A page from the Depot

Jump to the start of the main contents

The main content

Start of main contents

FAQ

If you have an enquiry please contact the edina helpdesk edina@ed.ac.uk (0131 650 3302).

Questions
  1. Who can use the Depot?
  2. Why should I use the Depot?
  3. Why not just put my article on my own website -- or on my department's website?
  4. How easy is it to use?
  5. What can I put in the Depot?
  6. Will my publisher allow me to do this?
  7. What if I have not yet signed a Copyright Transfer Agreement with my publisher?
  8. Can I set restrictions on my deposited item so that it is not available for open access download?
  9. Once I have my article in the Depot how can readers find it?
  10. Will my paper be preserved for the long-term?
  11. Where can I get more information about Open Access?
Answers
  1. Who can use the Depot?
    The Depot is available for all researchers worldwide who are based at a university, college or research institution without a local repository service easily available to them.
  2. Why should I use the Depot?
    By putting your peer reviewed e-prints into the Depot you gain a far wider readership than if your article is only available through subscription journal. Studies have shown that citations for material made available through open access could rise dramatically -- up to 400% in some disciplines.
  3. Why not just put my article on my own website -- or on my department's website?
    Although your article will be readily available through your website it must take its place along with the billions of other web pages and references that exist on the web. By putting your material into the Depot it is more readily identified as being research material and will therefore be found more easily by academic search engines. This advantage holds true for general search services like Google as well. Although rankings are continually changing, tests generally show that material made available through a repository is shown far higher in Google rankings than material that is just on a normal web page.
    In addition, the Depot will provide a permanent citation for your e-print that will not give future readers a broken link.
  4. How easy is it to use?
    The process of depositing an e-print into the Depot is straightforward and quick. You need to register first and then follow a simple process which should take about 10 minutes per article.
  5. What can I put in the Depot?
    The Depot is designed for authors' peer reviewed material. Typically this will be an electronic duplicate of a peer-reviewed journal article. Preferably this will be the "author's final version" but can be the published PDF file if your publisher allows this. In either case this is the version of your article after all of the changes due to the peer review process have been incorporated into the text.
  6. Will my publisher allow me to do this?
    This depends on the Copyright Transfer Agreement that you have signed with your publisher. Most publishers allow some sort of self archiving. If you do not have a convenient copy of the contract that you signed with your publisher, then consult RoMEO, http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo. This is a service that is run by SHERPA which lists the details of standard Copyright Transfer Agreements as they are given by different publishers. The database can be searched by publisher name or by journal title.
    If your publishing agreement does not allow you to deposit in a repository, it might be possible to negotiate with the publisher to give you a right to archive your article. In the first instance write to the editor of the journal in which you published your article and ask their permission.
  7. What if I have not yet signed a Copyright Transfer Agreement with my publisher?
    If you have not yet published in the journal it might be possible to amend the Copyright Transfer Agreement which the publisher normally uses. JISC have produced a sample Copyright Licence Agreement which a publisher may accept.
    Publishers do not need a complete transfer of copyright in order to publish your article, they only need a non-exclusive licence to do so. This model licence allows the publisher to publish your article while allowing you to retain rights for your own use.
  8. Can I set restrictions on my deposited item so that it is not available for open access download?
    Yes. You can upload your e-print, fill in the citation fields, but set an option to make the document itself invisible. This option is available for authors who are not comfortable with the terms of open access or who are required by their publisher to wait a period of time (e.g. up to six months) before making their e-print available through open access. For restricted access items, if a user reads the citation metadata and wishes to receive a copy of the e-print, they will have the option of pressing a "Request e-print" button. This simply sends an email to the depositor of the item - you. You can then decide if the user should have access to the item, e.g. by sending them a copy by email. If you use the embargo feature as well as restricting access to the deposited item, you can set the exact time at which the document's embargo will expire and will become visible for open access, thus complying with your publisher's restrictions. For further information about restricted access features in EPrints software see http://www.eprints.org/news/features/request_button.php.
  9. Once I have my article in the Depot how can readers find it?
    Once logged into the service, you can view all of your deposits. There is also a browse function to see all items currently held in the Depot. Material held within the Depot can be found through global search services like Google or Yahoo, or Google Scholar. There are also specialist search services which only search material held within academic repositories; an example of this would be the BASE search engine, http://www.base-search.net. One of the advantages of open access archiving are the innovative services which can be built on top of open access material. There is a current JISC project called Intute Repository Search which is building innovative services for discovery of UK research outputs.
  10. Will my paper be preserved for the long-term?
    The purpose of the Depot is to provide a short-to-medium term open access repository for those academics whose institutions do not yet have a repository. Over time it is intended that each institution should establish its own repository. At this point the content of the Depot will be transferred to each depositor's institutional repository. In this way, the Depot acts as a keep-safe facility. Preservation policies and procedures at institutions will vary, but most repositories aim to archive digital materials for the long-term.
  11. Where can I get more information about Open Access?
    See the Self-Archiving FAQ maintained by EPrints.org at University of Southampton. Also, SHERPA maintains a page on Open Access Basics with links to further information.

Last modified: 11 September 2009