KCWorks is designed as a long-term, preservation-focused repository. Deposits receive DOIs, structured metadata, and long-term stewardship to ensure that scholarly materials remain discoverable and citable over time. For that reason, removing uploads is intentionally limited.
Below is an overview of what can and cannot be removed, what “hiding” a work does, and what happens to DOIs and external indexing services.
Can I remove something I uploaded to KCWorks?
In most cases, no.
KCWorks strongly discourages withdrawing deposits because:
- Our mission is to preserve and provide access to scholarly materials.
- Each deposit receives a DOI, which is intended to provide a permanent link.
- DOIs are indexed by external aggregators such as Google Scholar, SHARE, BASE-OA, CORE, and more.
- Removing DOIs breaks citations, links, and scholarly references.
However, there are limited circumstances under which KCWorks administrators will remove a work.
Works may be removed if:
- The upload violates the Guidelines for Use or Terms of Use
- The upload violates copyright law or fair use
In rare, exceptional cases, KCWorks may remove an item at the author’s request, but:
- The deposit itself will be removed
- A tombstone record may remain, noting why the item is no longer available
- Aggregated copies or metadata on external platforms may still remain and must be addressed with those services individually
Hiding a Work (Instead of Removing It)
You can hide your uploads—including older versions—using the Access settings on the deposit.
When a work is hidden:
- The DOI remains active
- The record remains in KCWorks, but metadata or files can be made restricted
- You may unhide the work at any time
- External indexing services may still display cached metadata; KCWorks cannot remove these
This option allows authors to limit visibility without removing the scholarly record.
If KCWorks Removes an Upload, What Happens to the DOI?
If KCWorks administrators determine a deposit must be removed:
- The DOI is deleted from the record
- The deposit no longer appears in KCWorks
- Any external indexing or cached metadata (e.g., in Google Scholar) may persist; you must contact those services directly to request removal
If I’ve published a revised version elsewhere…
If your work has been published or revised in another venue, you may update the Notes field of your KCWorks record to direct readers to the new version, add the URL in the metadata, or create a new version of the work. This maintains accurate scholarly context without needing to remove the original deposit.
If you need help updating your metadata see Using Metadata to Make Content Findable, or contact hello@hcommons.org.