Copyright Policy

The works included in Montclair State University Digital Commons are under copyright by the authors, or are included with permission by the publisher or sponsoring entity. Any reproduction of these works is prohibited unless in accordance with an appropriate Creative Commons (CC) license or with written permission. Inclusion in this repository does not suggest that any such materials are part of the public domain, or are free from restrictions unless explicitly stated.

For users: Any works downloaded from this repository are to be used for personal, non-commercial use under Fair Use (Title 17, §107 U.S.C.) and may not be redistributed, unless in accordance with an appropriate Creative Commons (CC) license. Unless otherwise specified by license, works in this repository may be used in educational settings; linking to the document page is the preferred method of distribution in these cases.

For authors: Inclusion of your work in this repository does not mean you are giving up your copyright, or restrict you from submitting your work for publication elsewhere. Before submitting your work, you can check the self-archiving policies for your publications against the SHERPA/RoMEO database. For additional advice on retaining the copyright for your publications, or obtaining permissions to archive older publications, contact or visit http://montclair.libguides.com/copyright

More information for authors:

• Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine
  http://scholars.sciencecommons.org/
  The Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine will help you generate a PDF form that you can attach to a journal publisher's copyright agreement to ensure that you retain certain rights.


• Author Rights: Using the SPARC Author Addendum
  https://sparcopen.org/our-work/author-rights/brochure-html/
  The SPARC Author Addendum is a legal instrument that modifies the publisher’s agreement and allows you to keep key rights to your articles.

Take-Down Policy

Montclair State University Digital Commons is meant to be a permanent record of the University’s scholarly and creative output. Therefore, removing content from Montclair State University Digital Commons is highly discouraged. There may be times, however, when authors or submitters may request that content be removed. Reasons for removal may include impermissible categories of content as outlined above, copyright infringement, plagiarism, fabricated data or falsified data. No files will be removed by the repository coordinator or administrators without the author being informed.

If a contributor leaves the University, their material will remain in the repository. At their request, new contact information can be added to their files.

Authors or contributors wishing to remove or update their content should contact the repository coordinator at and provide a brief statement explaining the reason for removal.

Graduate theses, dissertations and culminating projects:

All requests to remove graduate theses, dissertations and culminating projects must be approved by the Graduate School Dean or their designee. Because theses and dissertations are completed as part of a degree program, and because Montclair State University promotes the public sharing of knowledge, the Graduate School will only approve the removal of theses and dissertations in rare, extenuating circumstances. The administrators of the repository will not remove any theses or dissertations without the Graduate School’s approval.

If you do not want your thesis, dissertation or culminating project to be publicly available in Montclair State University Digital Commons, please email us your information at and the reason to request its removal from the repository.