An author can use “self-archiving” to make his/her research results easier to find, thus increasing their impact. Self-archiving means that the author himself makes a digital copy of his article accessible on the Internet and adds certain metadata.
It is important to note that most publishers freely permit self-archiving, even if a copyright agreement has been signed between the publisher and the author concerned.
The Sherpa/Romeo website comprises the most important copyright provisions of a large number of publishers and periodicals and also specifies the policy the publishers pursue regarding self-archiving.
>> Go to the Sherpa/Romeo website
The Copyright Knowledge Bank is still under development; it is intended to further boost the coverage and functionality of the Sherpa/Romeo website.
>> More about the Copyright Knowledge Bank
In addition to publishing his work in an online (open-access) periodical, an author can also publish it via an institutional repository.
As part of the CoMa project, a knowledge database has been set up containing the policy of publishers regarding institutional repositories. The database also contains standard letters that authors can use if a publisher does not permit a work to be included in an institutional repository. So far, the database contains the policy of only a limited number of publishers but more will be added. The project is being coordinated at international level with the SHERPA project so as to add to the data and manage it more effectively.
>> Go to the CoMa knowledge database
All these initiatives are based on the concept of Open Access, which assumes that scientific and scholarly work – for example research results – should be freely accessible to the public.
>> More about Open Access.
The Sherpa/Romeo website was developed by JISC, the UK counterpart to SURF. The Copyright Knowledge Bank is part of the “Partnering on Copyright” project, a collaborative project between SURF and JISC. The CoMa project was carried out with SURF funding.