Advocating Institutional Repositories to Academics

Repository systems are designed to allow academics to archive their own work. It is generally a simple process and should take no more than 10 minutes. Like other IT systems, when coming to it for the first time the process might take slightly longer or require some assistance; but the input form is straight forward.

Many "Green" publishers do not allow the use of the published pdf file. What they allow to be used instead is the "author's-version".

Therefore, possibly the single most useful change of habit that can be promoted is to encourage authors to retain a copy of their final text - and save it somewhere obvious and safe. This is a simple step while the article is being produced and also helps to encourage a greater realisation of the publishing process and the change of rights that often occurs as part of it.

Various advocacy materials have been produced by the SHERPA partners and are available for re-use on the SHERPA website.

Last updated: 04-Feb-2010