UT’s digital archive of scholarly work — “Trace” — has grown to more than 5,300 items since its launch last September. The web-based digital archive contains the full text of creative and scholarly work produced by the UT community.

Trace (for Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange) offers a platform for UT faculty and students to share their research and creative work with the world. Scholars can upload conference papers, works of art, technical reports, data sets, working papers — even previously published articles. Content in Trace is easily discoverable and freely available on the web, increasing the visibility of UT scholarship. Contributors receive monthly reports on the number of times their works are downloaded. In its first year, Trace has logged more than 35,000 downloads.

When contributors upload their work to Trace, they grant the university a non-exclusive, perpetual right to use the digital assets for non-commercial use. Because authors retain the copyright for all content posted, they are free to reuse the content elsewhere, and hold all proprietary rights in the work.

Trace also hosts electronic journals and provides a platform that facilitates editorial activities such as manuscript submission and communication with peer reviewers. Conferences also can be hosted in Trace, enabling authors to upload papers for consideration and conference organizers to make accepted papers available for public view.

Among items being added to Trace are electronic theses and dissertations completed by UT graduates, university publications, and treasures from the University Archives.

Start-up support for Trace was provided by the UT Office of Research, the Science Alliance, and the Office of the Provost.