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General Information
During the submission process, you can change all details at all times.
As soon as you have completed the registration process, changes will still be possible so long as the editorial team has not yet made your publication accessible.
Corrections to documents that have already been made accessible can only be made by the editorial team in exceptional cases with specific justification.
The University Library archives all Refubium publications, indexes them, and ensures bibliographical cataloguing in Primo, supraregional catalogs, and various search engines.
Revised editions are saved as new versions (compare: Versioning).
In exceptional cases (justified by specific copyright issues) access to documents can be restricted by the editorial team.
Authors can, of course, cancel their agreements with the University Library. However, in order to have files deleted from Deutsche Nationalbibliothek's servers, authors have to turn to Deutsche Nationalbibliothek themselves.
Freie Universität members who are in plans of editing an online pubication series can enter into an agreement with the University Library whereby the editor deals with the University Library on behalf of the authors of all documents that become part of the series.
Click here to find the text of the agreement.
If you define an embargo within the document description – most probably because of copyright issues – the document will not be made accessible before the specified date.
Important note for doctoral theses: Please consider that the receipt for your submission of your thesis to Refubium cannot be issued before the embargo period has ended.
There are two cases to be distinguished:
1) The file has not yet been made accessible:
Yes, it is still possible to replace the file. The Editorial Team will assist you with the replacement.
2.) The file has been made accessible:
Replacement is admissible in exceptional cases only and will require specific justification (which would, in general, be based on legal grounds). Such cases will regularly involve document versioning.
Digital long-term preservation is about ensuring the integrity of digital information over time even as software and hardware environments may change.
The Freie Universität Berlin University Library guaranties unlimited accessibility periods for theses and other documents – which might include the use of object viewers. Research data will be kept accessible for at least ten years.
Please note that for reasons of data protection, personal data such as birth place and birth date, e-mail address , matriculation number etc. must not be included in the file.
A curriculum vitae must be removed completely, or it can be replaced by a placeholder, e.g.
"For reasons of data protection, the curriculum vitae is not included in the online version".
The purpose of the agreement is to give both sides legal protection in the publication of a work protected by intellectual-property rights. By entering into the aggreement, you allow the University Library to archive your document / your data free of cost. The University Library ensures long-term preservation. Your rights to your work remain absolutely intact.
So long as a dataset or a document has not been published, it can still be changed. You can interrupt the process of uploading your data / documents at any time, save the information submitted up to that moment and resume the process at any later time.
Datasets, once published, cannot be changed – according to the "Regeln guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis".
But Refubium has a versioning. Each version receives new identifier, old and new version refer to each other, so that they are both refindable and quotable .
In order to enter into the agreement, you have to be in possession of the intellectual property rights for the materials to be published. If you have already licensed your work to a publisher, check your contract to find out whether you have retained the right to secondary publication. Find more informationen here: Rights and Licenses
When you publish your document on Refubium, the Freie Universität Berlin institutional repository, your intellectual-property rights will remain intact. You will not give up your rights to further publication of your work in academic journals, or in book format, or on other servers.
If you decide to publish your document on Refubium, you enter into in an agreement with the Freie Universität University Library, whereby you confirm that you are in possession of the intellectual property rights for all parts of the work in question and that third-party rights, especially third-party intellectual-property and personality rights, are not affected by the publication.
Doctoral Theses / Habilitation Theses
For all question concerning theses to be submitted to Charité, please turn to:
Hochschulschriftenstelle der Charité
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Augustenburger Platz 1
13353 Berlin
E-mail: dissertationsserver@charite.de
All important information concerning the online publication of your thesis is available on the Freie Universität University Library webpages.
General information:
https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/ub/service/hss_abgabe/hinweise_diss/index.html
Specific information concerning online publication of theses:
https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/ub/service/hss_abgabe/online_diss/index.html
Legal framework:
https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/ub/service/hss_abgabe/rechtsgrundlagen/index.html
FAQs:
https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/ub/service/hss_abgabe/FAQ/index.html
Freie Universität doctoral candidates planning to submit their thesis, please turn to:
Hochschulschriftenstelle at University Library
Garystraße 39
Room 66 (first floor)
14195 Berlin
Tel.: (030) 838-54276
E-Mail: hsstelle@ub.fu-berlin.de
Formats / Files
You should submit multiple research data files combined within a single tar/zip file.
It is recommended that you choose ASCII-compatible file formats whenever possible.
In the case of software, you should always submit source code rather than compiled code because the latter may not be executable over time.
Databases should be submitted as SQL dump in order to allow for later use – possibly with a different database management system.
Whether created in a proprietary or in an open-source environment, data should be submitted in popular exchange formats, ideally xml-based, permitting further processing either in proprietary or in open-source environments.
You can upload files up to 512 MB using the Refubium web interface.
Files no larger than 10 GB can be submitted using the synchronized safe cloud solution box.fu. In order to use box.fu, you need to have access to a ZEDAT account. For more information go to this page:
https://www.zedat.fu-berlin.de/BoxFU
You can share a link to your data on box.fu. We recommend that you use password protection.
If the volume of your data exceeds 10 GB (as may be the case with research data) or if you (no longer) have access to a ZEDAT account, please do not hesitate to contact the repository editorial team (Redaktion Dokumentenserver).
Instead of multiple files, please submit a single tar/zip file combining all your research data files, which should include data papers and other necessary information.
Very voluminous data can be partitioned into one or more tar/zip files to facilitate later use.
OCR (optical character recognition) is used to produce searchable PDF files when digitizing printed materials.
PDF files submitted to the institutional repository have to be searchable. When files lack a layer of searchable text, the publication may be prevented from being discovered in full-text search.
Identifiers
With activation on Refubium, every new document is assigned a DOI. DOIs are registered with DataCite by the University Library.
Furthermore the University Library offers for all other institutes of Freie Universität Berlin, who are hosting own repositories a cost free DOI registration.
In case of interest please contact kontakt@refubium.fu-berlin.de
The Freie Universität University Library holds a block on ISBNs that we are happy to pass on to Freie Universität members free of charge if required. Please address your requests to the University Library Dissertations Department / Repository Editiorial Team: hsstelle@ub.fu-berlin.de
Please notice:
- Each independent publication receives its own unique ISBN; e.g .printed books; electronic independent ressources ; software including teaching and learning materials; films for educational purposes; print-on-demand publications
- Significant changes to a publication such as new editions, translations, digitization and transfers into other formats (paperback, audio book, electronic publication) require a new ISBN.
- The ISBN and the reference to Freie Universität Berlin must be placed in the imprint. In the case of film material, for example, the ISBN must be mentioned in the opening credits.
We can also assign and register ISSNs. An ISSN can only be assigned if the first volume of the series has already been published.
Application and more information here: edocs@ub.fu-berlin.de
A URN (Uniform Resource Name) serves to uniquely identify your work – much as an ISBN or DOI does.
Because of the legal-deposit regulations, the University Library is integrated into the DNB's URN system and will assign a URN to your work accordingly.
The German National Library (DNB) runs a URN resolver that directs queries based on the DNB URNs to current URLs.
Communities and collections
The "Digitalisate" community contains public-domain works held by Freie Universität Libraries in physical formats and digitized by the University Library.
Users have the opportunity to find these and other collections of digitised material with more functions, more details and specifically tailored to digitised material on the platform for digitised material at Freie Universität Berlin at
digital.ub.fu-berlin.de
There are two collections in the "Dissertationen" community.
Within the "Dissertationen Charité" collection, only doctoral theses and habilitation theses submitted to Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin are published.
The "Dissertationen FU" collection contains all theses submitted to Freie Universität Berlin.
The "Forschungsdaten" (Research Data) community contains only one collection, the "Alle Forschungsdaten" collection.
The purpose of the "Research Data" collection is to document research data created either at Freie Universität Berlin or in cooperation projects involving Freie Universität Berlin members. That may include research data already hosted in other repositories.
The "Publikationen" community (publication-community) is divided into two collections: "Dokumente Charité" and "Dokumente FU".
The "Dokumente Charité" collection contains journal articles funded by the Charité Open-Acces Publication Fund.
The "Dokumente FU" collection contains:
- Publications created at Freie Universität Berlin
- Publications by Freie Universität Berlin members (journal articles, working papers, etc.)
- Publications edited by Freie Universität Berlin members
- Publications created by, or edited by, authors or instituitions associated with Freie Universität Berlin
The "Serien und mehrbändige Werke" (series-and-multi-volume-works) community contains two collections. Within the "Serien und mehrbändige Werke Charité" collection contains series and multi-volume works created at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
The collection "Serien und mehrbändige Werke FU" contains series and multi-volume works created at Freie Unversität Berlin.
That would include:
- Publication series created at Freie Universität Berlin
- Publication series created by Freie Universität Berlin members, such as edited volumes, congress proceedings, research reports
- Publication series created by, and edited by, authors and organizations associated with Freie Universität Berlin.
Please note that you can also enter into an editor's agreement with us if you decide to place the original publication of an edited volume or a series on Refubium.
Registration
If you are a Freie Universität Berlin member with an FU-Account, you are authenticated through Shiboleth; that means no special registration to Refubium is necessary. You can simply log in on the login page with your FU-Account (ZEDAT) credentials.
Users without a valid FU-Account, i.e., external users and members of Charité – Universitätsmedizin (the latter defined as Freie Universität Berlin members in Berliner Universitätsmedizingesetz, § 4 (2)), have to register when they first log in to Refubium – thereby creating a specific Refubium account.
If you decide to create a Refubium account, you will have to enter a valid e-mail address in the registration process. You will receive an e-mail with a confirmation link that will lead you to the registration form that you need to complete with your user details in order to conclude registration. Immediately thereafter, you will be qualified to submit documents, theses, and research data to Refubium.
Freie Universität and Charité members are qualified to publish their digital documents on the server. That also applies for Freie Universität / Charité students if they can present a written recommendation for publication by a faculty member.
Former Freie Universität members, guests, as well as lecturers who are not listed in the current course catalog, are requested to kindly substantiate their affiliation with Freie Universität by presenting appropriate documentation (e.g., reference to earlier course catalogs, confirmation by department), or turn to the Repository Editorial Team.
All doctoral and habilitation theses submitted to Freie Universität Berlin and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin can be published on Refubium. As doctoral or habilition candidate, you will be assisted in all formal matters related to submitting your thesis by the Freie Universität University Library or the Charité Library, respectively.