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Web Posting of Articles

May I post my article* on my web site and/or in WHOAS, an institutional repository (aka preprint/e-print server)?

It depends on:

  • Are you currently employed by WHOI, including scientific and engineering staff, and students, including those registered in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program?  Please see the WHOI Open Access policy
  • What rights did you sign over to the publisher (consult your contract)?
  • Did the publisher accept an amendment to the Publication agreement?
  • What rights the publisher grants you for reuse (see Sherpa/RoMEO for standard practices of many publishers)
  • “What” you can actually post, if allowed—is it your “text” or “their PDF”?

Consult your contract first.  Sherpa/RoMEO has compiled a list of existing journal publisher policies to guide you.  Be careful to note the distinction between “yes—you may post your ‘manuscript’ (i.e., your corrected, accepted MS Word document in a PDF format)” vs “you may post the publisher’s PDF”.  You will find that many publishers allow the former, but few allow you to put up the PDF as published in the journal.

Second, contact the publisher and/or journal editor directly.  Offtimes, it is possible to obtain permission to post your manuscript even though the publisher’s standard practices appear otherwise.

In most cases, your publisher will require your citation include a link to the full-text published version (use the URL or DOI for permanent retrieval). This way, people viewing your manuscript will be able to connect to the “published version”.

Selected Publishers’ Policies*

AAAS [American Association for the Advancement of Science] Authors also retain the right and are encouraged to post the accepted version of their manuscript to their personal Web site or institutional repository, immediately following publication by AAAS. (The accepted version is the paper that was accepted for publication by AAAS, including changes resulting from peer review, but prior to AAAS copyediting.)  http://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/contribinfo/prep/lic_info.pdf

AGU [American Geophysical Union] Allows authors to deposit their journal articles [in an Institutional Repository] if the version is the final published citable version of record, the AGU copyright statement is clearly visible on the posting, and the posting is made 6 months after official publication by the AGU.  http://publications.agu.org/author-resource-center/usage-permissions/

AMS [American Meteorological Society] AMS grants permission to each of its authors to deposit the definitive version of that author’s published AMS journal article in the repository of the author’s institution  … six months after the date of publication of the definitive version by the AMS.   http://www2.ametsoc.org/ams/index.cfm/publications/authors/journal-and-bams-authors/author-resources/copyright-information/copyright-policy/

Elsevier
Elsevier believes that individual authors should be able to distribute their AAMs [Accepted Author Manuscripts] for their personal voluntary needs and interests, e.g. posting to their websites or their institution’s repository, e-mailing to colleagues.  http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/postingpolicy

NAS [National Academy of Sciences] The right to post a PDF of your article on your web site … you may post and update your article on preprint and e-print servers as long as the PDF or HTML files created by PNAS are not used.  http://www.pnas.org/site/misc/authorfaq.shtml

NPG [Nature Publishing Group] Authors are encouraged to archive this version [accepted paper] of the manuscript in their institution’s repositories and, if they wish, on their personal websites, also six months after the original publication.  http://www.nature.com/authors/editorial_policies/license.html

PLoS [Public Library of Science] Everything we publish is freely available online for you to read, download, copy, distribute, and use (with attribution) any way you wish.  http://www.plos.org/

* Policies as they apply to articles; book chapters may have different limitations.

For more information, please contact copyright@whoi.edu