cIRcle Content Guidelines

cIRcle accepts research and teaching materials developed by members of the UBC community & its partners. The following guidelines provide examples of the type of material currently supported.

Items are accepted at the discretion of the cIRcle Office in accordance with the policies, standards, and best practices of the repository.

Consult the cIRcle FAQ or contact the cIRcle Office for assistance.

UBC faculty and researchers submit content to cIRcle voluntarily. Depositing to cIRcle fulfills the requirements of Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications for grant-funded researchers.

Examples of eligible materials include:

Browse thousands of openly available scholarly works in the UBC Faculty and Research Publications collection for content in your research areas.

Consult our Faculty & Staff page for details on how to deposit.


Graduate students

Theses & Dissertations

Graduate students upload their theses and dissertations to the UBC Theses and dissertations collection.

UBC Vancouver students should follow the Final Dissertation/Thesis Electronic Submission instructions from the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. UBC Okanagan students are directed to the Post-defence Submission Instructions for the College of Graduate Studies.

Non-Thesis Work

Graduate students may submit non-thesis works to the UBC Graduate Research collection with approval from their instructor or supervisor.

Course instructors or supervisors act as academic sponsors for non-thesis graduate work. Responsibilities include assessing the submitted works to ensure they are appropriate for broad dissemination and long-term preservation via cIRcle. Only the final approved versions may be submitted.

Examples of eligible content include:

  • Essays or audiovisual content completed for credit
  • Presentations (including research posters)
  • Graduating projects
  • Publisher-permitted versions of journal articles
  • Conference papers

Consult our Graduate Research (Non-thesis) page for details on how to deposit.

Undergraduate students

Undergraduate students may deposit outputs from their coursework to cIRcle with approval from their course instructor or supervisor via the Undergraduate Student Submission Approval Form.

Course instructors or supervisors act as academic sponsors for undergraduate work. Responsibilities include assessing the submitted works to ensure they are appropriate for broad dissemination and long-term preservation via cIRcle. Only the final approved versions may be submitted.

cIRcle staff submit deposits to the UBC Undergraduate Research collection on behalf of students.

Examples of eligible undergraduate works include:

  • Graduating projects or honours theses
  • Essays or audiovisual content completed for credit
  • Presentations (including research posters)
  • Conference papers

Consult our Undergraduate page for details on how to deposit.

UBC staff are encouraged to submit their research, academic, or work-related materials to cIRcle.

Eligible works include:

  • Departmental annual research reports
  • UBC committee and working group reports
  • Publisher-permitted versions of journal articles
  • Presentations (including posters)

Consult our Faculty & Staff page for details on how to deposit.

Visiting scholars may be eligible to deposit content created while affiliated with UBC.

Requests from visiting scholars are evaluated by the cIRcle Office on a case-by-case basis

cIRcle is unable to regularly accept content from UBC alumni or former employees. Exceptions may be made in some circumstances if the content was created while affiliated with UBC.

Requests from Alumni or former UBC employees are evaluated by the cIRcle Office on a case-by-case basis.

Examples of eligible material may include:

  • Research outputs produced while affiliated with UBC
  • Research undertaken collaboratively with UBC researchers
  • Invited guest lectures presented at UBC
  • Proceedings of conferences held on the UBC campus and co-organized with UBC

Theses and dissertations of most UBC alumni are available in the UBC Theses and Dissertations collection.

Materials produced by persons outside the UBC community may be added to cIRcle upon approval of the UBC Library provided the content is closely associated with UBC.

Requests for materials created by Non-UBC Faculty, Staff or Students are evaluated by the cIRcle Office on a case-by-case basis.

Such work may include:

  • Research outputs produced collaboratively with UBC researchers
  • Outputs from conferences held on the UBC campus and co-organized with UBC
  • Invited guest lectures presented at UBC

If materials were co-authored by a UBC student or employee, consult the relevant submission instructions or contact cIRcle staff for a consult prior to submitting a deposit request.

The work must be in a digital format and should be complete and ready for deposit at the time of submission. Our File Format Guidelines provide details on preferred formats.

Digitized materials must meet the quality established by UBC Library's Digitization Centre. Digitization services are offered by UBC Library on a case by case basis.

cIRcle staff cannot accept unencoded DVDs or CDs.