Institutional Repository Infrastructure for Scotland

Repository toolkit

• Home

• Contents
• Introduction and overview
• Tookit for researchers
  • Introduction
  • Legal issues
  • How to deposit
  • Engaging open access
  • Funding bodies
  • Local contacts
• Toolkit for for institutions and repository managers
• Useful resources

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• This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License for Scotland and a Creative Commons License for England and Wales
• Last updated 7 Dec 2007
• Version 1.0

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Toolkit for researchers

Legal issues

The key legal issue relating to repositories is the agreement you have with your publisher that determines what you are permitted to do with your work. Many publishers still require authors to assign copyright to them before they will publish a work. However, an increasing number of publishers are now willing to permit authors to sign a license to publish instead, which is likely to be less restrictive. Even if you have assigned copyright to a publisher, it is important to be aware that in most cases this will not prevent you from depositing your work in a repository. Many publishers give authors a number of rights relating to what they may do with their work, even if they have assigned copyright.

If you want to be able to make your work available in repositories you should check the publisher's policy before submitting your work. Most journal publishers now have a policy on deposit in repositories. The quickest way to check the policy of a particular publisher is to search the Sherpa-RoMEO database of publisher policies. You can search this database by journal title or by publisher. If your publisher is not listed, or if you are looking to deposit a book chapter or other non-journal publication your best course of action is to contact the publisher directly. Some repositories may be willing to do this on your behalf.

Although many publishers permit deposit in a repository, most specify a number of conditions that must be met. Most commonly these relate to the version of your work you are allowed to deposit, and when you are allowed to deposit.

Version

The majority of publishers who permit deposit in a repository will not allow the published version of the article to be used for this purpose. By this they mean the electronic version available to subscribers of the journal, complete with their formatting, page numbers, logos etc.. Instead they allow authors to use their own final version of the paper, also referred to as an "author final version", "author final manuscript" or "author post-print". This is the version following refereeing and editing. i.e. not the pre-print version. The text and any diagrams can be exactly the same as the published version, but you cannot use the version that has publisher logos, formatting and copyright notices.

Timing of deposit

A number of publishers will only permit deposit in a repository after an embargo period has elapsed. This can range from six months to a year, or longer in a small number of cases. You may find it more convenient to deposit your paper at the time of publication and ask repository staff to make it publicly available once the embargo period has elapsed.

If the journal you want to publish in does not offer you the rights you require there are a number of options you can consider:

• Grant the publisher a license to publish rather than assigning copyright. One way of doing this is to use the license to publish developed by JISC.
• Agree to the publisher’s normal arrangements, but on condition that you are permitted to deposit a copy of your publication in a repository.

If a publisher will not agree to either of the above, and where you are required to comply with a funding body open access policy, it may be necessary to seek special permission from your funder to publish in a particular journal, or alternatively to reconsider where you are going to publish.