VTechWorks: Add your work

This is a user's guide to the Virginia Tech online repository, VTechWorks.

Deposit your works

Any scholarly work can be deposited in VTechWorks.

Everyone in the Virginia Tech community is invited to the university's online repository. Just register (see below), tell us what collection your work belongs in, and we will make it happen for you.

Faculty can use Elements (EFARS) to easily deposit their research, scholarship, and creative output in VTechWorks.

Why should you deposit your work in here? To make it accessible now and in the long term. Depositing your work in VTechWorks ensures that it is available to your colleagues now and that will it also be available to future researchers, scholars, and historians.

Consider adding your

posters, presentations, conference papers
class papers and research articles
interviews and oral histories
department newsletters and strategic plans
Do you have a question about what to add? Contact vtechworks@vt.edu

See the how-to videos about registering and submitting your work to VTechWorks.

Register to deposit

Everyone who wants to add materials to VTechWorks must register.

Go to the VTechWorks homepage.
In the column at the right select "Register" under MY ACCOUNT.
Enter your email address (which will become your log in name).
Create your password.
Email vtechworks@vt.edu. Tell us you have registered and to which collection you would like to add materials. If an appropriate collection doesn't already exist, we will create one for you.
Receive an email from vtechworks@vt.edu that tells you have successfully registered and the collection(s) you have permission to add to.

To which collection?

Does a collection exist that is appropriate for your work?

Browse or search until you find it or ask us create a new collection (e.g., for a particular course, lab, conference, project). You can do this when you register, or email vtechworks@vt.edu.

Does your work fit in more than one collection? Let VTechWorks staff know and we'll cross-list it (e.g., Faculty Research/Ann Hertzler and HNFE Research Articles; VCE publication and SGA: Equity and Social Disparity in the Human Condition).

Right to deposit

If you would like to deposit an item you authored that has been previously published, such as a journal article, check your publishing contract to see if you have retained the right to deposit (or “self-archive”) the work in an institutional repository. You may also check Sherpa/RoMEO to find your journal's or publisher's deposit policies.

Some definitions of versions of articles:

Draft Version: A work in preparation that has not yet been submitted to a journal.
Submitted Version (a.k.a. pre-print): A work sent for consideration to a journal that has not yet been refereed or peer-reviewed.
Accepted Version (a.k.a. post-print): A journal has agreed to publish the article following peer-review.
Publisher's Version (a.k.a. offprint, reprint, proof): An accepted journal article that has been copy-edited, typeset, and formatted for publication.

If you are in doubt as to whether you may deposit a work, contact vtechworks@vt.edu for a consultation.

Is your work accessible?

VTechWorks is a largely public repository and we want everyone to be able to access the materials in it.

To help you produce materials that everyone can access, below are some best practices: [Should there be an ACCESSIBILITY tab with more details?]

Generally
- Make all text actual text (not an image of text)
- Give images descriptive text
MS Word documents
- Use "styles" to indicate headings (instead of bold characters or larger font), paragraphs, etc.
- Use built-in column, list, table creators
- Create Alt Text and add Captions to images, figures, tables and graphs
- Use "Check Accessibility" under the Review tab
- Preserve accessibility features by "save as PDF" rather than "print PDF"
PDF files
- Add title, subject, author, key words in the "Properties" label under File in the menu bar
- Convert images of text to text with "Text Recognition" under Tools tab in Adobe Acrobat
- Select "Action Wizard" under Tools tab in Adobe Acrobat, then "Make Accessible"
Spreadsheets (e.g., Excel, Calc, etc.)
- Name each sheet
- Avoid using merged and blank cells
- Don't create tables (under Insert tab)
- Use "Check Accessibility" under the Review tab
Presentations (e.g., PowerPoint, Keynote, etc.)
- Use subtle sounds to indicate slide changes
- Use transitions sparingly
- Avoid using tables
- Don't use Text Box; use only predefined placeholders
- Make sure video and audio files are captioned
- Use "Check Accessibility" under the Review tab