Do you need a place to make grant-funded project findings, reports, and data publicly available? Or a place to make accreditation documentation discoverable? Perhaps you are wondering what to do with the documents taking up space in your University’s Google Drive system, such as educational materials, lab SOPs, and conference proceedings? Then look no further; JagWorks@USA is your solution to these issues and more.
What is JagWorks@USA? Jagworks@USA is the institutional repository (IR), or digital archive, for the University of South Alabama. This program aims to raise USA’s research profile by collecting, organizing, preserving, and showcasing work generated by USA in an open-access repository.
What are the benefits of using JagWorks@USA? There are numerous benefits to using an open-access institutional repository. First, it will consolidate USA’s research output into a central location. USA produces a great deal of research, and much of that research is fragmented among departmental websites, journals, and even authors’ personal hard drives. JagWorks@USA provides an easily accessible location to organize and showcase our work and research effectively. Secondly, JagWorks will increase the overall visibility of our university. JagWorks@USA is cloud hosted by bepress®, a subsidiary of Elsevier publishing, and they offer search engine optimization to maximize discoverability. This means that content in JagWorks will be immediately searchable through popular search engines such as Google and Google Scholar, making USA’s research and work available to a variety of readers worldwide. Another benefit of using USA’s IR is that it will help build intellectual leadership and credibility. Having our research widely disseminated will increase citations, shares, links, and likes. This will help boost USA’s academic leadership and reputation across multiple disciplines. Lastly, JagWorks@USA benefits the university and researchers by providing a place to preserve scholarly work and materials. Digitizing and storing materials such as decades-old research documents, manuscripts, and technical reports eliminates the need for the physical space and maintenance required for their upkeep.
What are some of the services and tools offered by JagWorks@USA? JagWorks provides users long-term, stable, unlimited storage and access to scholarly works and content with no size limits on content. This program can accommodate a wide range of content and materials and handle most common file types. With JagWorks, users also have access to real-time usage and readership metrics. Even though this is an open-access program, access controls and embargos can be enabled for sensitive or restricted content. Furthermore, in-house management and assistance with content design, layout, and formatting, are provided for all content in the repository by the JagWorks team.
Who can use JagWorks@USA? Everyone! This program is available for anyone affiliated with the university and USA Health. All faculty, researcher, staff, and students (whose works have been approved by faculty) are encouraged to submit their content and materials to JagWorks.
Who do I contact about JagWorks@USA? If you are interested in learning more about the program or how to add content to JagWorks, you can contact the project coordinator – Jana Herrmann, through email: jherrmann@southalabama.edu or phone: 251-460-6645 or through JagWorks@USA email: jagworks@southalabama.edu.
