Policies

Discover the Sigma Repository's submission guidelines, including who can submit, copyright and licensing policies, and what happens to your work post-submission. 

The Sigma Repository (Repository) is a free scholarly and clinical database that shares unique work created by nurses at all experience levels—from students to retired nurses. Anyone with internet access may browse and view all of the Repository’s materials.

On the Repository, nurses can self-archive their gray literature while retaining copyright. Gray literature is information produced outside of traditional publishing channels. This includes items such as posters, presentation slides, theses, dissertations, reports, and clinical projects. The Repository also gathers Open Access articles when allowed by Creative Commons licenses (see Transparency for details).

Submission Guidelines

This section outlines what the Repository accepts, how materials may be submitted, and funder disclosure requirements.

Accepted Materials

The Repository accepts unrestricted materials from nurses at any stage of their career. Students are encouraged to submit their items, too—classroom projects, final papers, capstone projects, theses, and dissertations. 

All materials submitted to the Repository must be unrestricted, with no distribution limitations on the work. The unrestricted range of materials includes items such as theses, dissertations, capstone projects, reports, presentations, guidelines, patient education, evidence-based practice projects, outcomes, and more.

Scope of accepted works:

• Clinical Materials
• Evidence-based Practice
• Translational Science
• Implementation Science
• Education-based materials including 
• • Nurse-to-community
  • Nurse-to-patient
  • Faculty-to-student
  • Expert-to-novice
  • Nurse-to-nurse, professional development/continuing education

All items submitted to the Repository must be standalone and contain sufficient information to eliminate the need to seek out a second source of knowledge to complete the original information. Additionally, the work must contain one file that is more than a restatement of the abstract. Works may include multiple files in multiple formats.

All funders must be disclosed at the time of submission.

Technical specifications:

• File formats: text files as PDFs (when possible), video, and audio
• Citation style: undefined but must remain consistent throughout the document or work
• Font: unrestricted but must be legible and not under 12-point font type

Poster and slide deck submissions must contain at least two files:

• Required – a formal, detailed abstract
• Required – the poster or slide deck
• Optional, but desired – a video recording of the presentation
• Optional, but desired – a handout with talking points or other related information to supplement the required files
• Optional, but desired – the poster/slide deck includes presenter notes.

Unacceptable Materials

Since the Repository acts as a professional supplement to scholarly and clinical journals, there are materials that will not be accepted. These include: 

• Previously published materials except for those works published under Creative Commons licenses or other Open Access agreements
• Materials that violate the mission, vision, or policies of Sigma Nursing
• Business archives
• Marketing and promotional materials
• Abstract-only entries
• Any materials that violate copyright and fair use laws
• Manuscripts that will be published in traditional scholarly journals
• News, opinions, and personal narratives
• Items of a strictly political or inciteful nature
• Items that contain typos and formatting errors

Acquisition Methods

Materials may be added to the Repository through the following methods:

• Self-archiving – authors (individual and corporate) submit their own materials
• Proxy submissions – authors allow another person to submit their materials on their behalf. This requires a proxy agreement. Email Repository staff for details at [email protected]. 
• Article harvesting – the Repository staff posts Open Access articles when allowed by license or publisher agreement.

For a description of how each method and evaluation type appears on a published item record, see Transparency, below.

Author Information

If you are a nurse with an accredited BSN degree or equivalent (or actively pursuing one) or above, then you can submit to the Repository! Sigma Nursing membership is not required.

Interdisciplinary author groups are encouraged to submit their work. A nurse must submit on behalf of the group, but they do not need to be the lead author. The work must relate to nursing and fit under the Repository’s scope and mission.

Authors must hold copyright to the materials they submit (see Copyright, below, for exceptions).

If the author/copyright holder is a corporate entity such as an organization or hospital, the submitter must be the legal designate of the corporate entity (i.e., current employee).

Violating Repository policies may result in the removal of posted materials and loss of submission privileges (see Withdrawal and Retention of Items).

Copyright

Copyright remains with the submitting author(s) as the original copyright owner(s), unless otherwise disclosed by the author and noted in the item record. One exception is when materials are submitted through a proxy agreement (see Acquisition Methods). 

Submitting authors may select a Creative Commons (CC) License to allow others certain usage and modification rights. Patrons may check each record for a CC License. If such a license exists, it will be clearly noted in an item record. Please review each license for terms and conditions.

What’s a Creative Commons License? It’s a legal tool that lets content creators share their work with the public under some rights reserved rather than all rights reserved (see more in the Copyright section above). 
Placing materials in the Sigma Repository will not alter previously existing copyright ownership status. Submitting authors must represent that they either own or possess all the necessary rights to submit their materials to the repository. Agreement to the Non-exclusive Distribution License is a required step in the submission process.

Authors may enter separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of posted materials if such contracts do not conflict with the author’s optional choice of a CC License in connection with the submission of the item to this repository. 

In the United States:

• Copyright protection is automatic from the moment a work is created. Copyright registration is not required to protect your work. You must register for copyright before you can sue someone for infringing your copyright.
• Students and faculty are typically considered the copyright holders of the work they create during their coursework or as part of teaching, tenure, and promotion, respectively.
• Works of employees are generally considered to be the work of their employers. Check with your employer prior to submitting.
• Multi-author works are considered joint works or collective works
• • Joint works are contributions that are merged into a single whole (e.g., articles, reports, projects) and authors have equal ownership. Any author may submit the work without prior consent of the other authors.
  • Collection works are independent pieces that are combined (e.g., book chapters by different authors), but each author retains the copyright to their individual contribution.
  • When in doubt, have a conversation with all co-authors prior to submitting.

Use of any information/material not copyrighted by the submitting author must be disclosed and approved by the copyright holder in advance of submission.

Sigma Repository staff are not attorneys and cannot provide legal advice.

Disclaimer

The Repository is not responsible for any mistakes, omissions, legal infringements, or breaches of copyright or ownership found within posted materials, and it is not obligated to undertake legal action on behalf of submitting authors regarding their material.

The views and opinions expressed in individual item records and collections of materials do not necessarily state or reflect those of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing Sigma Nursing) or the Sigma Repository and shall not be used for advertising or endorsement purposes.

Sigma Nursing, its subsidiaries, chapters, and any of its employees make no warranty, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the information disclosed. 

The display of communities, collections, exhibit pages, item records, and documents within this repository does not constitute a partnership, endorsement, association, or recommendation by Sigma Nursing, the Sigma Repository, or any of its appointees, boards, agents, subsidiaries, chapters, or employees.

The Sigma Repository Information Hub provides links to external sources. Neither Sigma Nursing nor the Sigma Repository guarantees the accuracy of information on these sites. Including links to any information, product, process, or service does not imply endorsement, recommendation, or affiliation with those sites or their sponsors.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Don’t hide your ETD on a dusty shelf or behind a subscription paywall. If you hold a master’s and/or doctorate degree in nursing, the Sigma Repository invites you to submit your work for inclusion in the ETD community.

If your ETD is in ProQuest or your alma mater’s repository, don’t worry. In both of those cases, you still own copyright and can share it through the Sigma Repository.

ProQuest is subscription-only access. Your university repository is usually locked down to members. Sharing via the Sigma Repository ensures global impact!

No ETD is too old or too long. 

Don’t have a digital file? Have your printed/bound version digitized using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). The following are several scanning service options that may be available in your area. 

• Staples
• FedEx
• Iron Mountain
• Minuteman Press

The Repository has a collection dedicated to final graduate works that don’t comply with the formatting requirements of traditional ETDs.

Group Participation

• A group may be from any setting where nurses, nursing faculty, and nursing students (see Author Information above) work or learn (i.e., schools of nursing, hospitals, other clinical settings, national or international nursing organizations, professional groups or consortia, or health-related businesses). Sigma Nursing chapters are included!
• Participation is informal (i.e., no contracts to sign). Simply have your group members submit their eligible works to the repository. Make sure to complete the Affiliation field, as this is what aligns member submissions with your group.
• Individual copyright holders (e.g., students, members, employees) may be invited to submit and cannot be compelled to submit their work to the Repository.
• Once your group reaches 100 submissions, it becomes eligible for an elevated visual presence within the repository. Each group will track its own submissions by browsing the Affiliation field. A representative from your group may contact the Repository staff via email to request an Exhibit Page for your group.
• Groups must submit materials annually or risk removal of their Exhibit Page. Materials are not removed from the Repository but remain in their original collections. Groups will not receive notice if/when their Exhibit page is removed.

Evaluation and Processing

Materials submitted to the Repository are not peer-reviewed prior to posting. However, they do undergo an evaluation for formatting, fitness, contribution to overall nursing knowledge, and adherence to the policies on this page. The Repository does not offer editing or proofreading services.

Processing submissions may take up to 90 business days, during which time items are evaluated, cataloged, and posted or rejected in the order in which they are received. 

Publication vs. Dissemination

When you submit to the Repository, you are disseminating your work, not publishing it.

Disseminated work is:

• Evaluated
• Shared on its own merits without formal review
• Self-archived
• Not professionally edited or proofread

Published work is:

• Peer-reviewed
• Professionally edited and proofread for typos

Published vs. External Source 

Published refers to content that appears in traditionally published scholarly materials, such as books and journal articles. An external source, by contrast, refers to professionally disseminated materials, such as posting best practice guidelines on a website.

Traditional publications and open dissemination complement each other to increase the global knowledge of nursing. Authors benefit from dynamic dissemination. Find out what that means here. 

Prior Publication Embargoes

Prior Publication is the release of a substantial portion of an author’s material in another publication or on a publicly accessible platform while pursuing publication with a traditional journal using the same material.
Most journals do not consider the dissemination of gray literature to be prior publication. 

Submitting authors are asked about their plans for traditional publication during submission, alerting Repository staff to potential prior publication issues. Staff then collaborate with each author individually to impose embargoes on files when needed. 

Transparency

The Sigma Repository is dedicated to openness and accountability. Each item record acknowledges its acquisition method and review or evaluation type.

Acquisition Types

• Self-submission – Submitted by author/copyright holder.
• Proxy-submission – Submitted by author/copyright holder’s authorized designee.
• Publisher-submission – Submitted by original publisher as copyright holder.
• Indexed Previously Published Material (Permission Granted by Copyright Holder) – Copied to repository from another publisher when permission granted by the publisher.
• Indexed Previously Published Material (Per Creative Commons (CC) License) – Copied to repository from another publisher when permission granted via a CC license.
• Indexed from External Source (Permission Granted by Copyright Holder) – Copied to repository from another source when permission granted by copyright holder.
• Indexed from External Source (Per Creative Commons License) – Copied to repository from another source when permission granted via a CC license.

Evaluation Types

All evaluation types assume that the material meets the policies and criteria of this repository.

•  Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host – Conference materials do not undergo further peer review prior to posting.
• Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host – Conference materials do not undergo further peer review prior to posting.
• External Evaluation: Organization-based Material – The submission rests on the organization’s reputation.
• External Review: Previously Published Material – Published articles presented in scholarly journals and previously evaluated do not undergo further peer review prior to acceptance and posting in the repository.
• Faculty Approved: Degree-based Submission – Student works are accepted and posted in the repository based on the recommendation of a direct supervising faculty member.
• None: Degree-based Submission – Student works that have been defended or graded as part of required coursework necessary to graduate do not undergo further review prior to acceptance and posting. These submissions rest on the reputation of the degree grantor.
• None: Educational Material – These submissions are education-based and created for students, faculty, staff nurses, patients, etc. These materials are accepted as educational and do not undergo further review or evaluation prior to posting in the repository.
• None: Event Material, Invited Presentation – Conference materials of plenary and guest speakers rely on the speaker’s knowledge and expertise and do not undergo further review or evaluation prior to posting in the Repository.

Withdrawal and Retention of Items

All submitters agree to the Sigma Repository’s Non-exclusive distribution license. The license allows the Repository to permanently post and store submissions on its servers and website. Under certain circumstances (e.g., copyright infringement, plagiarism, falsification of data, etc.) an item may be removed and the author banned from future submission rights. See more in the Copyright section above. The Sigma Repository reserves the right to reject or remove items that do not adhere to the standards, mission, and principles of Sigma.