Summary of Options To Limit Content Visibility

Several features in Digital Commons allow you to block or reduce the visibility of content, whether temporarily or long-term. Individual records as well as publication structures and communities all have options for this purpose. This page explains these features and how administrators can enable them.

The following options are covered in this guide:

• Hiding: Hiding removes links to the hidden content from search and elsewhere in the repository where links/references would normally appear. The hidden content remains visible only to those who possess the direct URL. Hiding also prevents updating of the hidden content. The option to hide content can be enabled by administrators on the Configuration screen for a community, a publication structure (including its records), or an individual record.
• Excluding: Excluding prevents content from appearing on specific site-level pages and featured lists, while otherwise maintaining normal visibility and availability of the content. As with hiding, the “Exclude” setting is available in communities, publication structures, and individual records and it can be easily enabled or disabled by administrators on the Configuration screen. 
• Withdrawing: Withdrawing allows administrators to make individual submissions unavailable for publishing. Removing is the term used for withdrawing once items have been published. The “Withdraw” and “Remove” options are available to administrators within the Manage Submissions tools.

Other options, not covered in this guide:

• Access control and embargoes: Both of these features restrict viewing or downloading of primary files such as full-text PDFs. Access control restricts access to visitors who meet specific criteria (either IP address, email domain, or a specific list of users). Embargoes restrict access to everyone (except administrators and the author) for a period of time. See Access Control and Embargoes: Options for Restricting Content for more information. These options can be enabled or disabled by Consulting Services upon request.
• Deleting: Deleting is a permanent removal of content that also removes all usage history from the DC Dashboard and Author Dashboard. Requests to delete content can be made to Consulting Services.

See below for details about how to enable the above options and the effects of enabling each one.

Hide a Community, Publication Structure, or Record

Each type of context in Digital Commons has a “Hide” option on its Configuration screen. For instance, the hide option for a series reads as follows:

Text shown in the above image:

Hide this series on the repository
Prevents updating of series. The series will remain accessible to those with a direct link. 

The effects of hiding are explained in detail below under “What Happens When You Hide Content.” Key points to consider before hiding:

• Hiding a publication structure such as a series will hide all of the individual records within the structure as well.
• Hiding a community will partially hide the publication structures and sub-communities grouped within it (see the table below for details).
• To hide an article or other record within a publication structure (e.g., a series), the record must be published. See the information about withdrawing records lower on this page if the record is not yet published.
• The URL of the hidden content remains accessible to administrators and anyone with the direct link.

Steps to hide content:

1. Go to the Configuration page for the series, community, or other structure you want to hide. (If hiding an individual record, first go to the Configuration page for the publication structure that contains the record, then click the article number for the record. The article number can be found at the end of the published article’s URL. For example, an article with the URL “site.example.edu/papers/5” is article number 5.)
2. Check the box next to Hide this series on the repository or equivalent setting. For example, “series” will be replaced by “community” or “article” depending on the type of context you’re in.
3. Click Submit Changes.
4. If you are hiding a live publication structure that had any published records (or if you're hiding a record within a live publication structure) update the publication structure to deindex the hidden record(s) from site search. Click the Update ir_series or equivalent link in the sidebar for the context you’re in. An update confirmation email will not be sent in this case, due to the context now being hidden.

Other updates may be necessary to remove hidden content from various locations on the site. See below for more details about where to update in specific cases.

To unhide content, simply uncheck the “Hide” box described above, submit changes, and update again in the same recommended locations shown in the table below.

What Happens When You Hide Content?

Hiding communities, publication structures, or published content affects both visibility and behavior, as described in the table below.

In general:

• Hidden content will no longer appear in search or on various pages and lists across the site where the content would normally appear.
• After hiding, updates to the site are necessary to remove links to the hidden content if it was already live. Appropriate locations for updates are noted in parentheses in the table below. Please feel free to contact Consulting Services if you would like help with updating contexts on the site.
• Site pages that were already live will still remain visible to administrators or anyone who may already possess a direct link to the content page(s). These visitors will be able to access both the metadata and full-text file(s), if present.
• Hidden content cannot be updated. However, after hiding a publication structure (or records within a publication structure), it is necessary to update the publication structure one time in order to deindex the content from site search and other indexed locations.
• Changes can still be made in the Configuration tools and Manage Submissions while content is hidden. In order to show any new changes on the front end, it is necessary to unhide and update the content.

In all cases, a message will appear at the top of the hidden content's Configuration page to inform administrators that the structure is currently hidden and can't be updated. For example, a hidden series displays the following message:

Text shown in the above image:

This ir_series is hidden, which prevents updates!
To make changes visible on the site, uncheck the hide option in the visibility section below and then click 'Update ir_series'.

Table of locations where content is no longer visible after hiding:

Other ways that hiding affects the behavior of content:

• No emails about updates will go out. If you update a hidden structure in order to deindex published content or to remove collected items as described above, a notification email won’t be sent when the update is complete.
• As mentioned previously, a publication structure under a hidden community will not be completely hidden. The publication structure can still be posted to and updated, even though it will not appear on site-level pages or featured lists. 
• If a hidden series was previously live long enough to be indexed in external search engines, it will remain indexed and cannot be removed unless it is fully deleted. Please contact Consulting Services with any questions, as additional steps are required for search engine deindexing. 

Exclude Content from Specific Site Pages

Each structure or record in Digital Commons has one or more “Exclude” options on its Configuration page. For instance, the exclude options for a series look like this:

Text shown in the above image:

Exclude series from communities.html page

Exclude series from submit_research.html page

Exclude series content from featured item lists
Hides content from Top 10 Downloads, Recent Additions, and Paper of the Day.

Steps to exclude a context:

1. Go to the Configuration page for the series, community, or other structure you want to exclude. (If excluding an individual record, first go to the Configuration page for the publication structure that contains the record, then click the article number for the record. The article number can be found at the end of the published article’s URL. For example, an article with the URL “site.example.edu/papers/5” is article number 5.)
2. Check the box next to the desired exclude setting.
   • Publication structures like series show all three exclude options listed above. You can choose any or all of them.
   • Communities do not show the last option (exclude from feature item lists), since communities only hold other structures, not items.
   • Individual records only show the option to exclude from featured item lists, since communities.html and submit_research.html don’t display individual records.
3. Click Submit Changes.
4. Next, navigate to the site level. Click the Update site link in the site-level Configuration sidebar to ensure that the excluded content will no longer show on the relevant site pages or lists. You will receive an update confirmation email when the site update is complete.

What Happens When You Exclude Content?

The exclude options on the Configuration screen prevent content from appearing on these specific repository lists and pages:

• The communities.html page (often labeled Collections in the sidebar, though this is customizable per site). Read more: About the Communities.html Page 
• The submit_research.html page. Read more: About the Site-Level Submit Research Page 
• Top 10 Downloads
• Recent Additions
• Paper of the Day

None of the exclude settings affect the behavior of the context itself in any of the other ways that hiding does. For example, when the exclude settings are used, articles will still appear in search, usage reports, and batch revise spreadsheets. In addition, items within the excluded contexts can still be collected using the Collection tool.

Withdraw or Remove a Record

A record may be either withdrawn or removed, depending on whether it is published. Unpublished submissions have a Withdraw Submission link in the sidebar of their Submission Details page in Manage Submissions. 

Once a submission is published, the link changes to Remove Submission.

Administrators can withdraw or remove any content, both unpublished and published. Authors can only withdraw their own submissions until the item has been published. 

Note: “Submission” is a customizable label, so exact text for these links may appear differently depending on whether the label has been customized for a particular context.

Steps to withdraw or remove a submission:

1. Go to the Submission Details page for the record. This is accessible by clicking the record's title in Manage Submissions within the publication structure that holds the record. For published submissions, you can also click Edit Submission in the Administrator Toolbar when viewing the record's page on the site. 
2. In the Submission Details sidebar, click the link that says either Withdraw Submission if the submission is unpublished or Remove Submission if the item is published.
3. On the subsequent screen:
   • If withdrawing an unpublished submission, choose whether to notify authors or not, and then click Withdraw submission.
   • If removing a published submission, a text box will appear to include a message if notifying authors. If you would like to notify authors, remove or edit the line that says “ADMINISTRATOR: ENTER THE REASONS FOR MAKING THE CHANGE HERE” and then click Remove. If you'd like to send with no message, click Remove, no notification.
4. If you are removing a published submission, click the Update ir_series (or equivalent) link in the sidebar. No update is necessary when withdrawing, since the record is not yet published. 

What Happens When You Withdraw or Remove a Record?

Withdrawing an unpublished submission will move it from the "Not yet posted" state to the "Withdrawn" state in Manage Submissions. 

Removing a published submission will move it from the "Posted" state to the "Withdrawn" state in Manage Submissions.

For published submissions that were removed, following an update: 

• The publication structure will no longer display a link to the record. In journals and event communities, volumes/issues and themes/tracks will also not display links to the record.
• The item’s page on the site will remain in case there are existing citations/bookmarks to the location. A truncated version of the article metadata will remain present on that page for identification purposes.
• The full-text download link, if present, will be replaced by the following text: "This document has been withdrawn." This is in case someone who has cited/bookmarked the page needs to identify what happened to the original article.

Withdrawn or removed submissions cannot be posted unless they are reverted to pending first by Consulting Services. Please ask your consultant about this option if you need to make a previously withdrawn or removed submission available again.