In supporting the Independent Study program at the College of Wooster, the Libraries maintains the Open Works platform to host every I.S. submitted digitally since 2012, and a limited selection of scanned PDFs prior to 2012.

Which I.S’s are hosted on Open Works?

Open Works hosts nearly 100% of Senior I.S’s submitted since 2012, the first year when every senior was required to digitally submit their I.S. to Open Works.  In addition, Open Works hosts a limited selection of I.S’s housed in the libraries’ archive submitted before 2012.

Who is allowed to access I.S’s on Open Works?

By default every I.S. and its abstract submitted since 2012 can be downloaded only while logged into an Open Works account created using a Wooster.edu email address.

I.S.s submitted before 2012 display bibliographic information such as title and abstract, but the PDFs are not accessible without the author’s written permission, unless the department has specifically requested additional restrictions due to sensitive research concerns.

Is it possible for seniors or their faculty advisor to limit access to I.S’s?

Yes, either a student, the faculty advisor, or a department may request that an I.S. and its abstract be embargoed for a period normally not exceeding five years. This is typically done to help an aspiring author comply with pre-publication requirements in the scholarly presses.

Per the faculty guidelines, departments may also elect a default access policy for their I.Ss. Contact your librarian for additional information.

How can I access an I.S. if I’m an off campus user?

As long as the I.S. isn’t embargoed, fill out an access form at the Open Works website. We will request permission of the author to share their PDF with you as an email attachment. If the author denies your request or fails to respond, we will notify you in a timely manner. We will not share an I.S. if it is currently under an embargo.