Scholarly Communication: Self Archiving & Definitions

Ways to provide Open Access to your work:

There are two basic approaches to making research findings Open Access. One is to deposit a copy of every article in an Open Access repository (this process is known as 'self-archiving' or "Green OA") and the other is to publish in Open Access journals (also known as "Gold OA") or in one of the growing collections of hybrid journals.

Self-archiving

Authors can make their work Open Access by posting their pre-print, post-print  or, when permitted, the publisher version of the article in an Open Access repository. These are collections of articles, datasets and other supporting research-related material. They may cover a particular discipline or subject or they may be broad-scope. Institutional repositories are usually of the latter type though there may be specialised repositories within institutions - in departments or schools or even in research groups. A repository collecting the research outputs of a university or research institute is an excellent institutional tool as well as the means for enabling the institution's researchers to showcase their work. See much more on Open Access repositories here.

Open Access journals  

Open Access journals are peer-reviewed just like traditional subscription-access (Subscription Access) journals except that they do not charge readers to use them. They cover their costs in other ways and publish their content online for free. Open Access journals operate like Subscription Access journals in every other way, including managing the peer review process. For much more on Open Access journals, see here.

Hybrid journals

Authors can also choose to publish in traditional subscription access journals whose publishers offer an option to make articles Open Access upon payment of a fee. The list of publishers offering this hybrid model in available here: https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/

Repositories are a vital element of the scholarly communication infrastructure. However, the community needs to work hard to get the actual content.

This report describes a number of profiles of sustainable practices for populating repositories. The practices described here are based on a review of repository activities around the world, and represent a variety of institutional and jurisdictional contexts.

The practices fall into three broad categories:

• Incentives: promoting the benefits of repositories through advocacy and metrics, as well as the adoption of policies/mandates that require deposit;

• Integration: amalgamating repository services with other institutional services like research information systems and research biographies;

• Mediation: implementing tools, workflows, and agreements that ease and simplify the deposit process.

The repository community was born out of an environment of cooperation, openness and innovation. The practices profiled here reflect these traditions and represent creative approaches to staffing, imaginative software developments, and adoption of novel policies.

Read the Report Here: http://www.coar-repositories.org/files/Sustainable-best-practices_final.pdf.

• Creative Commons refers to the OA license used by authors to stipulate copyright and use of research publications
• A Digital copy is the electronic copy of the publication in its final stage (either the author’s final manuscript after peer review or the publisher’s version).
• An Embargo is the period during which a publication can be ‘closed’ while deposited in the  repository (i.e. the publication is not openly available).
• An Institutional Open Access Repository, is established according to international standards, containing digital content from various disciplines and providing advanced tools for search, navigation and Open Access to its digital collections
• Metadata are the descriptors used for describing, tracing, use and management of the deposited item (indicatively: title of publication, author(s), institutional affiliation, name of journal where the publication has been accepted).
• Pre-prints refer to the unpublished draft of research intended for publishing in peer-reviewed journals.
• Post-prints refer to the final print of research articles after peer-review.
• A Publication is defined as the peer-reviewed published (or under publication) work of researchers based in the institution (indicatively this comprises articles, monographs, book chapters, reports, conference presentations).
• A Repository is one that provides Open Access to scientific results, enables citation through permanent identifiers (DOI or other) and provides qualitative metadata (including acknowledgment of research funding) based on accepted guidelines and standards.
• A Researcher is any member of the research/academic/support staff of Rhodes University irrespective of their employment status.
• Research Data is the data (such as statistics, results of experiments, measurements, observations, interview recordings, images, etc.) used to validate the results presented in scientific publications.
• Self-Archiving refers to the deposit of digital documents on the designated institutional platform by the individual.

(Taken from the RU Open Access Policy document)