Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What is LSU Law Digital Commons?

    2. LSU Law Digital Commons is the institutional repository of the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center. It aims to provide permanent and open access to the intellectual output of the LSU Law Center community, and to preserve its institutional history. The repository is a service of the LSU Law Center Library.

  2. How do I submit materials?

    3. To add content to the repository, please email the repository administrator, Kayla Reed at .

  3. Who can submit materials?

    4. Any faculty or staff member affiliated with LSU Law may submit scholarly content. Programs, centers, and students should consult with the repository administrator to see how well their material may fit into the repository’s scope.

  4. What materials does the LSU Law Center collect?

    5. Our repository houses electronic PDFs, Word documents, video, photographs, and select supplemental data. If you have a question about your own content and if it is a good fit for our repository, please contact Kayla Reed at .

  5. After I’ve submitted a paper, how long before it appears?

    6. A paper submitted to Digital Commons will be posted as quickly as possible.

  6. How do I revise a submission?

    7. To revise a submitted article, paper, abstract, or make other changes, contact the repository administrator, Kayla Reed at .

  7. Once I submit a paper to Digital Commons, do I have to leave it up for any given period of time?

    8. No, we will immediately remove your paper any time you would like.

  8. Can materials be withdrawn after they have been submitted?

    9. The LSU Law Center Faculty Scholarship Repository is intended to be a permanent repository for the scholarly output of LSU Law. Contributors may make a request for materials to be withdrawn for special cases including concerns over copyright infringement.

  9. What happens if a scholar is no longer affiliated with the LSU Law Center?

    10. Scholarship will not be removed from the repository if a scholar is no longer affiliated with LSU Law. SelectedWorks pages may be moved with a scholar if there is an institution change. This is done simply by changing the institutional affiliation field on the SelectedWorks profile.

  10. Are usage reports available?

    11. Basic statistics are available on the home page of Digital Commons. Authors with SelectedWorks pages may receive periodic statistical reports for items that are included on the SelectedWorks page even if that item was collected from outside the LSU Law Center Faculty Scholarship Repository. Authors can access their download counts in real time any time from the Author Dashboard. The Author Dashboard is available through the author's "My Accounts" page. Authors can also learn which search terms were used to find their work, and from which institutions their work was accessed. This information is available for all articles of for an individual article for the past 30 days or for the entire time the article has been on SelectedWorks.

  11. Is submitting a paper to the Digital Commons on bepress the same as submitting a paper on ExpressO?

    12. No. ExpressO is a different service on bepress. You use it to submit manuscripts electronically to multiple law journals of your choosing. You may contact the Reference Desk at or at 225.578.4042 with any questions about either product.

  12. What is SelectedWorks?

    13. SelectedWorks is an add-on to the LSU Law Center Faculty Scholarship Repository. It provides authors affiliated with LSU Law an online space for their own personal collections of their scholarly work. Work posted in the LSU Law Faculty Scholarship Repository and other Bepress repositories can be collected into an author's SelectedWorks page, saving time and maintaining consistent statistics.

  13. Copyright Guidelines:

    14. For Authors

    • To include a work in the LSU Law Center Faculty Scholarship Repository you need to either hold the copyright, have reserved your rights to publicly post the work in an institutional repository, or have specific permission from the publisher to post the work. We rely on you to have taken one of these steps before you submit the article. Our staff can work with you to find journal and publisher policies, and review and suggest contract language to reserve these rights.

      Publication agreements with student-edited law school journals generally include a reservation of rights to post based on the AALS Model Author/Journal Agreement. If not, most student-edited journals routinely give this permission if requested.

      Following are links to publishing agreements or language to add to agreements that specifically permit posting:

    If materials are freely available, does this mean that content can be redistributed or re-used without permission?

    • All materials in the LSU Law Center Faculty Scholarship Repository retain copyright privileges. Access is free but the use of the materials is still subject to the terms and conditions noted in the copyright publication agreement or license agreement signed between the author and the publisher.
  14. I still have questions; whom do I contact for more information?

    15. Contact Kayla Reed at with any questions.