UNCW Library's mission is to foster and promote student success, faculty scholarship, and community engagement. Our Open Knowledge & Research Impact services help us pursue that mission in a few important ways.

• We lead campus efforts to make information as accessible as possible, both for folks at UNCW and folks outside our community. We help explain how copyright law, open licenses, and institutional intellectual property policies work; how to publish scholarly work openly; how to preserve and openly share data for transparency and reproducibility; and how to adopt open educational practices that improve student success.
• We help scholars navigate the academic publishing landscape; identify potential venues for publication based on discipline and target audience; and understand their rights as authors.
• We analyze the scholarly activity of UNCW authors; help faculty demonstrate attention received by their work; and lead critical conversations about institutional assessment and valuation of scholarly outputs, with particular attention to scholarship that makes direct societal impact.

This work is led by our Open Knowledge & Research Impact Librarian, Research Data Librarian, and Open Knowledge Working Group.

Have a copyright question? Want to better understand your rights as an author? Need help interpreting copyright terms in funder or publisher agreements? We can help. Check out these LibGuides and/or contact the Open Knowledge & Research Impact Librarian for detailed support.

• Copyright
• Creative Commons
• Fair Use Week
• Public Performance Rights for Screening Media

In partnership with liaison librarians, we help authors target suitable venues for publication of scholarly writing. Contact the Open Knowledge & Research Impact Librarian and/or your departmental liaison librarian with the following information about your piece:

• Abstract
• Keywords
• Description of your subfield/specific discipline
• Intended audience
• Any other factors you'd like us to consider

Please be aware that the turnaround time for these requests averages ~2 weeks.

UNCW Library is committed to furthering open knowledge on campus through means that are ethical and sustainable, both in terms of library resources, and in terms of the global trajectory of our shared scholarly communication system. In practice, we operationalize that commitment by supporting open knowledge in a number of ways:

Open Access Publishing/Distribution

• UNCW Library manages the UNCW Institutional Repository, a digital archive dedicated to preserving and showcasing the scholarly and creative works of the University. This repository provides open access to research papers, theses, dissertations, and other academic outputs, ensuring that the valuable contributions of our academic community are accessible to a global audience. If you'd like help submitting your work to the Institutional Repository, contact the Open Knowledge & Research Impact Librarian. If you'd like to add your own item(s), you can find instructions on this LibGuide
• Want to/need to publish your work open access? Learn more about available pathways to open access at our Open Access Publishing LibGuide.
• Celebrate International Open Access Week with us each October, when we recognize a new cohort of UNCW Open Access Champions!

Open Education

• Open Education was recognized as a High Impact Practice in 2026. If you have questions or need help locating, assessing, adopting, adapting, or creating an Open Educational Resource, check out our Open Education: Resources and Practices LibGuide. Contact your friendly departmental liaison librarian for discipline-specific support.
• There's more to Open Education than just resources! Learn more at our Open Pedagogy LibGuide.

Open Data

• Do you want to make your data transparent and reusable by sharing it openly? We can help. Find relevant information on our Data Sharing LibGuide and reach out to the Research Data Librarian for detailed support.

As an information literacy matter, UNCW Library is invested in understanding and encouraging the impact of scholarly work, both within disciplines and beyond the walls of the university.

• We are working with partners across campus to create a shared lexicon around research impact, and to establish systems of tracking community engaged research activity and outcomes. Read more about this work here.
• Need help gathering and presenting bibliometrics about citation attention (e.g. h-index)? We can help locate those metrics and provide context around their meaning. Contact the Open Knowledge & Research Impact Librarian for detailed support.
• UNCW Library manages Scholars@UNCW, a scholarly profile platform designed to showcase the research, creative, and teaching activities of current UNCW faculty. If you have questions about managing the Watermark Faculty Success data that appears in your Scholars@UNCW account, please consult this LibGuide.
• Check out our ORCID iD LibGuide for information on these important personal identifiers and how to import ORCID records into Watermark Faculty Success.