FAQ

Using cIRcle

How do I cite an item that I have found in cIRcle?

Cite the published version, if available, according to the standard used by your discipline. In your citation, include the URL of the work in the repository (and the date of access, if specified by the standard). Note that the page numbering of the cIRcle version may not correspond to the page numbering in the published version.

Example: Baumbusch, J., Lamden-Bennett, S. R., & Lloyd, J. E. V. (2020, November 30). The Impact of COVID-19 on British Columbia’s Children with Medical Complexity and their Families [R]. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0395118.

For items accessed in Open Collections, you can use the citation generator underneath the DOI on the right-hand side of the item page at the bottom of the item page to create references according to major citation style manuals.

Does cIRcle have a privacy policy?

Privacy Notification: Your personal information (in the form of the IP addresses of the computers you use to access cIRcle) is collected under the authority of section 26(e) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). This information is used solely to track usage statistics for the purposes of evaluating the geographical reach of UBC research made openly accessible via cIRcle. Questions about the collection of this information may be directed to the cIRcle Office.

Submissions to cIRcle must be the final clean copy of the submission. The file should not contain any annotations, comments, handwritten notes, or private information such as signatures or student numbers. Submissions containing private information may be rejected or the information redacted by cIRcle Staff. For additional information about privacy, visit the Privacy Matters @ UBC website or view the Office of the University Counsel Privacy Fact Sheets.

How do I download a PDF from cIRcle?

Use the download button located to the right of the title on the item you are interested in. If you are unable to download the file, please review the following suggestions:

  • Clear your web browser history (cache) and try again
  • Check the PDF viewer settings for your browser
  • Revert to Adobe PDF plug-in

Please note that some versions of Chrome may not be compatible with files saved with Fast Web View. If you experience issues viewing cIRcle files while using Chrome, please download the file.

If none of the above suggestions work, please contact us for assistance.

Why isn't my video/audio file streaming?

Video and audio files will stream 24 hours after they have been uploaded. If your video or audio file won't stream after this time period has passed, please contact the cIRcle Office.

How do I create a cIRcle login?

If you have been asked to deposit your own submission or otherwise require a cIRcle login, start at the cIRcle homepage at: circle.ubc.ca

Click on the “Register” hyperlink in the “Registration” box

Enter your email address. (NB: The email address will be verified and used as your login name.)

You will receive an automatic email message referring you to a specified URL to complete the registration process.

Please note that cIRcle deposits most non-thesis submissions on behalf of the UBC Community. Consult our Submissions page for more information on how to deposit to cIRcle.

How do I link my CWL to my cIRcle login?

Once you have registered for a cIRcle login, you can link your CWL to your cIRcle login. Thereafter you can use your CWL to login to cIRcle. To link your CWL to your cIRcle login, follow the instructions provided at the Login page. If you have any questions, please contact the cIRcle Office. Note that this step is optional.

If you are submitting a graduate thesis or dissertation, please follow the instructions provided by Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the UBC Vancouver campus or College of Graduate Studies at the UBC Okanagan campus.

Can cIRcle provide contact information for authors?

cIRcle does not maintain a database of contact information for copyright owners of material that has been uploaded. If the material is authored by a UBC instructor or researcher, please contact them directly or contact their department or unit for possible contact information.

For theses and dissertations, UBC is not permitted to provide you with a student’s contact information due to privacy laws. In such cases, we advise you to contact the UBC Alumni office since they may be able to contact UBC graduates on your behalf.

How can I use material in cIRcle?

Materials added to cIRcle prior to March 7, 2014 cannot be copied to a publicly available or private database without first seeking permission from the copyright owner. You may, however, provide a link to the materials in your database.

The use permissions for materials added to cIRcle on or after March 7, 2014 vary by license type. Authors retain moral authority over their work(s), and thus their works must be properly attributed and cited when used by other parties. Specifically: authors, titles and full bibliographic details must be quoted, the hyperlink and/or URL must be given for the original metadata page (the page that provides descriptive data about your materials) and the content cannot be altered in any way.

To check license permissions for an item, view the “Rights” field in a cIRcle record. You can additionally click on the link in the “Rights URI” field. This link will redirect you to the Creative Commons webpage that lists the use permission and restrictions for that item.

Licensing & Permissions

What if I don’t own copyright of my work or a portion of my work?

In order to use works or parts of works for which you do not own the copyright, you must first identify, contact, and receive permission from the legal copyright owner. “Using” includes embedding others' works into your own work (e.g. including a digital image in your PowerPoint presentation, an illustration or an audio file on your course webpage, etc.) and displaying, distributing and/or reproducing them in some way.

You need to obtain any necessary permissions prior to depositing your work into cIRcle. Your publisher has these same requirements prior to publishing your work.

For more information on receiving permissions to use someone else’s work, see How do I lawfully use someone else's work? in the UBC Copyright FAQ. For further guidance on obtaining permissions, see the Copyright Guidelines for UBC Faculty, Staff and Students.

Permissions may also be necessary if you are attempting to use your own work and no longer retain the copyright. Authors sometimes sign away copyright of their work, or a certain version of their work, during the publishing process. If you are unsure about what version of your own work you may use, please see our Author's Guide to Self-Archiving.

What is the cIRcle Non-Exclusive Distribution License?

The cIRcle Non-Exclusive Distribution License grants cIRcle permission to make your work openly available in perpetuity and to preserve the materials for long-term access via processes such as migrating to new file formats as needed and appropriate. The cIRcle License must be completed by a copyright holder of the work being deposited and must accompany each item you wish to deposit.

For works with multiple creators, one copyright holder can complete the License on behalf of a group. By completing the license, the content provider is stating that:

  • They own the copyright to the work being submitted (including any images, charts, etc. that appear in the work) or have received permissions to deposit the work
  • They have informed all co-creators that they are depositing the materials and all co-creators have agreed to the cIRcle License
  • They are granting permission for cIRcle to make the material openly available in perpetuity

Please note, a person who does not hold copyright cannot complete a license on behalf of a copyright owner. If you are a Research or Administrative Assistant, for example, you cannot complete the License on behalf of a faculty author; you must ensure the copyright holder is the one completing the cIRcle License.

When completing the cIRcle License, Creative Commons terms are also applied. Please see ‘3.4 What are the Creative Commons options in the cIRcle License?’ for more information. A history of cIRcle License Versions provides more detail on the use of Creative Commons in the license agreement as well as other changes to the license over time.

What are the Creative Commons options in the cIRcle License?

In order to make material deposited in cIRcle open access, a Creative Commons terms are applied as part of the cIRcle Non-Exclusive Distribution License. Creative Commons Licenses allow authors to stipulate how others can share, remix, or reuse their work.

Unless otherwise altered, the cIRcle license will permit you and others to read, download, copy, search, print, distribute and/or link to the works you submit to cIRcle with a given license. Authors who are submitting work to cIRcle can apply or remove use restrictions for their work by selecting different license conditions. These conditions stipulate whether is it permissible to use submitted content for commercial use and if the work can be modified. The condition options for each stipulation are as follows:

Allow commercial uses of your work?

  • No – users cannot copy, distribute, display and perform a submission for commercial advantage or monetary compensation
  • Yes – users can copy, distribute, display and perform a submission for commercial advantage or monetary compensation

Allow modifications of your work?

  • Yes – users can adapt, translate, rearrange, add to, and edit your submission
  • ShareAlike – users can adapt, translate, rearrange, add to, and edit your submission, but they must make any resulting work available under a similar or compatible Creative Commons License
  • No – users can only copy and distribute unaltered versions of your submission

Selecting “No” to both options in the cIRcle license is the most restrictive, as you are not allowing commercial use of your work or modifications of your work. Selecting “Yes” to both options is the most open. In that scenario, you are allowing commercial of your work and allowing modifications of your work. For additional information about creative commons license types and permissions, see the UBC Study Guide on Creative Commons and the accompanying guide’s FAQ page.

For information about the submission process, please see the cIRcle Submission Guide and the cIRcle Content Guidelines

Do I sign over my copyright when I deposit my works in cIRcle?

No, the copyright status of your work remains the same. The cIRcle Non-exclusive Distribution License gives cIRcle permission to make the material openly available and to preserve it by migrating it into newer formats as technology changes. Adding your work to cIRcle enables you to share your work openly via the repository while maintaining existing copyright. For the most current statement and guidelines on copyright, see the official Copyright at UBC website.

Submitting to cIRcle

What types of materials can I deposit in cIRcle?

cIRcle accepts a variety of content types for deposits. For a detailed list of accepted content types, see the cIRcle Content Guidelines.   

We provide support for as many file formats as possible as long as an appropriate file viewer for the submitted content is freely available on the Internet. See our File Format Guidelines for preferred file format types. Over time, items stored in cIRcle will be preserved, using a combination of data management techniques and digital preservation practices. We intend to keep current with technological change and, as far as is possible, to upgrade deposited materials to newer formats as required.

Works that are submitted to cIRcle must be contributed in digital form and should be complete and ready for viewing and uploading at the time of submission.

If an item (or submission) is made up of multiple files, all of the digital pieces must be provided as a set - for example, a PDF document with its associated data file(s). If the work is part of a series or set of related works, the other works in that series should, if possible, also be contributed so that cIRcle can offer as full a set as possible.

Can cIRcle digitize my materials?

cIRcle is unable to digitize any materials prior to deposit. Submitters are responsible for ensuring that digital objects are in a state ready for upload (i.e. redacting, creating PDFs from web-pages, converting formats, etc.), including the digitization of analogue materials.

UBC Library's Digitization Centre offers digitization services on a case by case basis. To request digitization assistance, please submit a Digitization Project Proposal Form.

Can cIRcle archive my website?

cIRcle can accept content files added to websites in the form of publications, audiovisual materials, etc. If you are interested in archiving the website itself, consider UBC's Web Archiving Service. Proposal Forms

What about research data in cIRcle?

Generally, we recommend that research data be deposited into a data repository such as Borealis or FRDR. The UBC Research Data Management page provides information on each data repository.

cIRcle may accept small datasets or supplemental information that is related to a submission. If you are interested in submitting datasets to cIRcle, please contact the cIRcle Office.

Can someone from outside UBC submit materials to cIRcle?

Generally, items deposited in cIRcle come from members of the UBC community such as current faculty, staff, and students. However, alumni and non-UBC content providers may deposit materials in cIRcle under certain conditions at the discretion of the cIRcle Office. cIRcle Content Guidelines and the cIRcle Policies page provide additional information on who can contribute material to cIRcle.

Are cIRcle submissions peer-reviewed?

There is no cIRcle policy requiring or implementing a peer-review process prior to submitting work into cIRcle.

When items are uploaded to cIRcle, we record whether a work is 'Unreviewed' or 'Reviewed'. The 'Reviewed' status generally refers to a scholarly work such as a journal article or a manuscript that has been through a publisher's stringent review process. An 'Unreviewed' item has not been peer-reviewed.

You can, of course, deposit a copy of your work that has already been peer-reviewed, provided you have the rights to do so. This will depend on the publication agreement you signed with your publisher. Please check your copy of the agreement and see our Author's Guide to Self-Archiving. You can also check the SHERPA/RoMEO website for publishers' copyright and self-archiving policies to find permissions normally given to the author as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement.

For more information about peer-review content in cIRcle, please contact us.

Will there be a permanent cIRcle link so that I can cite work worry free?

Yes. Items deposited into cIRcle are given a permanent and persistent URI that will not break. You can cite it without worrying that the address will change at some point in the future. Each item in cIRcle has both a URI and DOI. For more information about the process of DOI creation, see the UBC Library’s webpage, Get DOIs. The DOI is the best one to use in links or citations. The following URI and DOI both belong to the same item in cIRcle,

Atlas of British Columbia:

One of the main reasons for establishing cIRcle is to provide scholars at UBC with a digital repository where their work can be properly archived and exposed to a wider audience. This means that we are committed to ensuring that your work is accessible and readable for a very long time.

How long will it take for a submission to be archived in cIRcle?

Submission timelines depends on the nature and amount of the materials being submitted, whether a new workflow must be established, the complexity of the file formats, etc. For single-item submissions, we aim to have the material deposited within 3-5 business days. For more complicated submissions or for a rush deposit, please contact the cIRcle Office for assistance.

For graduate thesis/dissertation submission inquiries, please review information provided by Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the UBC Vancouver campus or the College of Graduate Studies at the UBC Okanagan campus.

What if I don't see my graduate thesis or dissertation in cIRcle?

When your final thesis meets Graduate Studies' requirements, you will receive an email notification stating that it has been added to cIRcle. It may take 3-5 business days after you receive this notification before it appears in the repository.

If you submitted a thesis or dissertation at UBC Vancouver prior to 2008 and do not see it in the repository, please contact the UBC Archives Office.

How do I see who supervised a graduate thesis or dissertation?

As of May 1, 2021, Supervisor/Co-Supervisor names are required for inclusion in cIRcle graduate thesis and dissertation metadata (Supervisor field). Supervisor/Co-Supervisor name values are identified using the thesis/dissertation Committee page. Additional committee members/examiners are not captured.

cIRcle plans to explore retrospective application of Supervisor/Co-Supervisor metadata values for prior graduate theses and dissertations in the future. In the meantime, Supervisor/Co-Supervisor names may be found within the thesis/dissertation preliminary pages.

Can I remove or edit material from cIRcle?

cIRcle provides a permanent archive for UBC research and teaching materials and items may not normally be removed from cIRcle. Content added to cIRcle should be the final version ready for archiving and long-term preservation at the time of submission. Where appropriate or necessary, changes to metadata or content files may be performed at the discretion of the cIRcle Office on a case-by-case basis. Examples may include updates to an existing item record to reflect a legal or preferred/chosen name change, or a major revision to a work where an updated file is added to enhance the item record. Repeated requests for metadata or content changes are generally not supported.

Content may be withdrawn for specific reasons outlined in the cIRcle Policies section 6. b. Withdrawn items are not deleted per se, but are removed from public view and made unavailable via cIRcle for searching or harvesting services. Withdrawn items' identifiers/URLs are retained indefinitely, but redirect to an “Item is Withdrawn” page where the content and metadata is not publicly visible.

An Author/Creator may contact the cIRcle Office to request an update to an existing item record (e.g. to reflect a legal or preferred/chosen name change). If there are major revisions to a work in cIRcle, it may be appropriate for an updated version to be deposited as a separate item.

For more information about removing or editing a deposited item or record in cIRcle, please contact the cIRcle Office. For inquiries regarding removal or alterations to theses and dissertations, contact the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the UBC Vancouver campus or the College of Graduate Studies at the UBC Okanagan campus.

If you're interested in platforms that better support frequent updates or more flexible versioning, consult the UBC Library Research Commons list of resources and services.

Can I restrict who views my work after it's been deposited into cIRcle?

cIRcle is an open access repository. Its aim is to make the scholarly work produced at UBC openly and freely available to the academic community at large. We understand, however, that there may be instances where it is necessary and desirable to temporarily restrict access to specific works, and we will accommodate this need as far as possible. If you need to impose an embargo on your work, please view section 5 on the cIRcle Policies page and the cIRcle Non-Exclusive Distribution License (Section 5).

For all questions regarding adding an embargo to a graduate thesis, please review information provided by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the UBC Vancouver campus or College of Graduate Studies at the UBC Okanagan campus.