How to re-publish?

We provide you with six relevant steps and the matching entrypoints for the most common open access re-publication workflows.

1. Find the correct version of your manuscript
2. Check the conditions
3. Choose where to upload
4. Check with your co-authors
5. Upload to selected repository
6. Link back to the initial publication

1. Find the correct version of your manuscript

The pathway we find for your publication will specify which version of the manuscript you are allowed to re-publish. The specified version will be one of following three.

Published version

Version of a manuscript published by e.g. a journal. This is usually a PDF file that has the journals logo and copyright notice on it and is typeset to the style of the journal.

Accepted version

Final version of the manuscript sent by the author(s) to the publisher. This is the result of the peer review process and includes changes and corrections by the author(s), but not the copy-editing and typesetting done by the publisher. Content should be the same as the published version, but appearance might differ strongly.

Submitted version

What was initially submitted for peer review. Content might differ strongly from the accepted version.

The University of Cambridge Office of Scholarly Communication has a blog post with more in depth explanations.

2. Check the conditions

The pathways we get from the Sherpa Romeo policy database can have three types of conditions. Before you re-publish you need to ensure that these are met. If there are none, you are good to go.

Embargos

An embargo means you have to wait a specified time after the publisher published your manuscript before you are allowed to re-publish it. You will have to check the date of publication and then do the math.

Content related

Some pathways only allow re-publishing of manuscripts from certain subject areas. Others explicitly require the manuscript to be a research article.

External conditions

Re-publication might also only be allowed if your institution or funder require it. Some countries might also require re-publication by law and the pathway can specify this as a condition. Pathways can also only be applicable to work funded by specific publishers.

3. Choose where to upload

The pathway may allow you to upload your work in a variety of places. Our recommendation for choosing is:

• prefer public repositories over websites or social networks
• use places indexed by Unpaywall
• find suitable repositories with OpenDOAR

A repository is very much like a digital library. Technically, it is any place where you can store digital assets that is usually indexed by search engines. This will ensure your work is easily findable and available to the widest possible audience.

4. Check with your co-authors

We'd suggest you only re-publish with the consent of your co-authors. That being said, copyright and co-authorship can be a complex topic and we are in no position to provide legal advice.

5. Upload to selected repository

This step will be specific to your choosen repository. If you have trouble with this step, your institution's librarians are likely able to help you.

6. Link back to the initial publication

Most publisher's policies require that the re-published version links back to the initial, paywalled publication. If this is the case, make sure to follow their guidelines. This also helps your readers cite the appropriate publication.

This might mean adding a note like "Published in Dragon Paywall Journal 10.200/123.123" when uploading to the repository.

The exact method might be specified by the repository (e.g. arXiv specific guide). The publisher policy might also require the note to follow a certain pattern.