Contributor guide

What you can upload

OpenRTI relights the following models in the browser: PTM (LRGB and RGB), HSH and RBF (relight's PCA-based format). You can upload a .ptm file, an .rti file or a relight output folder; each member has 1 GB of storage.

The conversion runs in your browser: your original files never leave your computer, and only the web-ready tiles are uploaded. They are split into multi-resolution levels, so the screen downloads only as much detail as the visible area needs.

Diffuse Gain is defined for PTM (LRGB) data only. Specular Enhancement, Shaded and the normal map are offered for every model; the surface normal is estimated from the model by photometric stereo — an estimate, not a measurement.

What you will be asked

A record sent for publication needs a title, the data creator, the capture method, a licence and, for most licences, the rights holder; you also confirm that you have the right to publish the data. Object type, material, period and findspot are recommended: if they are empty, you are reminded once before sending. Everything else is optional but makes the record more useful:

• The object: type, material, period, findspot, holding institution and inventory number, a description and a bibliography.
• The capture: date, camera and lens, number of photographs, processing software, changes before publication and, if you measured it, the scale.
• The permit under which the object was documented and its images are published, if one was needed.

An object documented on several faces can give each face its own information. Leave a field empty rather than guess: empty fields are shown as “Not stated”.

Rights and licences

The platform (OpenRTI), the data creator and the holding institution are different roles. The rights or licence of one never apply automatically to another.

• Site texts: the original texts on this site (What is RTI?, About the project and explanatory text) are offered under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence: they may be copied, distributed and adapted with attribution. Attribution: “OpenRTI”.
• Software: the OpenRTI software is MIT-licensed. This licence does not cover artefact data or images.
• Record information: a record's structured details (title, identifiers, object type, material, places, dates and citation data) are CC0 1.0, so that catalogues can harvest them; descriptions and references written for a record are CC BY 4.0; passages quoted, adapted or translated from publications keep their own rights.
• Artefact data: each new record carries a Creative Commons licence chosen by its owner and granted by the rights holder (for objects held by a museum, CC BY-NC 4.0 is suggested, with a note on the museum's permission); the licence, rights holder and terms of use are stated in that record's Record tab. Do not assume free use for records without a stated licence; contact the rights holder.
• OpenRTI aims to offer artefact data under open licences wherever possible (preferably CC BY 4.0). The word “open”, however, does not mean every record is openly licensed: because of conditions such as museum and excavation permits, the licence is stated per record.

Review

The last step of the form is a choice. Public sends the record for review: a reviewer checks its information and data before it goes public, and you can follow its status on your account page. While it waits, you can withdraw it to change it and send it again. Private only saves it for you and the people you share it with; you can make it public later.

Before publication you can share a record with up to ten people (Invite Colleagues, on your account page): a viewer examines it and changes nothing, an editor can describe it, upload data and send it for review. An invitation link is valid for 14 days.

Citing a record before it is public. Every record gets its persistent link (openrti.org/id/rti-NNNN) as soon as it is created, so you can cite it in an article under review. Until the record is public the link says only that it is not yet published. If you tick Keep it private after approval when you send it, the record is reviewed and approved now and stays private; when your article appears, make it public from your account page (Make Public), without another review.

Review is editorial, not peer review: a published record carries no institutional endorsement of its interpretation.

After publication

• The record keeps the persistent link (openrti.org/id/rti-NNNN) it was given when it was created: it does not change and is never given to another record.
• Its published data never change; new or reprocessed data is published as a new version, with its own link.
• Corrections of its information are dated in the record's public history; they never change its data or its link.
• If the data are PTM-LRGB, you can let visitors download them as a .ptm file, under the record's licence (Download Permission, on your account page).
• You can hide a published record from your account page and show it again later. Permanent removal follows the complaints and removal procedure of the Terms of Service.