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K-State Research Exchange >
Frequently Asked Questions
About K-REx
Contributing to K-REx
About K-REx
What is the K-State Research Exchange?
The K-State Research Exchange (K-REx) is a digital archive of scholarly works created by students and faculty at K-State. K-REx began as a means to enable K-State graduate students to submit their theses and dissertations electronically, but the repository can include journal articles, conference papers, technical reports, working papers, data sets, tutorials, music, photographs, and other digital items.
Items in K-REx are freely available via the Web and are indexed by and accessible through Web search engines. Unlike most web sites, files within K-REx are maintained for the long term. Items in K-REX are assigned a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), similar to a URL, but more permanent. Also, K-State and DSpace are committed to making items accessible far into the future.
What software is used for K-REx?
K-REX uses DSpace software, which was developed jointly by MIT and Hewlett-Packard and is now freely available as open-source software. DSpace provides tools for submitting, reviewing, indexing, searching, and archiving items in many different digital formats.
Do other universities have repositories like K-REx?
Listed below are just a few of the universities that have established repositories using DSpace:
Who manages K-REx?
The K-State Research Exchange is a joint project of the K-State Libraries, the Graduate School, and Information Technology. Contact: Marty Courtois, Instructional Technology Assistance Center, 509 Hale Library, 532-4429, courtois@ksu.edu.
How is K-REx organized?
K-REx is organized into Communities, which might be schools, departments, research centers, or other administrative units. Within Communities, multiple Collections can be established which contain individual items and files.
How do I find scholarly works deposited in K-REx?
You can search K-REx by keyword or browse through Communities or Collections by title, author, or date. Instructions on using the search function are available by clicking on the Help link from any page. Items in K-REx will also be indexed by popular web search engines.
Contributing to K-REx
Who can deposit scholarly works into the K-REx?
K-State faculty, students, and staff can deposit works.
What are the benefits of depositing my work into K-REx?
While ordinary web pages have been used to great advantage to share scholarship and research, web pages are hard to create and difficult to maintain. K-REx offers these benefits:
- Increased citation rates. Studies indicate articles available in open access archives such as K-REx are cited more often than articles available only by subscription. The increase in citation rates is dramatic, ranging from 40% to 250% depending upon the discipline. See The Open Citation Project Reference Linking and Citation Analysis for Open Archives The increase in citation rates is dramatic, ranging from 40% to 250% depending upon the discipline. See The Open Citation Project � Reference Linking and Citation Analysis for Open Archives (http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html) and Antelman, Kristin. �Do Open Access Articles Have a Greater Research Impact?� College and Research Libraries 65(5):372-382, September 2004 (http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00002309/01/do_open_access_CRL.pdf).
- Increased access. Articles deposited to K-REx are searchable not only through the K-REx site, but will also be indexed by major web search engines such as Google and Yahoo!. Through an agreement with Google, DSpace-based collections such as K-REx will be included in the Google Scholar database. Most importantly, items in K-REx are included in open archives �harvesters� such as OAIster (
How can I deposit my work into K-REx?
Before you can submit items, a �collection� needs to be established to receive your work. Contact Marty Courtois, Repository Services Team, 212 Hale Library, 532-4428, courtois@ksu.edu. Members of the Repository Services Team are available to meet with your department to demonstrate K-REx and discuss it�s benefits.
After a collection is set up, adding items is a simple, online, fill-in-the-blanks process. Items you submit are reviewed and optimized for discoverability before being archived in K-REx.
What rights do I give up when I deposit a work into K-REx?
You do not give up your copyright or any other rights when you place an item in K-REx. The licensing agreement for the K-State Research Exchange asks only for non-exclusive rights to store your work, preserve it, and make it available on the web. "Non-exclusive" means that you retain all rights to your work and can sign agreements with other organizations to publish your work.
Can I deposit an article that has been published in a journal?
Probably. Even if you transferred copyright to the publisher, most publishers allow you to deposit a copy of the article in a repository such as K-REx. Many publishers stipulate that you must use your reviewed, revised manuscript and not the formatted version that appeared in the journal. When you submit your work to K-REx, the Library will verify the publisher�s policy and contact you if there are any questions.
What if I have a co-author who isn't affiliated with K-State? Can I still deposit the work?
As long as your co-author does not object to depositing the work in the K-State Research Exchange, only one author needs to be affiliated with K-State. It is also acceptable to deposit a work into more than one institutional repository. For example, you could deposit the work in the K-State Research Exchange and your co-author could deposit it into his or her institutional repository.
I have only print copies of my articles. How can I add them to K-REx?
Print materials can be scanned and the files submitted to K-REx.
Can I withdraw an item I've submitted or replace it with a revised version?
Once an item has been submitted to the Exchange, it cannot be withdrawn. It is possible to make a separate submission of a later edition, cut you cannot remove the earlier edition.
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