The University of Nevada, Reno Libraries is excited to announce in time for Open Access Week the relaunch of the institutional repository (IR), now rebranded as ScholarWolf. This transformation marks a significant step forward in supporting the research efforts of our University community. ScholarWolf, formerly known as ScholarWorks, has undergone not just a name change but also significant upgrades to its platform, ensuring that University researchers have access to a modern and reliable repository for spreading the reach of their scholarship.
Open Access Week is an international event that runs from Oct. 21-27 and celebrates and advocates for making more scholarship open and free to the public. You can learn more about open access through the University Libraries.
ScholarWolf: A Platform for Scholarly Excellence
Institutional repositories play a crucial role in the academic landscape, especially for R1 universities. ScholarWolf serves as a centralized digital repository for providing open access to the scholarly outputs of our community, offering a place where research is not only stored but also shared freely with the world. This enhanced visibility is critical for scholars who seek to broaden the impact of their work. By depositing research into ScholarWolf and making it open access, researchers can significantly increase the audience of their publications, datasets, and other academic outputs. This can lead to higher citation rates and greater engagement with global academic communities.
“Dozens of studies have shown that making your work open access, including through a repository like ScholarWolf, is correlated to increased citations,” Scholarly Communications and Social Sciences Librarian Teresa Schultz said.
ScholarWolf is also a great tool for supporting researchers who seek to avoid expensive publishing fees required by some scholarly journals to publish open access.
“No scholar should ever have to shell out thousands of dollars to make their work open, so ScholarWolf is a free way that scholars can take advantage of the benefits of open access while still publishing in their journal of choice,” Schultz said.
Moreover, ScholarWolf is an essential tool for meeting grant funder requirements to make resulting work open access and freely available to the public. By utilizing ScholarWolf, University scholars can easily comply with these mandates, ensuring that their work reaches the widest possible audience while adhering to funder requirements. This not only enhances the University's research profile but also contributes to the global dissemination of knowledge.
The benefit of ScholarWolf is also a valuable resource for University students. By submitting their theses, dissertations, or other research projects to ScholarWolf, students can contribute to the academic conversation and establish their scholarly presence early in their careers. This experience not only enhances their academic portfolios but also prepares them for future endeavors, whether in graduate studies or the workforce.
A free, accessible and secure repository
The repository is free to use for all members of the University community. Whether you are a faculty member looking to archive your latest research, a graduate student submitting your thesis, or an undergraduate sharing your capstone project, ScholarWolf is available to support your academic journey. Anyone interested in submitting an item can visit the ScholarWolf informational page.
The University Libraries are committed to ensuring the long-term preservation, a critical aspect of the repository, of the works deposited in ScholarWolf. This means that the scholarly works archived in ScholarWolf will be preserved for future generations, contributing to the ongoing legacy of our university's research excellence.
ScholarWolf is designed to handle a wide range of file types, including text documents, multimedia files and more, making it a versatile tool for scholars across disciplines. Paired with the data repository, Dryad, the flexibility of ScholarWolf ensures that all types of scholarly work can be preserved and shared, reflecting the diverse nature of research conducted at our university.
Looking ahead
As the University Libraries’ embark on this new chapter with ScholarWolf, all members of the university community are invited to explore the repository and consider how it can enhance research, teaching and learning experiences. The University Libraries are here to support faculty and students every step of the way, offering guidance on how to deposit your work, comply with funder mandates and make the most of this valuable resource.
ScholarWolf is more than just a repository—it is a testament to our University's commitment to open access, collaboration, and the preservation of knowledge. We look forward to seeing the innovative research and creative works that will be shared through this platform and to supporting the continued growth of our academic community.
If you have questions or comments about ScholarWolf, please email the team: scholarwolf@library.unr.edu. They are happy to answer questions.
About the University Libraries
The University Libraries embrace intellectual inquiry and innovation, nurture the production of new knowledge, and foster excellence in learning, teaching and research. During each academic year, the Libraries welcomes more than 1.2 million visitors across its network of four libraries: the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center, the DeLaMare Science and Engineering Library, the Savitt Medical Library and the Prim Library at the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. Visitors checked-out more than 80,000 items and completed more than two million database searches.