Publishing Your Work

Self-Archiving Publications in Subject Repositories

So, your article has been accepted by a journal, now how do you make it more widely available?

1. Navigating Sherpa Romeo

In order to determine the self-archiving options permitted by the journal in which you will be publishing, you can check its Sherpa Romeo listing.

The Sherpa Romeo listing for a journal includes information on the open-access options for various publishing pathways in an easy-to-understand format under the Publisher Policy section.

2. Understanding Policy Icons

In order to find a suitable pathway, there are a few icons used on Sherpa Romeo that you'll need to understand.

• The exclamation point inside a box indicates that there are prerequisites to be met before publishing in that pathway.
• The British pound sterling symbol indicates that there is an OA fee. These are Gold OA routes rather than Green OA (self-archiving).
• The icon with two pieces of paper and a ribbon on the bottom left indicates that only specific Creative Commons licenses are permitted.
• The file icon indicates permitted deposit locations.

3. Evaluating Pathways

Now that we have an understanding of the symbols used on Sherpa Romeo, let's learn how to interpret them and evaluate various pathways.

• Prerequisites can be general requirements, funder requirements, or subject requirements. If your work does not fulfill the prerequisites, you cannot utilize that publishing pathway.
• If there is an OA fee associated with the publishing pathway, then it is not a self-archiving option. Pass over those pathways.
• Creative Commons licenses with the letters "ND" in them do not permit derivative works.
• Permitted deposit locations can vary fairly widely. Look for pathways that permit deposit in a subject repository.

4. Select Pathway

Once you have found a suitable pathway, you'll publish your work!

The steps for this will vary by journal, so you'll want to check with your publisher.

5. Locating a Subject Repository

The publishing pathway you select may permit the deposit of your work in any subject repository, or only specific ones. This information can be easily found using Sherpa Romeo.

If your publishing pathway permits any subject repository, it is then up to you to select one! There are several resources for locating an appropriate repository, a few are linked below:

• University of Canberra Library Directory of Subject Repositories
• JISC Open Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR)

6. Embargo Period

Following publication you may have an embargo period on self-archiving. If so, you will need to wait until the embargo period has ended to deposit it in a subject repository.

7. Required Permissions

Depending upon the terms of your publishing agreement, you may or may not have retained copyright ownership.

If you do own the copyright to your work, your permission is all that is needed to deposit it.

If you do not own the copyright to your work, you will need the written permission of the copyright owner (likely the publisher) to submit your work.

8. Submission

Now you're ready to submit your work to an institutional repository!

Be sure to follow the submission directions of your subject repository of choice, and then celebrate the increased access to your work!