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• DSpace allows you to modify the permissions on any Item at any time.  This may be useful if an item needs to be access restricted at a later date, or was accidentally deposited as restricted but needs to be made openly available.
  • NOTE: You can also perform batch/bulk permissions changes (for all Items in a single Collection). More information on that can be found below in the section "Bulk/Batch Permissions Changes (Advanced)"
• How-to: Change Permissions on a single Item
  • Login to your site as an Administrator
  • Locate the Item whose permissions you wish to change
  • Click "Edit this Item" in the "Context" side menu
  • On the "Item Status" tab, click "Authorizations".  This will bring you to a "Policies" page which details the current permissions on this Item.
  • Overview of the "Policies" page:
    • You'll see a listing of all current policies/permissions on the Item, along with all its associated files (called "bitstreams")
      • To modify a policy, click on its "ID".
      • To add a new policy, click the appropriate "Add" link
      • To remove an existing policy, check the checkbox next to the policy, and click the "Delete Selected" button. 
    • Types of Policies:
      • Item Policies - These policies define the permissions on the Item's metadata. In other words, they define who can locate the Item via the DSpace browse & search tools. If the "Item Policies" are limited to a specific Group, then ONLY users who belong to that Group will be able to search/browse to locate that Item.
        • Please note: restricting access to an Item's metadata also means that search engines like Google or Google Scholar will NOT be able to index the Item. That means the Item will NEVER appear in Google or Google Scholar search results.  If you want an Item to appear in Google search results, but do not want everyone to be able to download its file(s) then you should leave the Item policies as unrestricted, while restricting access to individual files (Bitstreams). See below for more info.
      • Bundle Policies ("Policies for Bundle ___") - These policies define permissions across a "Bundle" (loose grouping) of Files.  Bundles in DSpace are mostly "hidden" from users, but they include "ORIGINAL" (the originally uploaded files), "LICENSE" (a copy of any deposit licenses), "TEXT" (optionally, the extracted plain text from originally uploaded files).  Generally speaking, the Bundle permissions here should really just be identical to the permissions you wish to set on the various Files (Bitstreams).
      • Bitstream Policies ("Bitstream __") - These policies define permissions on individual Files (called Bitstreams).  The "READ" permission lets users view/download the specific files in question.
      • NOTE: Administrators can ALWAYS access/edit all Items in the system, no matter what policies are set on the Item or its individual Bitstreams.
    • Action types:
      • "READ" permissions gives a single group the ability to view or download the Item
      • "WRITE" permissions gives a single group the ability to edit or modify the Item
    • Start and End Dates:
      • Optionally, individual policies can have a start or end dates.  This allows you to set temporary (or expiring) permissions on an Item (e.g. for embargoes).
      • Start Date: Policies will not take affect until the start date has passed
      • End Date: After this date, the specific policy will no longer be in effect. 
      • If there is no Start or End date, the policy is in effect at all times
    • Some Sample Policies:
      • An Item Policy that provides "READ" access for "Anonymous" group.  This policy will allow anyone in the world to access the metadata for this specific Item.  It means that anyone will be able to search/browse for this Item in DSpace (and search engines like Google or Google Scholar will be able to index this Item, so anyone will also be able to find it within Google)
      • An Item Policy that provides "READ" access for only the "On Campus Users" group.  This policy will only allow users who belong to the "On Campus Users" group to browse or search for this Item within DSpace.  This means that all other users will NOT be able to locate this Item within DSpace.  It also means that search engines like Google or Google Scholar will also NOT be able to locate the item (as they will not have access to the Item's metadata).
      • A Bitstream Policy that provides "READ" access for "Anonymous" group. This policy will allow anyone in the world to view or download that particular file (bitstream).  (Please note however that users will be UNABLE to search/browse for the link to the file unless the Item Policy also provides READ access for the Anonymous group.)
      • A Bitstream Policy that provides "READ" access for only the "On Campus Users" group. This policy will only allow users who belong to the "On Campus Users" group to view or download that particular file (bitstream).  (Please note however that users will be UNABLE to search/browse for the link to the file unless the Item Policy also provides READ access for either the "On Campus Users" group OR the "Anonymous" group.)
      • POLICY NOTES: 
        • Administrators can ALWAYS access/edit all Items in the system, no matter what policies are set on the Item or its individual Bitstreams.
        • Policies are always "additive". This means that if you have two Policies, then both permissions are in effect. In other words, a more restrictive policy is always overridden by a less restrictive one (e.g. "READ for Anonymous group" will mean that anyone in the world can view/download the Item, even if there is also a secondary policy stating "READ for 'On Campus Users' group")
    • Some Sample Use Cases:
      • You want an Item to be searchable/browseable publicly and its file(s) to be viewable/downloadable to anyone in the world
        • Set ALL policies to "READ" access for "Anonymous" group
      • You want an Item to be searchable/browseable publicly, but its file(s) should ONLY be viewable/downloadable by members of the "On Campus Users" group
        • Set the Item Policy to be "READ" access for "Anonymous" group
        • Set all Bundle/Bitstream Policies to be "READ" access ONLY for the "On Campus Users" group
      • You want an Item to be only searchable/browseable/downloadable by members of the "On Campus Users" group  (WARNING: In this scenario, the Item will also NEVER appear in Google or Google Scholar as that particular Item is essentially "invisible" to all users except for those in the "On Campus Users" group)
        • Set ALL policies to "READ" access for ONLY the "On Campus Users" group

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