About the Repository
Iowa Research Online (IRO) is a service of the University of Iowa Libraries dedicated to preserving and providing open access to the scholarly and creative work of the University. University of Iowa Libraries staff works with university departments, research centers, and individual faculty to select, submit, and manage content. Members of the academic community are invited to contribute their completed scholarship for long-term preservation and worldwide electronic accessibility. Archiving content in IRO is free and allowed by many publishers. Faculty and researchers may also choose to create a SelectedWorks homepage to highlight this scholarship and share with colleagues.
The type of content housed in IRO includes but is not limited to:
- journal publications (both pre- and post-print)
- conference papers and proceedings
- presentations
- working papers
- book chapters
- multimedia
- administrative and policy documents
- theses and dissertations
Why Contribute to IRO?
Content archived in IRO is:
- more discoverable by search engines such as Google.
- indexed and searchable in ResearchNow, a database of networked institutional repositories.
- hosted on a secure server and given a persistent URL to ensure permanent access.
- openly accessible to researchers around the world who may have limited access to scholarly materials.
Iowa Research Online is similar in its aims and objective to other academic repositories such as DeepBlue in Michigan or University of Illinois’ IDEALS.
For More Information
To learn more about contributing to IRO or creating a Selected Works homepage, contact the site administrator at or your library subject specialist.
The University of Iowa Libraries guide, Transforming Scholarly Communication, offers extensive information for faculty and researchers about Open Access, authors' rights, and copyright.
The Association of Research Libraries is a good resource for information about Institutional Repositories. The following paper, "The Case for Institutional Repositories: A SPARC Position Paper" by Raym Crow, defines Institutional Repositories and argues their merits within an academic institution.