Are you interested in sharing your published work more openly? Many publishers now allow authors to deposit a version of their article into institutional repositories like the Tufts Digital Library.
If you’ve already signed an author’s agreement for your article, check your copy of the agreement, or look up your publisher in the SHERPA/RoMEO database to see what they allow. For some publishers, you can also enter your article’s DOI in How Can I Share It to see what’s allowed.
If you haven’t signed an author’s agreement yet, see our Retaining Your Rights as an Author page for strategies to ensure you retain rights to share your work openly
Look for 4 pieces of information:
Which version?
- Most allow sharing a preprint (your original article, prior to submitting to a journal)
- Most allow sharing the accepted version (your final Word doc version after peer review, just prior to publishing)
- Few allow sharing the publisher’s final pdf version
Where?
- Most allow depositing in an institutional repository (like the Tufts Digital Library) or a subject-based repository (like arXiv)
- Many allow posting to department, lab, or personal websites
- Some have specific rules prohibiting sharing on sites like ResearchGate or Academia.edu
When?
- Some agreements have embargo periods before the article can be made free to read, typically between 12-24 months.
- Deposit now and our digital library software will manage the embargo
Other conditions?
- Often you must include a statement on the first page of the document that provides a full citation and link to the publisher’s version
Deposit in the Tufts Digital Library
Once you’ve determined your publisher’s policies, use our deposit form to contribute the article to the Tufts Digital Library, or read more about the process.