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Preparing To Publish: Self-Archiving

Why Self-Archive?

Archiving your work in an institutional or disciplinary archive can:

 

  • Increase visibility of your work. Many archives are indexed by Google Scholar, ensuring that your work can be found.
  • Provide a permanent link to your work. Archives provide a stable digital environment to host your work (no broken links).
  • Preserve your work. Your work will be preserved exactly as deposited for years to come.
  • Let you include data, images, audio and other related files (that could not be included in the journal article).

 

Adapted from eCommons @ Cornell eCommons FAQ

 

You can self-archive your work by depositing it digitally in a freely available and publicly accessible archive.

What are the types of manuscripts?

  • Preprint (not edited or peer-reviewed)
  • Postprint (peer-reviewed), sometimes called the 'accepted manuscript'
  • The published work, sometimes called the 'version of record'

What are the types of archives?

The major types of digital archives are:
 

  • Institutional Repository: includes works from authors at a specific institution (e.g. Cornell eCommons).
  • Disciplinary Archives: includes works from authors in a specific discipline (e.g. PubMed Central).
  • Preprint servers: database-like repositories exclusively for pre-prints that haven't yet been accepted for publication (e.g. medRxiv) 

 

I'm Ready. How do I deposit my work?

First, consider who owns the copyright to your work. If you own the copyright to your work, you can deposit your work in an institutional or disciplinary archive by submitting it online. If your publisher owns the copyright you may be able to archive (depending on your publisher agreement) certain types of manuscripts in specific venues:
 

  • Preprint: most journals allow free immediate archiving
    • OSF, preprint servers: bioRxiv, medRxiv, etc
  • Postprint: most journals allow free archiving with an embargo or immediate archiving for a fee
    • Pubmed Central, Institutional Repositories, etc
  • Published (OA): almost always requires a fee
    • Can typically be shared anywhere


The publisher may not permit self-archiving, which is why you should be aware of what rights you want to keep and include them in an author addendum to the publisher's copyright transfer agreement. To determine what the journal allows, visit Sherpa Romeo. Even if the base journal language doesn't allow self-archiving, consider using the SPARC author's addendum to try and retain the right to do so.

 

If you are affiliated with Cornell University or Weill Cornell Medicine, you can deposit your work in eCommons, Cornell’s institutional repository. Visit this page to find out how.

 

If you want to archive your work in a repository next to colleagues in your discipline, search the OpenDOAR directory. You will find disciplinary archives and submission guidelines.