Skip to Main Content

Digital Scholarship: Getting Started

This guide provides information and resources for using best practices in digital methods to produce scholarly and research work.

What is Open Access?

The BCIT Library is proud to publish the BCIT Institutional Repository (IR) as Open Access. Scholarship at BCIT is thus opened to the world. It aligns with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications. The BCIT Institutional Repository holds the promise of extending BCIT research and increasing visibility, prestige, and public value of our applied research.

Open Access is the practice of providing free and unrestricted online access to research publications and data. This greater access accelerates the progress of research, democratizes access to knowledge worldwide, and ensures that publicly funded research is available to the public. Open Access makes it possible for research results to have a greater impact and enables researchers, scholars, clinicians, policymakers, private sector and not-for-profit organizations and the public to use and build upon this knowledge.

Submit your scholarly work to the BCIT Institutional Repository

For more information about the BCIT Institutional Repository, what works are accepted, and information about copyright please see the BCIT IR About page.

Below are listed the main forms and information you will need to submit your work to the BCIT IR.

The BCIT Institutional Repository was first launched in April of 2013. 

After more than ten years it is BCIT's place to bring together Scholarly work of students and faculty, Open Educational Resources, published works, student projects, students journals, Thesis, and Capstone projects, as well as research from the wider BCIT Scholarly Community. The BCIT Library is excited to continue to collaborate on the growing body of research, and serve public materials to the wider world via Open Access. 

Anyone at BCIT may contribute to the BCIT Institutional Repository. Please contact cmclellan13@bcit.ca if you are interested in submitting to the
BCIT Institutional Repository.

About Digital Scholarship

This guide provides information and resources for using best practices in methods to produce digital scholarly and research resources.

Digital Scholarship includes copyright, digital curation, digital preservation, digital repository, metadata, open access, research data management and other research and communication practices.

Steps involved in creating digital scholarly resources:

1. Understanding how my institution deals with research data, electronic files, access and preservation of digital files and maintenance of digital records.

2. Build a case for Research Data Management and gather support. Current practice and expected demand. Partner with research stakeholders.

3. Establish institution's RDM policy and strategy, in order to provide guideance and support.

4. Ensure that researchers are aware of support, through training and advocacy.

5. Provice researchers with easy to use, secure, and safe data storage.

6. Make it easy for others to find and cite research data.

7. Keep up with Digital  Scholarship technologies, practices, tools and projects.