Frequently Asked Questions


How do I contact someone in charge?

The FUSE Administrators can be reached at scholarexchange@furman.edu.

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What are the rights and terms of use for users of FUSE?
  • All users must respect the intellectual property rights of the copyright owner.
  • For previously published works (journal articles, book chapters, etc.) for which the publisher retains copyright, permission has been granted (where necessary) to post this material in FUSE. For any use which exceeds personal use or fair use under U.S. copyright law, permission may be required by the copyright owner of the material.
  • For previously unpublished scholarly or creative works, the right to download or print any portion of this material is granted by the copyright owner only for personal or educational use. The author/creator retains all proprietary rights, including copyright ownership. Any editing, other reproduction or other use of this material by any means requires the express written permission of the copyright owner.
  • Material may not be copied, distributed, displayed, altered, or used for commercial purposes, unless specified by a Creative Commons License.
  • Except as provided above, or for any other use that is allowed by fair use (Title 17, §107 U.S.C.), you may not reproduce, republish, post, transmit or distribute any material from this website in any physical or digital form without the permission of the copyright owner (not necessarily the author) of the material.

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Who can submit work to FUSE?

Content may be submitted to FUSE by:

  • Current and retired faculty at Furman University
  • Current students at Furman University
  • Current staff at Furman University

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What can be submitted?

FUSE administrators have established the following collection priorities. This list is not meant to be comprehensive. Other forms of scholarship will be considered for inclusion. Please contact FUSE administrators at scholarexchange@furman.edu if you have any questions or concerns.

  • Published scholarship. Priority will be given to version of record, then post-print, and then pre-print
  • Theses, dissertations, and senior projects/papers
  • Academic presentations and posters
  • Creative works and performances
  • Academic events sponsored by the University, faculty, or staff. Possible examples may include:
    • Conferences
    • Lectures
    • Workshops and professional development
    • Proceedings
  • Publications produced by Furman faculty, students, and staff. Possible examples may include:
    • Peer reviewed publications
    • Publications hosted online through FUSE
    • Back files of Furman-produced publications
  • Data sets
  • University records as deemed appropriate by the FUSE administrators. Possible examples may include:
    • Departmental publications
    • Annual reports
    • Committee/council meetings minutes
  • Metadata records for research/scholarship that link to an openly accessible, full-text version hosted on another site.
  • Metadata records for research/scholarship where the intention is to supply the full-text once the publishing embargo has been lifted.

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What are the copyright requirements for submitting work to FUSE?

Prior to submitting content to FUSE, a contributor will be required to accept a Submission Agreement. The Agreement states that the Contributor of the Work must either own the rights to the Work or must have written permission from the rights holder to submit it to FUSE. If a Contributor accepts the Submission Agreement, they are granting FUSE, on behalf of Furman University, a non-exclusive, royalty-free License to distribute the Work. All other intellectual property rights remain unchanged. If a Contributor owns the rights to the Work, s/he will continue to maintain those rights and the responsibility for enforcing them. Contributors retain the right to revoke the non-exclusive license by contacting scholarexchange@furman.edu.

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What file formats are accepted into FUSE?

FUSE will accept most common file formats. The Administrators retain the right to accept, reject, convert, and/or optimize file format and size for download and distribution.

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How do I revise a submission?

To revise a submission that has been posted to the repository, contact the FUSE administrators at scholarexchange@furman.edu with the new version.

If the submission has been submitted, but not yet posted, you may revise it via your My Account page:

  1. Locate the article on your My Account page, and click the title.
  2. Click Revise Submission from the list of options in the left sidebar.
  3. Enter your changes in the Revise Submission form, and click Submit at the bottom of the page to submit your changes. (You only need to modify the portion of the form that corresponds to the changes you wish to make.)

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How can I request that content be removed from FUSE?

The full text of a Work may be removed from FUSE by sending a request to the FUSE administrators at scholarexchange@furman.edu. If the Work is removed, a record describing the original version of the paper will always remain on the site at the same URL.

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Can I post related files (sound clips, data sets, etc.) alongside the work?

Yes. FUSE refers to these supplementary items as Associated Files. You will be prompted to submit Associated Files when you upload your submissions. The name of the files you upload will appear on the website along with your short description of it. Viewers must have the necessary software to open your files; that is not provided by FUSE.

Please be sure that there are no permissions issues related to use of the associated material. Sometimes, especially with images, you must write a letter seeking permission to use the material before it can be posted.

If you do not own the copyright to your submission, you must provide written permission from the copyright owner (usually the publisher) with the submission as an Associated File. This file will become a part of the online record in FUSE and will be publically accessible with your work.

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Can I post a reprint from a journal?

It depends on what the journal allows, which is usually specified in their agreement with the author. If it would not violate copyright to post the reprint on your repository site, you're welcome to do so. Permissions for many publishers can be found at SHERPA RoMEO.

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I don't have electronic versions of old working papers that I'd like to include in the repository. Is it okay to scan the printed page to a PDF file?

Yes--scanning printed pages is a great way to create PDF files for inclusion in FUSE. It is recommended that you create the scans through Adobe Acrobat, so that the item is full text searchable (using OCR, Optical Character Recognition). If you do not have access to a scanner or the full version of Adobe Acrobat, you are encouraged to visit the Writing & Media Lab in the James B. Duke Library. Staff there will be able to walk you through the process of scanning and OCRing the item. If you have a substantial number of items that need to be scanned, please contact the Digital Collections Center at digicenter@furman.edu for advice.

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When I copy and paste abstracts into the Submit form, some formatted text reverts to plain text. What's going on?

When copying abstracts from a word processing file or a PDF file, and pasting the text into the submission form, you are taking text from an environment that supports fonts and text style changes. You can use the buttons above the text field to format the text (bold, italic, underline, etc). If you are knowledgeable in HTML, you can click the “HTML” button above the text field and mark-up the text manually using HTML tags.

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How do I include accents and special characters in the abstracts and titles?

The FUSE software supports the worldwide character set (Unicode, utf-8). Accents, symbols, and other special characters may be copied and pasted into the abstract or title field from a word processing file or typed in directly. Windows users may also use the Character Map to insert these characters. Macintosh users may use the Character Palette (available via Edit > Special Characters in the Finder).

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How can I submit a multi-part file, such as multiple chapters for a book?

Combine all the sections together as one Microsoft Word file or PDF file and submit that. If you need assistance converting multiple files into one PDF file, please contact the FUSE administrators at scholarexchange@furman.edu.

If you feel that the one large PDF file might be too large for some people to download, we suggest that you submit the consolidated file as the full text of the article, and then upload the separate chapters or sections of the document as Associated Files. These files will appear on the web page alongside the complete document. For more information about uploading associated files, see below.

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A working paper we contributed to FUSE has been published in a slightly revised form in a journal. What should I do?

Many journals do not have any restrictions on working papers that preceded an article, especially if substantial revisions were made. You should check your author agreement with the journal to confirm that there is no problem with leaving the working paper on the site. FUSE would constitute noncommercial use.

Assuming the working paper does remain posted in FUSE, it is a good idea to include the citation to the published article on the cover page of the repository working paper. Please contact the FUSE administrators at scholarexchange@furman.edu to request this change.

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