ScholarWorks@UMassAmherst
We are now able to accept submissions directly in ScholarWorks. For submissions that are not doctoral dissertations or masters theses, please log in with your NetID, click the + (plus) in to the top left corner, and select the Submit Research option.
Graduate students filing for February 2025 degrees: We are now accepting submissions directly to ScholarWorks. Directions for submissions can be found in this guide. Please email scholarworks@library.umass.edu if you have any questions.
Request forms are functional. If you do not receive a reply to a submitted request, please email scholarworks@library.umass.edu.
This site is still under construction, please see our ScholarWorks guide for updates.
Featured Items
Recent Submissions
Publication Health, Disease and Status in Medieval York(1989-02)The excavation of St. Helen-on-the-Walls Cemetery, York, England (N = 1014), has provided an opportunity to explore the patterns of health and disease in a medieval urban environment. Using paleodemographic and paleopathological techniques, the patterns of morbidity and mortality are assessed for a segment of the population often overlooked in historical documentation: the poor, women and children. The impact of status on health within the population is also explored. The results of the analysis suggest that burial practices and migration patterns affected the mortality rate for subadults (28%) and the relatively high life expectancy rate (29.2) for the population. The effects of an insalubrious environment and maternal stressors were explored as explanations for the peak in female mortality at the age-group interval 25-35 and the lower life expectancy rate (e(x) males = 20.6, e(x) females = 18.4). The influences of nutritional stress were detected in the subadult long bone growth pattern, which displayed periods of growth deceleration, and the presence of enamel hypoplasias, which were found in 41% of the total population, peaking at the developmental ages of 3 - 4.5. Porotic hyperostosis, caused by iron deficiency anemia, and periostitis, caused by infection, were found to increase in prevalence by age and were most frequently healed by adulthood, suggesting the populations' ability to rally from the insults. The results of the impact of status on the morbidity and mortality patterns within the population suggest that status was not associated with age or gender. However, it appeared that while the acquisition of status as a child did not affect survival rate, upon reaching adulthood a male of higher status could expect increased longevity and a greater ability to rally from insults.Publication Open Education vs. Inclusive/Equitable Access: Cage match vs. coexistence?(2025-03-03)Want to collaborate with Creative Commons? We are open! Creative Commons (CC) is a global non-profit organization; we believe in a world where education, culture, and science are equitably shared to benefit humanity. Our work focuses on technical, legal, and policy solutions to enable that sharing. Yet, we also foster collaboration and community building around open efforts, globally. CC facilitates free, open community groups around the world focused on Open Culture, Copyright and Education. This year, we are pleased to offer more openly licensed resources, small project funds, CC Certificate scholarships, and opportunities for collaboration than ever before. Join this session, as we share opportunities for engagement, including small-scale funding options. Then let’s collectively explore possibilities for future collaboration!Publication The Diversity of Request for Proposals for New Bookstore Contracts and the Consequences of Automatic Textbook Billing(2025-03-03)The American higher education system is highly diverse and complex, with no single model but rather a plurality of approaches. This presentation will explore two concrete examples: one involving a new bookstore contract for a single state university and another covering a contract for 13 institutions. The goal is to help the audience examine how the bookstore contracting process unfolds at their own institutions, identify key stakeholders, and ensure that diverse voices are included in shaping a bookstore contract that meets the needs of all parties involved.Publication Making nursing education more accessible and equitable through OER, a collaboration between OpenStax and the THECB(2025-03-04)The Open Educational Resources Nursing Essentials (ONE) Project is a partnership between the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and OpenStax, the world’s largest publisher of OER. This project was created to address the crisis-level nursing workforce shortage, driven largely by immense financial barriers to undergraduate nursing education. Through this project, the THECB and OpenStax worked alongside 94 authors and 152 reviewers to develop and publish 8 free, high-quality, open, and accessible nursing textbooks. These books align with AACN standards and competencies and offer NCLEX preparation support. During this session, we will discuss the collaborative end-to-end approaches and practices employed to achieve project outcomes. We will discuss how this collaboration began, the project’s goals and phases, the nursing textbook development process, and the quantitative outcomes achieved. We will also describe the needs analysis, user engagement, learning design, and review processes that drove the project.
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