Frequently Asked Questions
Top Questions
How do I submit my thesis or dissertation to AUC Knowledge Fountain?
Step-by-step instructions are available on our Submission Guidelines for Theses and Dissertations.
How do I get in touch with the editors of AUC Knowledge Fountain?
Please send an email to: fountadmin@aucegypt.edu. We will try to respond as quickly as possible.
General Questions and Information
What is the AUC Knowledge Fountain and what does it contain?
AUC Knowledge Fountain (Fount), managed by AUC Libraries and Learning Technologies, collects, preserves, and makes accessible online the scholarly and creative efforts of the AUC community. It hosts research and other work by students, including graduate theses and dissertations; publications and other scholarly and creative endeavors by faculty members; and publications, documentation of events, and other material demonstrating the contributions of AUC departments, research centers, offices, and other units.
The repository operates according to the principles of open access, promoting wide dissemination of scholarly communication (although some items may be available only to current AUC students, faculty, and staff or from campus locations, and some items may be subject to an embargo time period restricting online access). AUC Knowledge Fountain is based on the Digital Commons platform.
How do I sign up for an AUC Knowledge Fountain account?
Follow the link to AUC Knowledge Fountain (Fount) homepage. Click the “My Account” link on the tab at the top left-hand corner of the page, which will direct you to the login page. In the top right-hand corner click on the “Menu” dropdown and select “Sign up”. You will be asked to enter:
- Email address: You must use your AUC email address, e.g. tom.tester@aucegypt.edu.
- First name - Please enter your name as it appears on your AUC records (for students submitting a thesis the same as on your thesis title page)
- Last name - Please enter your name as it appears on your AUC records (for students submitting a thesis the same as on your thesis title page)
- Password
- Password confirmation
Once you have entered this information, you will need to confirm the reCAPTCHA checkbox and click on “Create Account”. A confirmation email will then be sent to the email address you signed up with. Follow the link in the email in order to activate your account.
Policies and Best Practices
What policies govern AUC Knowledge Fountain (Fount), and where can I access this information?
The repository contains many different types of files, and special policies may apply to each type: After accessing the submission form for a particular type of content (e.g. Theses and Dissertations) a "Policies" link will be dispalyed on the left hand menu, where all relevant policies are listed.
General policies are posted on the AUC Knowledge Fountain About page (https://fount.aucegypt.edu/about.html). There you can find information regarding contributors, appropriate submission types and digital file formats, submission guidelines, access and withdrawal, copyright and intellectual property, and privacy. It is recommended that all users read this document before submitting content.
How do I submit my research or other scholarly or creative work?
You must first create a free account with AUC Knowledge Fountain (Fount) using your “@aucegypt.edu” email address. Use the My Account link to set up your account. An email will be sent to the address you provided with a link to verify your account. (If this email does not arrive in a timely manner, please check your spam folder.) Once you have verified your account and have your AUC Knowledge Fountain (Fount) credentials, you may submit to the repository.
Use either the Faculty Submissions or the Student Submissions link (as appropriate) in the “Submit” sidebar to upload your content. Before upload, you will be asked to agree to the repository’s Submission Agreement and fill in a form providing descriptive information about yourself, any co-authors, and your content. Once you have uploaded your content, you will receive a notification email and your submission will be reviewed by an AUC Knowledge Fountain (Fount) administrator. If it meets the requisite criteria, it will be published to the site, at which point you will be notified via email. In the event that there are problems with your submission, the Library will contact you via email to resolve any issues and ensure the content can be posted.
Detailed information regarding appropriate content, acceptable file formats, copyright and permissions, and more can be found on the About page. If at any point you experience difficulties with submission, require assistance, or have questions, please Contact Us at fountadmin@aucegypt.edu.
What if I can’t figure this out - can you help me submit?
Absolutely. If you’re experiencing difficulty with the submission process, please Contact Us at fountadmin@aucegypt.edu. We can walk you through submission or, in most cases, submit the content for you. We will do our utmost to help get your content into AUC Knowledge Fountain (Fount). We also offer a detailed Submissions Guidelines with step-by-step instructions for many common AUC Knowledge Fountain (Fount) procedures.
Who can submit to AUC Fount?
AUC Knowledge Fountain (Fount) is open to submission of content from current AUC faculty, staff, students, or any university department, unit, or research center. For students interested in submitting content, approval from the faculty member supervising their work is required. Those who collaborate with the university in an official capacity may also be permitted to contribute content.
May I restrict online access to my submission?
Students submitting their thesis or dissertation can choose to have the full version of their thesis or dissertation (and any supplemental files) unavailable for online access for a maximum period of two years from the date of submission. The student’s name, title, abstract and other descriptive information will still be publicly viewable. The thesis or dissertation will automatically become available at the completion of this two-year period. For extenuating circumstances requiring any further extension, a request must be submitted to the Office of the Dean of Graduate Studies.
Can a submission be withdrawn?
As part of the submissions process, authors will grant a perpetual and irrevocable license to publish material online. By default, all content will remain publicily available. However, items may be removed for reasons of plagiarism, copyright infringement, or impropriety (mendacity, racism, bias)/factual inaccuracy, or other compelling legal reasons. Attempts will be made to contact authors/contributors whose submissions are involved in such cases, and a note indicating “Removed for administrative or legal reasons” added to the descriptive record of the item.
Can I post a reprint from a journal?
It depends on what the journal allows, which is usually specified in their agreement with the author. If it would not violate copyright to post the reprint on the repository site, you're welcome to do so.
Most commercial publishers will not allow the final, published PDF files to be deposited in an institutional repository for public access. This is the case with the American Chemical Society, American Psychological Association, Elsevier, Institute of Physics, Oxford, Routledge, Sage, Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley, to name a few. These publishers do allow the final revised manuscript (including changes made after peer review) to be deposited.
There are other publishers who will permit the deposit of finished versions (eg, American Mathematical Association, American Physical Society, Chicago University Press, Rockefeller University Press). Permissions for many publishers can be found at SHERPA RoMEO.
A working paper in our repository site has been published in a slightly revised form in a journal. What should I do?
Many journals do not have any restrictions on working papers that preceded an article, especially if substantial revisions were made. You should check your author agreement with the journal to confirm that there is no problem with leaving the working paper on the site. The repository would constitute noncommercial use. If the working paper does remain posted in the repository, it is a good idea to include the citation to the published article on the working paper’s cover page in Fount. Please Contact Us to request this change.
Technical Issues
How do I revise a submission?
To revise a submission that has already been posted to the repository, please contact us at fountadmin@aucegypt.edu with the new version. If the content has been submitted, but not yet posted, you may revise it via your My Account page:
- Locate the article on your My Account page, and click the title.
- Click Revise Submission from the list of options in the left sidebar.
- Enter your changes in the Revise Submission form, and click Submit at the bottom of the page to submit your changes. You only need to modify the portion of the form that corresponds to the changes you wish to make.
I don't have electronic versions of old working papers that I'd like to include in the repository. Is it okay to scan the printed page to a PDF file?
If you don’t already have a digital version of your content, scanning printed pages is a great way to create PDF files for inclusion in the repository. Using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is important for scanned files – OCR allows users to search within your PDF. If you’re using a software application such as Adobe Acrobat, be sure to use its “recognize text” feature to create a searchable PDF. If you’re uncertain if your PDF has searchable text, trying using the “find” feature and search for a word you know the document contains. If no results are returned, you will need to OCR the document. If you don’t have the appropriate software or are experiencing difficulties creating a digital version of your submission, please contact us – we may be able to provide assistance.
When I copy and paste abstracts into the Submit form, some formatted text reverts to plain text. What's going on?
When copying abstracts from a word processing file or a PDF file, and pasting the text into the submission form, you are taking text from an environment that supports fonts and text style changes. Because the abstract is intended to be presented on the web, text styles must be specified using HTML codes. If submitting an abstract in HTML format, please be sure to select the corresponding option on the submission form. The following HTML tags are recognized by the system and may be used to format an abstract (use lowercase tags):
<p>- paragraph (Example: <p>This is a first paragraph.</p>)<br>- line break (Example: <p>This is a paragraph with <br> a linebreak.</p>)<strong>- strong/bold (Example: <strong>bold text</strong>)<em>- italics/emphasis (Example: <em>text in italics</em>)<sub>- subscript (Example: Text with <sub>subscript<sub>, renders as "Text with subscript".)<sup>- superscript (Example: Text with <sup>supercript<sup>, renders as "Text with superscript".)t
How do I include accents and special characters in the abstracts and titles?
The repository software supports the worldwide character set (Unicode, utf-8). Accents, symbols, and other special characters may be copied and pasted into the abstract or title field from a word processing file or typed in directly. Windows users may also use the Character Map to insert these characters. Macintosh users may use the Character Palette (available via Edit > Special Characters in the Finder).
How can I submit a multi-part file, such as multiple chapters for a book?
Combine all the sections together as one Microsoft Word file or PDF file and submit that.
To make one PDF file from multiple files, open the first PDF file, then choose Document>Insert Pages from Acrobat's menus to insert the second file (indicate it should go after the last page of the first file), and repeat for all documents. The result will be one compound PDF file which may then be submitted.
If you feel that the one large PDF file might be too large for some people to download, we suggest that you submit the consolidated file as the full text of the article, and then upload the separate chapters or sections of the document as Supplemental Content. These files will appear on the web page alongside the complete document. For more information about uploading associated files, see below. If you would like assistance consolidating your files, please contact us.
Can I post related files (sound clips, data sets, etc.) alongside the published article?
Yes. At the end of the submission form, you will find a checkbox labeled "Additional Content". Please emake sure this box is chekced. After you submit your main file, you will be prompted to submit additional files. The name of the files you upload will appear on the web site along with your short description of it. Viewers must have the necessary software to open your files.
Please be sure that there are no permissions issues related to use of the associated material. Sometimes, especially with images, you must write a letter seeking permission to use the material before it can be posted.
Also note that wherever possible, items such as images, charts and tables that are referenced in the document (or otherwise an integral part of the document) should be included directly in the article itself and not posted just as associated files.