MSpace

Institutional repository

MSpace is the University of Manitoba’s repository for scholarly works. It is maintained and supported by members of Research Services and Digital Strategies (RSDS), and Systems units of Libraries. This repository fulfills the infrastructure requirements of research-intensive organizations in Canada in support of the Canadian Tri-Agency’s open access and data management policies. Consequently, as part of institutional obligation, the funder metadata is to maximize reporting and discovery to the national funder. The scholarly works that are permitted to be deposited in MSpace are governed by a content policy for this and other repositories overseen by University of Manitoba Libraries (UML).

DSpace by Lyrasis is the software platform that serves as the foundation for MSpace. It is an open-source platform that some Canadian research-intensive universities utilize in providing an institutional repository. University of Manitoba Libraries is listed as a bronze level member.

The structure of MSpace is comprised of communities and collections. In some cases, these are one and the same, such as in the Theses and Practica collection. In the case of communities, these have been reorganized to better showcase the scholarly works at the faculty level what has been deposited by faculty members and students associated with that faculty. A scholarly work will be defined by the depositor through selecting the primary department/faculty to ‘assign’ that work to that community/collection.

There are multiple ways works are deposited in MSpace. Most commonly, works are deposited using the manual method of completing the input form and uploading the works. There are two intake forms: Research Publications and Theses/Practica. For more information, see also what you can deposit.

Works are also auto deposited through transfer protocols with publishers as per a license agreement to fulfill open access obligations to funders or uploaded in a ‘batch’ process. This batch process is coordinated through an established understanding and workflows between certain faculties and related members of the Libraries MSpace support team.

Once deposits are accepted, they are assigned a permanent URL or handle . At present MSpace does not auto-assign a DOI to deposits; however, they can be obtained on request.

Expectations and obligations in a deposit

Under the expectations and obligations of support, Libraries endeavors to ensure that MSpace is compliant with national and international standards and regulations to enhance discovery and access to all works deposited in the repository to both the public and the scholarly community. Depositors should understand that MSpace exposes its metadata to search engines and aggregators as part of discovery in the larger information ecosystem. Such aggregators, engines and indexers include Google Scholar, OpenAIRE, Canada Research, Library and Archives Canada among many others. As part of the deposit process, depositors are asked to sign a distribution license, which affirms this understanding.

Another obligation is to ensure legal compliance with copyright law, both national and international, when applicable. Depositors are asked when depositing to ensure that appropriate protections are applied to their works and/or declare any licenses that govern that work in the metadata. This includes but is not limited to applying embargoes and related citing stipulations as prescribed if the work had been published elsewhere, and collective permission for deposit in the case that a scholarly work has multiple authors. For thesis/practicum deposits, depositors are asked to sign a Copyright agreement that affirms compliance. See also: before you deposit; depositing help.

Auto deposit

The University of Manitoba Libraries negotiates license/subscription contracts with commercial publishers. As publishers continue to introduce and/or establish new license arrangements to meet open mandates, many types of “Publish and 2 Read” or Transformative Agreement models are emerging. Depending on the type of license and/or what is negotiated, an option to enable auto-deposit may be included. The deposit is a direct exchange between the publisher and MSpace by way of a transfer protocol overseen by University of Manitoba Libraries technical staff. The timing of availability in the receiving repository is dependent on a few factors: (i) supply-side: transfer of the item from the publisher is usually on a schedule, and the frequency varies from provider to provider; (ii) receiver-side: once received by MSpace technical staff, there may be processing steps that will influence the availability date of the item in the repository.

At present, UM has one auto-deposit pathway in place, with publisher BMC. This pathway is a result of a negotiated understanding between Libraries and the publisher; it is enabled through affiliation information provided by the author at time of publication (either email domain or persistent identifier).

Support

Multiple team members from Libraries’ Research Services and Digital Strategies (RSDS) and Systems support MSpace in different capacities. For all inquiries and requests for MSpace, use the Library Research Services’ MSpace request form or see depositing help.