The Simpson Library supports scholarly communications at UMW by promoting open access initiatives, offering guidance on faculty publishing, and curating faculty and student content in the institutional repository.

Institutional Repository

Eagle Scholar is the University’s institutional repository where the scholarly and creative works of the UMW community are preserved and highlighted. Eagle Scholar can include journal articles, book chapters, posters, open educational resources (OER), student symposia, and multimedia presentations (podcasts, images, and video).

Benefits for faculty:

• Archive your professional work in a consistent and stable location.
• Increase your readership with improved discoverability through popular search engines like Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar.
• Demonstrate your research impact with monthly usage statistics provided by Eagle Scholar.
• Publish open access materials without the limitations of a paywall.

Faculty Publishing

• Open Access Initatives - utilize the agreements created by VIVA, Virginia's Academic Library Consortium, to publish in reputable journals without article processing charges (APCs).
• Predatory Journals - use these recommended strategies to avoid deceptive, illegitimate publications.
• Journal Metrics - utilize these free resources to locate impact factor, CiteScore, SJR, and SNIP scores.
• Author Rights - talk with the library staff about copyright considerations before publishing or when using library materials in an educational setting.

Open and Affordable Course Materials

The Simpson Library is committed to helping student save money on the price of textbooks by offering open and affordable alternatives to faculty. This is accomplished through three primary strategies:

• Open Educational Resources (open)– free materials published under a Creative Commons license.
• Course Reserves (affordable) – print and online materials available through the library.
• VIVA Open Grants - work with our library consortium to receive a grant to adopt, adapt, or create open educational resources (OER). Note: VIVA Open Grants must be approved by the University before you apply: https://provost.umw.edu/grantsoffice

Library Contacts

• Head of Reference and Scholarly Communications
  Paul Boger
  (540)654-1748
  pboger@umw.edu
• Head of Special Collections and Digital Scholarship
  Angie Kemp
  (540)654-1756
  awhite4@umw.edu
• Course Reserves Supervisor
  Laura Greeley
  (540)654-1746
  lgreeley@umw.edu