You should have a metadata record. If you only have a file such as PDF, but no metadata record, web search to find the metadata record. If you have a metadata record but not a file, use the metadata record to open the file if possible. If you have a link that misdirects or is broken, you must still process the item–simply search for a metadata record and/or PDF.

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Do NOT process any items that Michelle has crossed off. If she crossed them off, she is instructing you not to process them.

If the work is published, you should have the metadata record and work from the publisher's site, along with the work and metadata record on another site.

If you only have a file such as PDF, but no metadata record, web search to find the metadata record. If you have a metadata record but not a file, use the metadata record to open the file if possible. If the version of the file or the metadata record you have aren't the publisher's version, you should search the web to find them.

• ResearchGate, Semantic Scholar, and Academia.edu are not publishers but for-profit businesses that allow people to post their works on them–they are never publishers.
• Governments sites that compile works as a public service such as ERIC, eric.edu.gov, (works on education), Medline/PubMed, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ (medical works), and the NASA Technical Report Server, https://www.sti.nasa.gov/ (NASA Publications and NASA employee publications) are not publishers, except the NASA Technical Report Server which is also a publisher for NASA works when NASA is given as the publisher on the record .
• Other institutions' repositories aren't usually publishers (but sometimes are the publishers of journals and sometimes even books).
• JSTOR is not a publisher, but hosts some journals for the publishers, and digitized back issues of journals. It is a fee-based resource, so we can't link to it, but if the publisher allows us to distribute the final published PDF, we use the PDF that's in JSTOR.
• Preprint servers such as Arxiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, and ESSOAr aren't publishers.
• Personal and departmental websites aren't usually publishers (but sometimes departmental websites publish some of the department's works).
• Google Docs or Drive aren't publishers (except very rarely when utilized by a publisher to post their works).

1A

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You should usually have both the work and a metadata record (possibly two of each) when you begin this procedure.

1A

Determine if the item is in scope for the repository and if it should be entered manually:

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• The determination of whether an item is free is based on whether the publisher is making the item available for free or if the U.S. government is making an item available for free. There may be free versions posted elsewhere, but if an item is not free on the publisher's site, or in a U.S. government database, it's not free.
• When working at home, any item you can access on the publisher's site or in a database without using the proxy server is free.
• Items available for free in the U.S. government database, ERIC, eric.edu.gov, (works on education), Medline/PubMed, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ (medical works), and the NASA Technical Report Server, https://www.sti.nasa.gov/ (NASA Publications and NASA employee publications), are free. Sometimes articles in these databases are free, and sometimes they're not free, so you have to figure this out.  A pubmed record may have a link icon that says free or  an attached pdf. When unsure if an item is free or not, simply try the links to find out.
• When working in the library, materials in databases that UMBC subscribes to may appear free when they are not.  These are paywall protected pages where anyone accessing via UMBC IP ranges automatically is given access. Generally if there is a UMBC logo or mention of UMBC on the page, it's a subscription resource that is paywall protected. A list of UMBC paywall protected subscription resources that appear free is here: Vendors/Platforms that are Paywall Protected (this list is likely not complete–if come across something that needs to be added to it, let Michelle know). Individual items on paywall protected sites are free if the record explicitly states that the item is open access, available for free, or is on a Creative Commons license. Science Direct is a subscription database and not free, even though UMBC isn't mentioned on it, unless the record says it's Under an Elsevier user license, or Open Access, in which case that particular item is free. If Open Access, check for a Creative Commons license or terms.
• If an item is free on the publisher's site or in a U.S. government database, write "free" next to it.

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