A Digital Commons user account is needed for any of the following:

• Administrators of a site or publication structures (series, journal, etc.) on the site 
• Editors
• Reviewers
• Authors who are submitting their own works or who wish to receive monthly readership reports

In addition, anybody can create an account in order to save searches and use the Follow feature to stay up to date on authors, institutions, or content of interest. Content under access control will also require some users to log in with an account, unless the restriction is only by IP address.

For administrators or editors to access site management tools, it is necessary to have correct administrator permissions in place. Please see Managing Administrator Permissions for more information about adding administrators and assigning permissions.  

How to Create or Confirm an Account

These instructions are for users who don't have an account or have not yet confirmed an account. 

1. From the repository homepage and most other public-facing pages, start by clicking the My Account link that appears in the navigation bar or footer on most sites.
   • If you are following a prompt in an email notification because someone added you to the site as an admin, editor, author, or reviewer, click the link provided to access the login page.
2. Click the Sign Up button on the login screen. 
3. Enter the requested information, including your preferred email address, first and last name, and password. You likely already have an account if a site administrator or editor added you as a reviewer, author, or fellow administrator. In this case, enter the same email address they used to add you so all of your information remains connected in the system.
4. Click Sign Up.
5. Click the confirmation link in the new account email that you receive. If you don’t receive an email, check your spam folder or contact Consulting Services for additional help with completing your account setup.

How to Log In

These instructions are for users who have already confirmed their account following the steps above.

1. From the repository homepage and most other public-facing pages, click the My Account link in the site’s navigation bar or footer (this link may have a custom label on some sites). If you are following a prompt in an email notification or clicking a link requiring a login, such as a Submit Article link, you will be prompted to log in before going to the intended page.
2. On the login screen, enter your account email address and password. Check the “I'm not a robot” box, then click Login.

If you don’t recall your password, click Forget Your Password? to access the Reset Password screen. Enter your email address and click Reset to have a password reset email sent to you. Click the link in the email and follow the prompts to choose a new password.

“My Account” Page

The My Account page is accessible via each repository’s My Account tab or footer link. If you are not logged in when clicking My Account, you will be prompted to log in.

Your My Account page provides general account settings as well as specific tools for the contexts you manage, or for which you are an author or reviewer.

Edit Your Account Details

Click the Edit Profile link in the Account Settings section to edit your personal account details (name, email, contact information, affiliation, etc.).

To change your email address or password, enter a new value and click Update. For fields within the “About” section, only the email address is required, though it is recommended to also enter a first and last name at minimum. 

Alerts and Follow Management

Two additional links in your Account Settings section allow you to adjust your preferences for notifications and reports you might receive by email.

The Research Alerts link includes preferences for the following:

• Monthly readership reports if you are an author: This monthly report lists usage statistics for your works in Digital Commons. 
• Saved search email notifications: Any user with an account may sign up for these by clicking “Save this search” on a search results page in Digital Commons.

The Follow Management link allows you to see the names of sites, publications, authors, or disciplines that you have chosen to follow. This is done using the blue Follow button that appears across Digital Commons sites. For details, see Follow: Enabling Visitors to Stay Up To Date with Your Current Scholarship.

Options Specific to Administrator, Editor, Author, and Reviewer Roles

What you see on the My Account page depends on your roles and activities within the system. All users will see the options to edit their profile and manage research alerts as described above.

Site administrators: Top-level administrators of a DC site will see a Site Administration Tools section with links to configure the site and access additional tools.

Journal editors and other publication-specific administrators: Editors with permissions enabled for a journal, or administrators for series or other specific publications, can access those publications’ tools from their My Account page. Each publication will appear in its own section.

Authors and reviewers: If a user has submitted to a publication as an author or participated as a reviewer within the system, they will see each submission and the corresponding status, as shown below. Clicking the title of an unpublished submission leads to its details page, where the author or reviewer can access tools for that submission. Once an item is published, the submission link goes to the public article page on the repository instead of the details page, and any further changes to the work require an administrator or editor.

Dashboard tools: If applicable, a Dashboard Tools section will also appear on the My Account page. Authors with published works will see a link to their Author Dashboard. Administrators will see a link to the Digital Commons Dashboard if they have the relevant administrator permission. 

External Authentication for Digital Commons Accounts

Digital Commons supports several types of external authentication to allow users at an institution to log in to the repository with their existing credentials. The types of authentication we support are: LDAP, CAS, and SAML (with Microsoft Entra ID). If you are interested in one of these options, please contact your consultant for details.