Verifying your rights for YorkSpace deposit

Glossary

Self-archiving: The act of depositing one’s work in an institutional or subject-based repository. York’s institutional repository is called YorkSpace.

Pre-print: Applicable to published works. A pre-print is your original manuscript as submitted to the publisher prior to any changes being made as a result of the peer-review process.

Post-print: Applicable to published works. A post-print is your edited manuscript with peer-review comments integrated. It can refer to either the final version of your manuscript as accepted by the publisher, or the final copyedited and formatted version of your manuscript.

Unpublished items

As the creator of a work, you are automatically the copyright owner. If your work is unpublished and you have not signed away your rights, you are free to deposit it into YorkSpace. If you do, however, foresee publishing a substantial portion of this work in the future, it is recommended to not deposit your work into YorkSpace as many publishers would view a YorkSpace deposit (or posting to any website) as “publishing” your work on the web.

Published journal articles

Do you have permissions to deposit your published journal articles in YorkSpace? In many cases, the answer is yes – but with some restrictions.

Note: In the case of items with multiple authors, if the publisher allows self-archiving, each author is entitled to deposit the work in his/her own institutional repository.

To verify whether you are able to deposit your work, several options are suggested:

(a) Look up your journal or publisher in Sherpa/Romeo or Oaklist

Sherpa/Romeo and Oaklist compile publisher policies and outline the restrictions for self-archiving. Here is an example of a publisher policy listed in Sherpa/Romeo.

The restrictions listed in Sherpa/Romeo at times can at times be ambiguous. Here is a guide for interpreting the restrictions listed on this site.

Here is a link to a video demonstration of using the Sherpa/Romeo site in the verification process:

(b) Find the official web site for the journal, and look under the pages that provide information to authors. Often there will be information outlining author self-archiving rights.

The Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory is a very helpful tool for locating journal web sites.

(c) Locate your original signed copyright transfer agreements

If you are able to locate a copy of your agreement, it will likely spell out whether or not you have the right to self archive (deposit your work on an institution’s server). If the contract is ambiguous to interpret, it may be easier to try option (a) above.

(d) Contact the publisher to request permission to self-archive your work

Note that it is worth sending a quick request for permission to self-archive, even if the publisher website clearly states that self archiving is not allowed. In may cases, authors receive a positive response.

The Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory is a very helpful tool for locating journal web sites and contact information.

Other published works

It is likely that locating the copyright transfer agreements in this case will not be as helpful, as the resources supporting self-archiving have concentrated on journal articles.

For published material other than scholarly articles, it is best to contact the publisher directly for permission.

If the item is an entire book, you may be more successful in securing the rights to make available a single chapter, in lieu of the entire work. Securing rights for a book chapter is well worth it, as our largest traffic item in YorkSpace is a book chapter.