2.3 WORKFLOW AND SUBMISSION PROCESS

The self-archiving is the authors’ prerogative. They should be self-directed enough to follow self-archiving of their work for wider visibility. OA repositories are commonly developed using open source software DSpace and EPrints software. These software have simplified user interface and similar self-archiving work flow, thus provide similar self-archiving experience to the researchers. As a new user to any self-archiving repository, you need to create a user account before you can actually post/deposit your work. We proffer the following steps for you to follow self-archiving. However, at certain places, the librarian may assist you in the process of archiving, where institutional repositories are available.

2.3.1 Steps for Self Archiving

1) Check, whether your institution has a policy for Open Access. While it is important to talk to seniors in your research lab and/or the librarian, about any existing policy on OA and repository, we suggest you review Open DOAR22 and ROARMAP23. While OpenDOAR will give you information about OA repository in your discipline and in your institute, ROARMAP would inform about OA policy in your institute. Remember that these are not always up-to-date, but are useful help. To know whether your university/institution has an institutional repository, you may also try the finder available at OpenDepot24.

2) Remember, your self-archiving need to be compatible with your institutional policy. So, if you have an immediate deposit mandate upon acceptance of your paper, you need to follow the same. Also, you need to be careful about the publisher’s permission on what and when you can share your work in repository. RoMEO25 (Rights MEtadata for Open archiving) is a searchable database of publisher's policies regarding the self- archiving of journal articles in Open Access repositories. It is a service of project entitled “Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access” (SHERPA26) at the University of Nottingham. You can use RoMEO website for different purposes, such as:

  • Use RoMEO to assist you when depositing articles to your institutional repository. 
  • Use RoMEO to find out if your publishers’ copyright rules allow you to deposit in your institutional repository. 
  • Use RoMEO to find out an embargo period before self-archiving of published journal articles. 
  • RoMEO summarizes publishers’ conditions and categorizes publishers by colours, indicating level of author rights. 
  • RoMEO shows which publishers’ comply with funding agencies’ conditions on open access.

RoMEO provides statistics of over 1480 publishers; policy related to self-archiving. These are categorised into four colour codes (as given in Table 4):


At present about 72% of the publishers provide some sort of self-archiving27. This is important for you to consider the journal, where you should be publishing your work. Depending on your work, it is important for you to check SHERPA/RoMEO that provides a check for over 22,000 journal titles in their database. You can do ISSN search too apart from exact title or the name of the publisher. Once you know the status of self-archiving provision of the journal, it becomes the first step in deposit.

3) When you know the publisher’s open access policy, you may like tonegotiate while signing the Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA),which allow the publisher License to Publish (LTP). As original authorof the work, you can negotiate for sharing your work in OA, andSPARC28 has developed a model agreement and a tool known asSPARC Author’s Addendum29 that you may send to the publisher.Author can carefully assess CTA given by a publisher and opt out someprovisions in it restricting in exercising his/her academic freedom.

4) Depending on your institutional policy, and the publisher’s policy, youshould be able to submit your work to a global or institutionalrepository. If you do not find any specific repository, you may like todeposit your work at OpenDepot, which has simple registrationprocess30.

5) Once you self-archive your work, do not forget to share the linkthrough your social networks.


Last modified: Monday, 19 April 2021, 11:15 AM