Students, faculty, and staff are responsible for ensuring that all files submitted to Digital Commons are compliant with Cal Poly's Accessibility Policy and CSU mandated American Disabilities Act (ADA) policies: CSU Executive Order 1111, Section 508. Accessibility is central to Cal Poly's goal to create inclusive learning spaces for everyone.
Please use the below resources to create accessible documents and verify compliance.
AED COP: Accessible Electronic Documents - Concise video tutorials for creating accessible Microsoft Word documents
Center for Teaching, Learning, & Technology (CTLT) Accessibility Resources
Use of Original Work
Students and authors must secure copyright permissions from the original copyright owner if the submitted work contains third-party content (including but not limited to images, large quantities of journal or book content, tables and figures, music, and other accompanying material).
Copyright Protection of Your Work
Original work is automatically protected under copyright as soon as it is recorded in a tangible form, so submitted works do not have to be registered through the U.S. Copyright Office. For more information, please visit the US Copyright website.
Cal Poly's full copyright policy can be viewed here: https://research.calpoly.edu/policyIP.
Two levels of electronic distribution of senior projects are available. A student, in concert with their advisor, may choose the level that fits the situation.
Worldwide Online Distribution (Default)
Worldwide Online Distribution makes the information freely available worldwide immediately, as recommended by the University and Library. Note that some book or journal publishers may view this Open Access option as publishing the work. They may see a conflict with this level of distribution of the senior project.
Embargoed
Embargo restricts the work for patent, proprietary, or data sensitivity reasons for a duration of 1-5 years, after which it will be publicly available. The embargo time period can be indicated during the submission process. Only the descriptive data of the project (author, title, abstract, and basic information about the submission) will be publicly visible.
A 1-year extension may be requested by contacting the Kennedy Library. The student may contact the Kennedy Library to obtain a 1-year extension before the expiration of the initial restriction, or longer with approval of the author's department and/or college.
As an Institutional Repository, we have a development plan that outlines our policies, protocols, and goals. To view our Institutional Repository Policies, please click here.
