Terms of Service

What is UVA Pressbooks?

Pressbooks is online software that enables authors and publishers to design and format any kind of book, including:

  • PDF: for print or print on demand
  • EPUB: for Apple iBooks, Nook, Kobo, Kindle and most other ebook platforms
  • Webbook: private or public

Pressbooks is used by independent authors, small and medium-sized publishers, and educational institutions around the world. All book formats are produced using templates that are optimized to look great in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. File exports produced with Pressbooks can be exported and downloaded from Pressbooks and distributed or shared however you like.  See Pressbooks User Guide Introduction for more.

Service Eligibility

UVA Pressbooks is available to all current University of Virginia (UVA) graduate students, faculty, and staff with UVA Computer IDs.

Undergraduate students MUST be sponsored by a UVA Faculty member, who will serve as the main administrator of the work.

There is no service fee.

Upon leaving the University, please see the End of Service and Retention terms below.

Acceptable Use Policy

All work must be published using Creative Commons Licenses, to ensure open access and, whenever possible, encourage reuse. Until publication, work may be retained as private.

Acceptable Use of UVA Pressbooks includes:

  • Academic publications
  • Collaborative class publishing projects

UVA Pressbooks SHOULD NOT be used for:

  • Commercial activities unrelated to the University of Virginia
  • Long Term Storage of and Access to Research Publications or Data – The Library supports LibraData and LibraOpen for this purpose.
  • Activities related to harassment, discrimination or other forms of unacceptable behavior outlined by the University – See Policy resources below

Other publishing options provided at UVA include:

Account Management

Book Administrator Responsibility

Each administrator is responsible for:

  • All content/data on the site, including but not limited to
    • Data Privacy
    • Records Management
    • Copyright
    • Compliance with UVA Information Technology Accessibility Policy (IRM-008)
  • Managing additional contributors’ (including non-University of Virginia users) access to applications within the account and any content they contribute.
  • Transfering administrative responsibilities to other UVA community members if they will be leaving UVA and losing access to their UVA Computer ID.

Storage Quotas

All works will receive 1GB of storage by default. An increase in storage past 1GB may be requested and will be considered on a case-by-case basis, however, guidance on compressing or linking digital assets will be given first.  All requests should be made to pressbookssupport@virginia.edu.

Individual file size is limited to 25MB per upload. Files larger than this will need to be hosted on an external platform and linked or embedded.

Publication Options

Works published on UVA Pressbooks may be exported and published on additional sites, or printed, using the Publish or Export features, at the author(s) discretion.

Visibility of each UVA Pressbooks publication is managed by the administrator in the settings menu, https://guide.pressbooks.com/chapter/settings/, such as if they want their book visible within the wider Pressbooks Directory.

Copyright, Intellectual Property & Creative Commons Licensing

Copyright ownership in Pressbooks publications shall vest according to the University’s copyright ownership policies.

Use of Pressbooks publications is governed by the author(s)’ chosen Creative Commons license.

Authors should follow Creative Commons recommendations and fair use best practices for reusing and repurposing existing works.

Further resources can be found:

Account Suspension

UVA Pressbooks user accounts and publications are not actively monitored by the UVA Library. However, if violations to the Terms of Service are brought to the Library’s attention, the UVA Library reserves the right to suspend the account until the violation is resolved, or to permanently deactivate it.

Accounts will be suspended if one or more of the following occur:

  • The administrator is no longer associated with the University and no longer retains a Computer ID, and ownership has not been transferred to another UVA community member.
  • Content on the site is found to violate the UVA Pressbooks’ Terms of Service, University policy, or local, state, or federal law.
  •  The University elects to use the DMCA notice-and-takedown process to resolve an allegation of copyright infringement associated with the account.
  • The allotted storage quota is exceeded.

If the account owner does not contact pressbookssupport@virginia.edu within 30 days of suspension, the Library reserves the right to permanently deactivate and delete the account.

End of Service and Retention

If a work is deactivated and deleted by its administrator it will be available on the server for 30 days before being permanentally deleted.

Administrators can export their work(s) before leaving  UVA. They may transfer their work(s) to a different open publishing provider.

Further options for continuing access and use of UVA Pressbooks if leaving UVA can be discussed by contacting pressbookssupport@virginia.edu.

Administrators may deposit a copy of their published work in one of the UVA Library hosted Libra repositories for long-term preservation.

Service Availability

Availability of UVA Pressbooks may be interrupted for maintenance and other updates as needed and is provided on an ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ basis only. Reclaim Hosting regularly upgrades and backs up the service application and will make every effort to minimize service interruptions.

Changes to the Service

University of Virginia Library may make changes to the UVA Pressbooks service at any time. The Library will notify account owners in advance of any significant changes that may affect their publications and service.

Support Requests

The UVA Pressbooks Support Team is made up of library staff from Research & Learning Services and Library IT. Visit the Contact page for guidance on support requests and general inquiries.

Community Support can be found at the UVA Open Access Community of Practice Teams Group or the via various channels hosted by Pressbooks; including:

Accessibility

Pressbooks is an application built on WordPress. Please see the Pressbooks Accessibility Statement for further details on the platform.

Authors and contributors are responsible for making their works web accessible in accordance with the University Information Technology Accessibility Policy (IRM-008) and Web Accessibility Guidelines.

For further guidance and resources, go to UVA Accessibility.

Policies, Laws and Resources for Informed and Empowered Open Publishing

Administrators and users should familiarize themselves with the following: