes No No
Works in progress No No No Yes Yes No Yes23
Stable works Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Versions accessible No24 No24 Yes No No25 No24 Yes

Labour – “who ingests and maintains the content?”

This table does guarantee that all activities are always available for all projects. The labour provided to any given project depends on resource availability and will be subject to negotiation between users and DSI staff/librarians.

Summary

  • YorkSpace: Mediated deposit by DSI upon author request. Some authorized external users can deposit on behalf of departments
  • YUDL: Mediated deposit by DSI upon owner request
  • YDJ: Content is submitted by authors to the editors for approval and publication. Depending on editorial policy, authors submit directly to OJS or to editors for ingest
  • Scalar: Authors create and ingest content as required
  • Pressbooks: Authors create and ingest content as required
  • Archivematica: Mediated deposit by DSI or ASC
  • Web archiving: Web crawls and deposit by DSI upon request

Comparison table

YorkSpace YUDL YDJ Scalar Pressbooks Archivematica Web archives
Upload by DSI Yes Yes Limited27 No No Yes Yes
Upload by ASC No No No No No Yes No
Upload by users Limited26 No Yes Yes Yes No No
DSI role: Coordinating bulk transfer Yes Yes Yes27 No No Yes Yes
DSI role: Coordinating with LDSI Yes No28 Yes Yes Yes No No
DSI role: Consulting on formats and standards Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
DSI role: Coordinating with ASC No Yes No No No Yes Yes
DSI role: Metadata cleanup Yes Yes Yes No No No No
DSI role: Indexing support No No Yes No No No No
DSI role: External user platform training Limited26 No Yes Yes Yes No No
DSI role: Troubleshooting & technical support Limited26 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
DSI role: Editorial consulting No No Yes No No No No
DSI role: finite/abandoned project cleanup No Yes No Yes No N/A N/A

Audience and access controls – “who can access the content?”

Summary

  • YorkSpace: Material can only be publicly available
  • YUDL: Material is either open to the public or restricted to authorized account holders
  • YDJ: Material is mostly open; some legacy journals are toll-access
  • Scalar: Material may be open or restricted to specific user groups with accounts
  • Pressbooks: Material may be open or restricted to specific user groups with accounts
  • Archivematica: Material is restricted to authorized account holders
  • Web archiving: Material can only be publicly available

Comparison table

YorkSpace YUDL YDJ Scalar Pressbooks Archivematica Web Archives
Public Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Restricted No Yes29 No Yes Yes Yes No
Toll access No No Yes30 No No No No

Affordances and features – “what are the additional features of the platform?”

Summary

  • YorkSpace: YorkSpace is discovery-oriented and is indexed and harvested by various discovery tools. It allows for DOIs, short URLs, basic metrics, multimedia upload
  • YUDL: YUDL is preservation-oriented and designed for multimedia works
  • YDJ: YDJ is discovery-oriented and may journals may be indexed or harvested by indexers. It allows for DOIs, ORCID iDs, bibliometrics, and the integration of content and multimedia hosted elsewhere
  • Scalar: Scalar is an authoring tool that permits the integration of content and multimedia hosted elsewhere
  • Pressbooks: Pressbooks is an authoring tool that permits the integration of locally hosted and outside content and multimedia
  • Archivematica: Archivematica is a tool for ASC to manage and provided access to digitized or born-digital cultural heritage objects under its control
  • Web archiving: The web archiving program scrapes website content as WARC files and performs bit-level preservation and playback of preserved material

Comparison table

YorkSpace YUDL YDJ Scalar Pressbooks Archivematica Web Archives
DOI integration Yes No Yes No No No No
Handles Yes Yes No No No No No
ORCID integration No31 No Yes No No No No
Bibliometrics and citation analysis Yes No Yes No No No No
Preservation-oriented Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
Discovery-oriented Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes
Multimedia content integration Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
In-platform authoring and layout No No No Yes Yes No No
Integration of outside content No No Yes Yes Yes No No
Interactive content No No No Yes Yes No Yes
Harvestable/indexable by discovery tools Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes 1

Indexing – “Is deposited material indexed and discoverable elsewhere?”

Summary

  • YorkSpace: Materials are indexed by web crawlers. Materials are usually automatically indexed in Google and Google Scholar. The Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection in YorkSpace is indexed by Library and Archive of Canada. Scholarly works discoverable/indexed by Discover York Academics.
  • YUDL: Materials are indexed by web crawlers, OAI-PHM, and RSS/ATOM feeds.
  • YDJ: Materials are indexed by web crawlers. Materials are usually automatically indexed in Google Scholar. Indexing in academic databases is subject to application or agreement between editors and vendors.
  • Scalar: Materials are indexed by web crawlers, but the platform does not present enriched metadata in the same fashion as other repositories, so the discoverability is not as good as it could be.
  • Pressbooks: Materials are indexed by web crawlers. A few items in Pressbooks have been indexed in Google Scholar but this does not seem to be the rule, even for scholarly material
  • Archivematica: Materials are not indexed
  • Web archiving: The web archive homepage is indexed by web crawlers

Comparison table

YorkSpace YUDL YDJ Scalar Pressbooks Archivematica Web Archives
Web search Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Google Scholar Yes No Yes No No32 No No
Academic databases No33 No Upon agreement34 No No No No
OAI-PMH harvesting Yes Yes Yes No No No No

Summary

  • YorkSpace: Authors need to sign a non-exclusive distribution licence; copyright may belong to authors or to publishers with provision for author self-deposit
  • YUDL: Copyright and licensing vary according to each object
  • YDJ: Copyright and licensing policies vary according to each journal’s editorial policy
  • Scalar: Copyright and licensing vary according to each project
  • Pressbooks: Copyright and licensing vary according to each project
  • Archivematica: Copyright and licensing vary according to each object
  • Web archiving: Copyright belongs to York University, unless specified for specific web pages; no license applies unless stipulated on individual pages

Comparison table

YorkSpace YUDL YDJ Scalar Pressbooks Archivematica Web Archives
Copyright holder Authors or publishers35 Rights holder is assigned on a given object. Subject to editorial policy36 Authors Authors Authors York University or individual authors
Licenses used YorkSpace Non-exclusive distribution license; optional Creative Commons licence rightstatements.org, Creative Commons, and TK/Local Context labels Subject to editorial policy37 Optional Creative Commons license; other forms of labels can be applied manually Optional Creative Commons license; other forms of labels can be applied manually rightstatements.org, Creative Commons, and TK/Local Context labels N/A
Takedown notice Yes Yes No No No No Yes

Possible edge cases

This is a list deposit and publication types that have been requested or suggested over the course of WGW’s development that may fall between platforms or outside the current scope of DSI practices:

  • Zotero libraries (including exports)
  • Faculty-authored reports for outside organizations
  • Individual poster or conference papers that are deposited without being part of a collection or proceedings
  • Pre-prints that have not been accepted for publication elsewhere
  • 3D models related to scholarly work
  • Is there a platform that allows the model file to be stored and then served up for viewing in another platform? Or are the direct links to bundles rather than files (as in YUDL?)
  • WARC files

Notes

  1. Refers to original works that have not been published elsewhere and that are being publishing for the first time on this platform. ↩↩

  2. May include accepted versions of works deposited under self-archiving Green OA policies; does not include pre-prints of works that have not been submitted or accepted for publication. ↩↩

  3. Grey literature is only accepted under certain conditions outlined in the Submission Criteria. See YorkSpace Procedures for the full Submission Criteria. ↩

  4. Should only include issue-level contents where article-level indexing is not required or expected to be required. ↩

  5. Should only include article-level contents where article-level is required. ↩

  6. Creative works are only included in YorkSpace if integral to other eligible works, such as scholarly outputs or ETD work. ↩

  7. AIF projects only. ↩

  8. Pressbooks should be used to author OERs; prefer eCampus Ontario for ongoing hosting. ↩

  9. MRPs are only included when an agreement has been signed between the academic unit and the library. ↩

  10. Course journals may be created but must be negotiated with Digital Publishing Librarian first. ↩

  11. External datasets may be linked to outputs on these platforms. ↩↩↩

  12. Only when materials are incidentally part of university records and web content as strictly defined by ASC and Web Archiving Program policies. ↩↩↩↩↩

  13. Only under exceptional circumstances with faculty sponsorship. ↩

  14. All materials are added to YDJ subject to individual journals’ submissions and editorial policies. ↩↩↩↩↩↩

  15. Only in the context of faculty-sponsored coursework. ↩

  16. Primarily in the form of ETF/MRP, but green OA deposits of published articles may be included ↩

  17. Only in context of community partnership projects and grey literature. ↩

  18. Only when materials are incidentally part of university records and web content as strictly defined by ASC and Web Archiving Program policies. ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  19. Authors published in YDJ journals should make requests first to editors. In exceptional circumstances (such as discontinued publications, unresponsive editors), authors may reach out to YUL (DSI) for support. ↩

  20. YUL (DSI) may make changes to content the event of metadata errors, accessibility issues, copyright concerns, or exceptional author requests (see previous note) ↩

  21. Through Scholars Portal Journals. Journal editors are encourage to sign the Local Load Agreement to allow Scholars Journals to harvest published materials for long-term discovery and access. ↩

  22. At the end of platform life DSI may crawl WARC files for bit-level preservation. ↩

  23. Insofar as all websites are works in progress. ↩

  24. There is version tracking in the back end but there’s nothing visible about this in the front end. ↩↩↩

  25. Pressbooks tracks versions in authored content in the back end but there’s nothing visible about this in the front end ↩

  26. External users may upload content to YorkSpace upon arrangement with DSI. In general, external users are designated representatives of departments with ongoing and programmatic upload needs. ↩↩↩

  27. DSI only uploads contents in exceptional circumstances, such as the migration of backfiles. This service is not advertised and not promised to editors. ↩↩

  28. In the Digital Preservation Librarian's absence, DSI will need to coordinate with LDSI for assistance with some tasks. ↩

  29. YUDL limitations outlined at here (Requires PPY). ↩

  30. New subscription-based journals are not being considered. ↩

  31. ORCID integration is being explored for YorkSpace is but not yet complete. ↩

  32. A few items in Pressbooks have been indexed in Google Scholar but this does not seem to be the rule, even for scholarly material. ↩

  33. ETD indexed by Library and Archives Canada but not by other academic databases (including Proquest Theses & Dissertations). ↩

  34. Journals may be indexed by agreement between editors and vendors (usually by application); however, indexing not automatic as a rule. ↩

  35. In cases of Green OA deposit, publishers own the copyright of articles but permit self-deposit by authors ↩

  36. Each journal sets its own copyright policy. Copyright may belong to either the journal or the authors ↩

  37. Each journal sets its own licensing policy. Items may be subject to standard copyright restrictions, licensed under Creative Commons licenses, or subject to vague “open access” statements ↩