Librarian
Self-Archiving
Most publishers offer a paid open access model via the payment of an article processing charge (APC). But, in most cases, authors can make their articles open access (and ensure compliance with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications) without incurring any fees by following the Green Open Access (self-archiving) route.
The following captioned images will assist authors to understand the self-archiving process and differentiate between a post-print and a publisher PDF.
Examples
Read the captions at the bottom of this box for explanations of the images.
- Over 90% of publishers permit authors to upload (self-archive) a copy of their final refereed post-print to an institutional repository or personal webpage. Note that this usage is restricted the author's final unformatted draft, in Word or other document format, but not the publisher's formatted PDF document.
- Most publishers restrict the use of the final, formatted PDF document in institutional repositories or personal webpages. Uploading the publishers PDF document would most likely breach the terms of authors' copyright transfer agreements.
Authors should consult their copyright transfer agreement or Sherpa/RoMEO to find out what rights they have retained. Authors can search by publisher, but it is preferable to search by journal title in case individual titles have different permissions.
The results page indicates general self-archiving, including which version can be uploaded, and lists general conditions and any embargo periods that may apply.
A colour key highlighting general self-archiving policies.