Academic Commons provides open, persistent access to the scholarship produced by researchers at Columbia University, Barnard College, Jewish Theological Seminary, Teachers College, and Union Theological Seminary. Academic Commons is a program of the Columbia University Libraries.
Long-term access
No matter where you live, you can download the full text of the research and scholarship available in Academic Commons without encountering firewalls or fees. If you are a member of the Columbia community, you can upload your work to Academic Commons to ensure that it is accessible for years to come in the digital collections of Columbia University Libraries.
Enhanced discoverability
Academic Commons is indexed by leading search engines, metadata aggregators, the Columbia Libraries catalog, and the Columbia University website.
Citation and attribution
Items uploaded to Academic Commons receive a Digital Object Identifier, or DOI, a persistent URL that facilitates citation and attribution.
Highlighting centers, departments and programs
Columbia departments, centers, institutes and programs can use Academic Commons to showcase affiliated research, from working papers, reports, and books to conference proceedings and student theses.
Learn more about having this work appear on your center’s or department’s website using the Academic Commons API.
For information about contributing to Academic Commons, visit the Policies and FAQ pages.
Open-source technology
Academic Commons runs on open-source applications including Fedora, the repository platform, and Blacklight, the user interface framework. Columbia University Libraries actively contributes to the development of both platforms. The Academic Commons technology stack includes:
Contributing to a network of open scholarly resources
Academic Commons is part of a network of initiatives that promote the open distribution of scholarship and research.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that Columbia University in Manahata (Manhattan), on the banks of the Mahicantuck (Hudson) River, is located upon the ancestral homelands and territories of the Munsee Lenape, Wappinger, and Wecquaesgeek peoples. Libraries staff who contribute to the Academic Commons platform live and work on the traditional territories of the Lenape, Wappinger, and Wecquaesgeek peoples, including Manahatta, Lenapehoking, and Matteawan. You can learn more about the Indigenous History of Columbia University in this video.