Guide to Publishing: Self-archiving

Green OA  (self-archiving)
Green OA involves making a copy of paper or article, usually the final draft, openly available in an institutional repository, for example Theseus. Publishers stipulate which version of the paper or article can be deposited and specify an embargo period following publication before the paper can be made open access. Self-archiving is easy and free for the author.

Many research institutes and funding agencies also recommend or even require that research results are made freely accessible to promote research transparency, the possibility of repetition and thus increasing reliability. For example, the Academy of Finland requires that the research they fund as far as possible should be self-archived in freely accessible archives or databases.     

Self-archiving is free for the researcher and the organization, and it meets the recommendations for accessibility, visibility, and archiving in the same way as publishing in an open access journa.

The Rectors’ Conference of Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences Arene issued an Open Access Statement in October 2009. After 1 January 2010, the Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) will  require all teachers and researchers who work at the UAS universities to save a  copy of their  research articles published  in scientific  publications,  or  a  university  publication series, in  the open electronic library Theseus. The statement recommends the use of those publication channels that follow an open publication policy. It is also recommended for copies of  articles published before 2010 to be self-archived.

Personnels´ publications published in scientific or professional publication outlets are self-archived on Theseus by Haaga-Helia library.

When your article has been published, report it on JUSTUS service. Attach a final draft or otherwise final version of the article to JUSTUS as well.

The final version without publishers layout is often called Final draft, Post-print or Accepted Author Manuscript (AAM), and publishers usually make this version available to the authors in the publication process.

Take care of the following before you send the article:

• Potential other authors have given permission for self-archiving.
• You have copyright or permission to publish for all images, tables, etc. included in the publication.

Library will take care of the following:

• Library verifies publisher's policies and requirements for self-archiving.
• Library requests the author to send an alternate version for self-archiving, if necessary.
• Library takes care of self-archiving the publication to Theseus and adding the required embargo.

Haaga-Helia has adopted and Open Access Publishing Policy in 2016. The guidelines are:

1. Haaga-Helia requires its staff members to publish the outcomes and findings of RDI activities via open access channels unless the funder, project partners or the publisher has stipulated the contrary.
2. RDI outcomes and findings should be published via channels that meet the publishing criteria issued by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The author selects an appropriate publishing channel, and he or she should seek to retain open access publishing rights when entering into a publishing agreement.
3. An open access copy of articles published by Haaga-Helia staff primarily in scientific journals, serial publications, conference publications or other compilations should be uploaded to Theseus, unless the publisher has stipulated the contrary or the article includes material owned by a third party.

In practice, open access publishing has been developed through self-archiving. More information on self-archiving here.

- Self-archiving enhances the visibility research publications and increases the amount of citations
- Researcher can link publications to his/her website or share them on social media
- It is easy to share links with students and students have easy access to the publications
- Self-archiving ensures long-term storage of the publication

N.B.! Self-archiving an article on Theseus doesn't affect copyright. Copyright remains with the author, it is not transferred to the repository.

Does sharing an article on ResearchGate or  Academia.edu qualify as self-archiving?

No. There are challenges with these social networking services. Long-term access and storage cannot be guaranteed nor are the articles as easy to search for as on institutional repositories.

Self-archiving to Theseus repository archives the publication in good quality and trustworhty repository provided by ARENE and maintained by the UAS library consortium AMKIT. The technical infrastructure is administered by the National Library. In Theseus the publication is assigned persistent identifiers and it is index according to national recommendations information models.

In Theseus the publication will remain openly available even if the original publishing channel ceases operation. Self-archived publications rank high in Google and Google Scholar search index, and the publications or their metadata are harvested to international research information portals.

Self-archiving increases permanence, visibility, impact and accessibility for the publication, and it remains accessible where there is no funds to subscribe to scientific journals.

On SHERPA/RoMEO you can check scientific journals' and publishers' copyright policies and approach to self-archiving. Search by publisher or journal name or ISSN of the journal.