Archiving your research can make your work freely accessible and gets you a wider audience to increase your research impact. But, it can be a bit tricky to know your rights and choose the right version of your work to share. Here we outline the various versions of your article, how to find them, and when you can share them. It's helpful and will save you time and frustration in the future to save all versions of your work as they are produced.
Most sharing policies are available through a copyright & self-archiving tool called SHERPA/RoMEO, but your publication agreement is a binding contract that tells you how and where you can legally share your work.
If you still are not sure which version you can share with the TAMU-CC Repository, please contact scholarlycommunications@tamucc.edu.
Also known as: Author's manuscript, original manuscript, submitted version, first draft. Example
Definition: Draft of the manuscript before formal peer-review, or the first version sent to the journal for consideration.
Looks like: An essay with no journal branding. It is commonly a .DOCX or other text format.
How to find it:
Can you share it? You can usually find your journal's Pre-Print sharing policy at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/search.php. Below is a screen shot of the details for sharing a submitted version, according to SherpaRomeo:
Also known as: AAM, accepted manuscript author accepted manuscript, accepted author manuscript, accepted version. Example
Definition: Final version of the manuscript after formal peer-review but before being type-set by the publisher. It contains all revisions made during the peer-review process.
Looks like: An essay with no journal branding, usually double-spaced, might have corrections on the sides. It is commonly a .DOCX or other text format.
How to find it:
Can you share it? You can usually find your journal's Pre-Print sharing policy at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/search.php. Below is a screen shot of the details for sharing an accepted version, according to SherpaRomeo:
Also known as: Published version, version of record. Example
Definition: Version of the manuscript published in a journal with the journal's type-set and branding.
Looks like: Has the journal branding and logo. It is commonly a PDF downloaded from the journal's website.
How to find it: Log into the journal's submission page and retrieve a copy of the published version of your article
Can you share it? Subscription journals typically don't allow authors to legally share the published version of their article online unless it was published open access, but there are exceptions. You can usually find information on your journal's self-archiving policy at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/search.php. Below is a screen shot of the details for sharing an accepted version, according to SherpaRomeo:
