Tung Wah College Institutional Repository Policy

1. Purpose

The Tung Wah College Institutional Repository (TWCIR) aims to collect, preserve, and provide access to the educational and research outputs authored by members of Tung Wah College. The Repository supports the College’s mission by enhancing the visibility and impact of the College’s intellectual output and fostering opportunities for collaboration.

2. Scope of Collection

Currently, the Scope of Collection of the Repository includes bibliographic metadata of the following types of research outputs, with the publication stage reaching at least OnlineFirst / epub:

• Article
  • Articles published in academic journals
  • Articles published in magazines / newsletters of professional bodies
• Book
  • Authored / edited / translated books (single / multiple volumes)
  • Authored / edited reports
  • Encyclopedia / dictionary entries
• Book Chapter
  • Authored / translated book chapters
• Conference Paper
  • Papers / abstracts / posters published in official conference proceedings
  • Papers / abstracts / posters published as part of a journal

To present a complete academic profile for academic / administrative staff, eligible publications cover all authored research outputs regardless of author affiliation at the time of publication.

The Repository also contains personal records of individual authors, with basic information including affiliation, job title, and College email address. Author Profile Pages of the Repository also contain external linkages to author identifiers or profiles harvested by Library from bibliographic databases including Web of Science, ORCID, and departmental website. While the Library offers support on author identity management, individual authors have the responsibility to ensure the accuracy of their author profiles on these external platforms.

The Repository does not accept the following types of work at the current stage:

• Retracted works
• Working papers / Preprints
• Newspaper articles / Media coverage
• Conference presentations without undergoing official publication
• Research dataset
• Dissertation / Thesis published outside of the College
• Patent / License
• Research output records and / or their manuscripts with unresolved copyright or licensing restrictions
• Works that contain confidential, restricted, defamatory, or unlawful content

3. Eligibility

The Repository collects metadata of research output records authored by the following current members in the College within Section 2 Scope of Collection:

• Full-time academic or research staff
• Administrative staff of academic departments, offices, or support units

Members with a current contract period who have authored at least one research output fulfilling Section 2 Scope of Collection are eligible to have a public Author Profile Page created on the Repository.

4. Data Sources, Convention and Submission

Metadata is harvested, cleaned, and ingested by the Library into the Repository; the Library is also responsible for the regular maintenance and enhancement of ingested metadata. Authoritative sources of metadata harvesting include bibliographic databases, official publisher websites, and published hardcopy. Other authoritative sources indexing metadata of Chinese or non-English publications will also be consulted.

Metadata on the Repository follows standard guidelines to ensure quality and consistency. Publication date of the works follows the month of journal issue or first online date on publisher website or published hardcopy as closely as possible. Title information generally follows the format in the Published Version on the official publisher website or published hardcopy, and the full citation currently follows APA7 format. The Library also performs additional name authority control of all authors to group all research output records under each author together.

Research output records housed by the Repository adhere to the standards below:

• Being relevant to the academic, research, and / or institutional mission of the College
• Being complete, reliable, and authentic
• In compliance with ethical, legal, and academic standards

The Library reserves the right to reject the ingestion of, or withdraw, the research output records should they fail to comply with the conditions set out in Section 2 Scope of Collection and Section 6 Copyright and Rights Management.

5. Withdrawal of Records from the Repository

Upon departure from the College, ingested research output records published by former academic staff and administrative staff during the time at the College will remain public in the Repository. Those published outside of the contract period will be hidden from public view in the Repository. The person record and Author Profile Page of former staff will be withdrawn from the Repository.

Withdrawal of research output records and / or person records outside of the scenarios above may also be necessary, considering the operational workflow or administrative efficiency of the Repository.

Research output records and / or their manuscript(s) may be withdrawn from public access under severe circumstances including copyright violations, legal requirements, and confirmed academic misconduct.

Withdrawal of records will be documented in the metadata record together with details about staff in charge and justifications for withdrawal.

6. Copyright and Rights Management

Copyright compliance applies to the ingestion and reuse of metadata and research output in the Repository. For bibliographic metadata of the research outputs, the indexing of bibliographic metadata only, without author manuscript, is allowed under Cap. 528 Copyright Ordinance (2025). For dissertations published outside of the College, considering that dissertations are housed and provided by the affiliated institution under established copyright terms, the Library decided not to include the bibliographic metadata or manuscripts of any of these research output records into the Repository.

In the case of author manuscripts archiving for the promotion of Open Access, the Library ensures the version of the manuscripts deposited on the Repository strictly complies with Cap. 528 Copyright Ordinance and the stipulated self-archiving policies on institutional archiving made available on the websites of individual publishers. Conditions include the embargo period in force, types of publication allowed, the portion of the work allowed, and the version of author manuscript allowed. The source of the author manuscripts uploaded to the Repository should be directly from the author(s) and free from other manipulations.

Should an author manuscript be deposited with a research output record, a copyright license statement in accordance with publisher requirement will be provided at the record’s metadata level. In all circumstances, the compliance of Cap. 528 Copyright Ordinance (2025), publisher self-archiving policies and academic ethics should supersede the considerations on Open Access.

Fair dealing with a research output (“The work”) for research and private study should be strictly followed to avoid infringement of copyright. According to Cap. 528 Copyright Ordinance (2025), the following factors will be taken into consideration when deciding a case violating fair dealing:

(a) the purpose and nature of the dealing, including whether the dealing is for a non-profit-making purpose and whether the dealing is of a commercial nature;

(b) the nature of the work;

(c) the amount and substantiality of the portion dealt with in relation to the work as a whole; and

(d) the effect of the dealing on the potential market for or value of the work.

In all cases, excessive downloading, data crawling, or data spidering of any content in the Repository are prohibited.

7. Duties and Responsibilities

The metadata of the Repository is harvested, cleaned, ingested, and actively maintained by the Library consulting various data sources. The backend system and configuration of the Repository are managed and maintained by ITSO. This Repository policy is written by the Library with reference to Cap. 528 Copyright Ordinance (2025), Copyright (Amendment) Ordinance (2022), and publisher websites.

8. Policy Review

This Repository policy is subject to periodic review by the Library to ensure continued relevance and alignment with institutional goals and developments in scholarly communication.

9. Enquiry

Please feel free to contact the Library at [email protected] or call 3190-6650 for any enquiries or suggestions. Please refer to Repository User Guide for more useful tips and FAQ on using the Repository.

10. References

1. Copyright Ordinance (Cap 528)
2. Copyright (Amendment) Ordinance (2022)
3. Springer Nature Limited. (2026). Self archiving and license to publish. https://www.nature.com/nature-portfolio/editorial-policies/self-archiving-and-license-to-publish#self-archiving-policy

Issue Date of Policy: 13 April 2026
Policy Last Update Date: 13 April 2026