Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works

Cornerstone's mission is to collect, preserve, and provide digital access to the scholarly and creative works of Minnesota State University, Mankato's faculty, staff, students, and associated partners. 

Cornerstone is an institutional repository of works by current employees, students, and associated partners.  It is both an archive of the scholarship and intellectual works of the University and a repository of works created as part of the Open Access movement.

Cornerstone contains:

• Faculty and staff creative and scholarly works, including:
  • Citations to articles, books, book chapters, technical or research reports, or other works
  • Full-text versions of works as allowed under U.S. Copyright Law and Publishers Policies, such as preprints, author's original manuscripts, post-prints, author's accepted manuscripts, conference presentations, white papers, technical reports,etc.
• Student works including:
  • Graduate Theses, Dissertations, APPs, and other Capstone Projects
  • Proceedings from the Undergraduate Research Symposium
  • Honors Capstone Portfolios
  • Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects
• Open Access articles, books, and other Open Educational Resources
• Digitized aerial photographs as part of the Dr. Mary T. Dooley Digital Map Library
• Seven Open Access Journals
  • Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal (and preceding title Speech Association of Minnesota Journal)
  • Innovations and Critical Issues in Teaching and Learning
  • International Journal of Equity and Social Justice in Higher Education (NEW)
  • Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato
  • National Forensics Journal (NEW)
  • Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events
  • Speaker & Gavel (and preceding titles The Gavel of Delta Sigma Rho and The Speaker of Tau Kappa Alpha)

• Visibility and Discoverability = Adding your work to Cornerstone will Increased visibility and discoverability of your work, the work of your department and the work of your students.  Works are indexed by Google, Google Scholar and other major search engines and can be easily found all in one centralized place! 
   
• Dissemination = Placing a publication in Cornerstone allows for fast and effective dissemination of research and scholarship to a worldwide audience.  Cornerstone is a supplement to traditional publishing venues and not a replacement.  Think of Cornerstone as a means to highlight and showcase the intellectual output of the University. 
   
• Accessibility = 24/7 access to scholarship and research with permanent links to your work.  Even if you have already published a work, you can provide open access to a global audience by placing your work in Cornerstone.  Cornerstone is not subscription based and there is charge for access! 
   
• Grant Requirements = Depositing your work in Cornerstone will help to fulfill grant requirements and calls for data management plans (i.e. NSF). 
   
• Partnership building = By adding works to Cornerstone, you and your research is presented to a worldwide audience which in turn can lead to discussions and collaborations with others beyond the campus community.  When a work is submitted to Cornerstone, it is added to the Digital Commons Network™, a collection of works from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide that use Digital Commons®.