Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Scholarship Archive?

The Columbia Law School Scholarship Archive is a digital warehouse of publications and research produced by the faculty, staff, and students of Columbia Law School. Administered by the Columbia Law Library, the archive provides free and permanent access to the intellectual productivity of the law school, while preserving and promoting the open dissemination of knowledge, information, and ideas. For more information, please visit the archive’s About page.

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What platform does the Scholarship Archive use?

The archive uses the Digital Commons platform created by bepress. The vast majority of law school repositories in the United States use Digital Commons as their platform. All of the individual school repositories combine to form the Law Commons and can be searched together or browsed together by subject.

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How do I get my scholarly materials included in the Scholarship Archive?

Current Columbia Law faculty members may submit their published research for inclusion in the archive. For more information on how to submit your scholarship, please visit the Submit Research page.

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Can supplemental files (appendices, tables, translations, etc.) be posted alongside a published article?

Yes. The Digital Commons platform refers to these supplementary items as Additional Files. Please include all related files, each with a short descriptive title (i.e., Appendix A, Table 1, Translation in Spanish, etc.), with the submission of the main article.

Please make sure that there are no permissions issues related to the use of the supplementary material. Also note that items such as images, charts and tables that are referenced in the main article (or otherwise an integral part of the article) should be included directly in the article itself.

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How do I request a revision to a submission posted in the archive?

To revise a submission that has been posted in the archive, please contact the Scholarship Archive administrators with the new version attached, plus any metadata revisions or additions.

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What is the copyright status of materials in the Scholarship Archive?

Materials in the archive are made available for personal research and educational use with the permission of the authors and publishers. Items published as Open Access will usually include a Creative Commons license. Questions or concerns about copyright permissions should be directed to the Scholarship Archive administrators.

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What should I do if I find an error in the archive?

If you locate an error in the archive, do let us know. To report the error, please send an email to the Scholarship Archive administrators with as much detail as possible about the error, including a link to the page containing the error. We will do our best to have the error checked and corrected as soon as possible.

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How do I submit a removal request of a work in the archive?

Authors/copyright holders may submit a request for removal if the item:

  • Is in violation of copyright laws;
  • Contains sensitive or restricted information that should not be public;
  • Can be proven fraudulent or plagiarized.
Please contact the Scholarship Archive administrators with your removal request. The email should include your name, your relationship to the work (author or copyright holder), the URL of the work, and the reason for removal. The removal request will be reviewed and the results will be emailed to the requester within two weeks.

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