Student Research Digital Repository Submissions

Digital Repository Submissions

At Knox, student research is a vital part of our scholarly output–whether honors projects, Richter-funded research or creative projects, McNair projects, or other independent work. While it is a requirement of the Honors program to deposit Honors projects with the library, students have control over access to any projects they submit. Student projects submitted to the library for inclusion in the digital repository must be accompanied by a completed Digital Repository Release form. 

Digital Repository Release Form (pdf).  Print form, fill out all sections, then submit completed form.

Click to submit Release form.

Acceptable Formats for Documents Submitted to the Digital Repository

Documents submitted to Knox's digital repository should be  PDF or PDF/A files. The PDF/A is the standardized version of the general PDF format and is used as an archival format. In a PDF/A file fonts are embedded within the document, which means the document is more likely to be readable in the future. Saving a document to PDF/A also allows for embedding hyperlinks and managing the color space. 

General Recommendations

• Create a PDF/A if possible. See below for instructions.

• If you are submitting a plain PDF, DO NOT simply "print to pdf". Use the application's SAVE AS... feature to save to PDF. 

• DO NOT password protect or encrypt your PDF file.

• If your project has additional files such as multimedia files, computer code executables or scripts, etc., submit those as separate files along with your PDF file. DO NOT embed multimedia files into PDFs, although embedded still images are fine.

How to Create a PDF/A File at Knox

Start with your original file from the application you created it in. In other words, don't create a plain PDF and then try to create a PDF/A from that. 

PDF/A files are best created in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, which is available to all Knox students, faculty and staff. See the page from Knox ITS about accessing Adobe products at Knox. 

Using Adobe Acrobat Pro to Create a PDF/A File

1. Open Adobe Acrobat Pro

2. Click on the Tools tab. Click Create PDF. 

3. Make sure you are in the Single File section. Click "Select a File" and choose your source file. 

4. Click on the gear icon/Advanced Settings. A dialog box opens.

   • In the Adobe PDF Settings choose one of the PDF/A-1b:2005 options, depending on if you have a preference for a color space.

   • Check the "Enable accessibility and reflow" box.

   • Check the "Add Links to Adobe PDF file" if you have links in your document. 

5. Click OKAY. Click the Create button. Wait for your document to render, then save it in a location of your choice.

Create a PFD/A File in MS Word 2019

Knox has MS Office version 2019 installed in the computer labs and on staff computers. If you have another version of Word the process may be different. Visit the Knox ITS Help Desk in the basement of the Science and Math Center for help. MAC users cannot use MS Word to save to PDF/A and will need to use Adobe Acrobat Pro as outlined above.

This process requires that Adobe Acrobat Pro be installed on the computer where you are using MS Word. 

1. Open your document. 

2. Go to File > Save as and click the Options box (next to the Save button). 

3. A dialog box will open. Check the "Create PDF/A-1a:2005 compliant file" box and click OK.

4. Choose a location where you want to save your file and click Save. The Adobe Acrobat Pro application opens to display your document.

Create a PDF/A File from a Google Doc

Google Docs does not support the creation of PDF/A files. To create a PDF/A file from a Google Doc you will need to download the Doc file and open it in MS Word. You can create the PDF/A document from Word or create it in Adobe Acrobat Pro (see instructions above). Beware that some formatting may be lost when moving from Google Docs to MS Word, so be sure to check over your reformatted document in Word carefully before creating the PDF/A file.