|
What is ePrintsUQ?
ePrintsUQ is an open access deposit collection of papers that showcases the research output of academic staff and postgraduate students (both past and present) of the University of Queensland. It includes a range of subjects and disciplines. Papers cover the whole gamut from pre-refereed drafts through to peer-reviewed publication and post-publication updates. The ePrintsUQ server will provide free, searchable access to this research and manage its long-term archiving and preservation.
The ePrintsUQ archive is part of a Group of Eight initiative in Australia, which aims to ensure that the research output of major Australian universities will be visible, accessible and usable through a global network of interlinked services such as OAIster
What is an ePrint?
An ePrint is an electronic version of a research paper. Before refereeing and publication, such papers are called 'pre-prints'. Refereed, published final drafts are called 'post-prints'. ePrintsUQ accepts pre-prints and post-prints. The archive software in use at ePrintsUQ keeps track of all versions.
What is an ePrint Archive?
An ePrint Archive is a collection of digital research documents such as articles, book chapters, conference papers and data sets. ePrintsUQ is OAI-compliant. This means that information about archived documents, such as author, title, and publication details, can be harvested into global 'virtual' archives that are seamlessly navigable by any user, since all documents can be jointly searched and retrieved as if they were all in a single global collection. Papers deposited in ePrintsUQ are searchable via the OAIster cross-archive search service, and are also indexed by Google and other popular search engines.
Why should I deposit my research in an ePrint archive?
Archiving work maximises the visibility and accessibility of one's research, and hence its usage and impact. Research freely available online is much more highly cited than work available only in print. (Lawrence, S. (2001) Free online availability substantially increases a paper's impact: Nature Web debates).
However, even if your research papers have been published in online journals, many academics and researchers, particularly those from poorer institutions or from developing countries, will still not be able to read them, because of access barriers such as passwords, subscription costs, licensing agreements or IP restrictions. This means your research may not reach many people who might otherwise be interested in using it and citing it. Its presence in an ePrint archive such as ePrintsUQ, however, guarantees your work can reach a truly global audience on a scale impossible to achieve on paper. This maximises the impact of your work within the global academic community.
Why do I need to deposit work in ePrintsUQ when my papers are archived by the online journals in which they are published?
While many journal publishers are creating online archives of published articles, there is no guarantee that this material will be available and accessible long term. Also, if library subscriptions to journals lapse, there is no guarantee that UQ researchers will still have access to the materials covered by earlier subscriptions. Also, as those sites reorganise, URLs may change. ePrintsUQ can guarantee you long-term access and secure storage with permanent URLs for any work deposited.
What can I archive?
ePrintsUQ accepts all significant stages of research, from the pre-refereed pre-print to the peer-reviewed, published post-print, to post-publication updates. These may be full sets of conference proceedings, individual conference papers or posters, newspaper or journal articles, books, book chapters, online journals, working papers or departmental technical reports. Some theses may also be accepted. Please contact the archive co-ordinator, Belinda Weaver, if you are uncertain. Telephone: +617 3365 8281. Email: eprints@library.uq.edu.au
Who can deposit materials in the archive?
Academic staff and postgraduate students of the University of Queensland, both past and present, may deposit papers in the ePrintsUQ archive.
What about my older papers? Can I deposit material even if it is not currently in electronic form?
Please contact the ePrintsUQ co-ordinator on (+617) 3365 8281 or via email to eprints@library.uq.edu.au to discuss how we can arrange to digitise your older research materials.
I am not interested in anyone's draft papers. Can I avoid seeing non-reviewed material?
Yes, ePrintsUQ allows you to limit your searches to peer-reviewed materials only. Use the Advanced Search to find this option.
Is deposit in an ePrint archive considered as publication?
Most journal publishers do not consider Web archiving of preprints as 'publication'. For purposes of establishing priority and asserting copyright, anything that is made public, even on a single piece of paper, meets the legal definition of 'publication'. This includes archiving. But for scholarly and scientific purposes, only meeting the quality standards of peer review, hence acceptance for publication by a peer-reviewed journal, counts as publication. (Archiving work should not be confused with vanity publishing.) The archiving of pre-prints, however, is an excellent way of date-stamping work and thus establishing priority and asserting copyright for your work.
Do publishers agree?
Many do. Nature states: 'Neither conferences nor preprint servers constitute prior publication.' Elsevier states: 'As an [Elsevier] author you [have the] right to retain a pre-print version of the article on a public electronic server such as the World Wide Web.' More information on many publisher policies about copyright and permissions can be found at SHERPA, though these should not be taken as final. Journal publisher policies in this area are constantly evolving. Staff at ePrintsUQ can advise on these issues, or how to find out the policies of publishers not represented in the SHERPA database.
What about copyright?
The author holds the copyright for the pre-refereed pre-print, so that can be self-archived without seeking anyone's permission. For the refereed post-print, it all depends on what rights you transferred to the journal publisher when you signed a contract with them. Check your contract. Some publishers do not ask for exclusivity; some seek to use the material only under license. Should copyright have been fully transferred to the publisher, authors can use ePrintsUQ's sample permissions letter to ask for permission to deposit a copy in the archive. (Many publishers also have an email permissions form on their Web Site, which is quicker.) For future contracts, authors can try to modify the copyright transfer agreement to allow such archiving by including a clause such as 'I retain the right to distribute my paper for free for scholarly/scientific purposes, in particular, the right to self-archive it publicly online in a Web-based institutional repository such as ePrintsUQ (http://eprint.uq.edu.au/).'
Failing that, authors can deposit a corrigenda file (a file explaining changes between pre- and post-print versions) to accompany an already archived pre-print. The ePrintsUQ co-ordinator can advise you about copyright issues. More information on publisher policies about copyright and permissions can be found at SHERPA, though these should not be taken as final. Journal publisher policies in this area are constantly evolving.
What can I do to ensure I can legally deposit any future publications?
The ePrintsUQ co-ordinator can help you draft a clause for any future journal contract that retains your right to archive your work in the University of Queensland's ePrintsUQ archive. Call +617 3365 8281 or send an email to eprints@library.uq.edu.au
What effort does depositing require? Is it a lot of work?
It should not take more than a few minutes to upload a paper.
To deposit a paper in ePrintsUQ, you need to register by entering your email address and selecting a username and password you will use when using the ePrintsUQ service. (A short username, for example, your initials, is probably best.) A confirmatory email is then sent to the email address you supplied. You then need to return to the site to fill in your personal details. (This is a short form.) After that, you can log into your User Area at any time to start uploading papers. If you cannot complete your upload in one go, no data is lost - just take up where you left off as the information will be securely held in your User Area workspace. You can use the 'Clone Eprint' option if you are uploading a range of papers on similar topics as this will minimise the work of data entry.
The co-ordinator at ePrintsUQ is happy to help you with all or any stages of the upload process, including the conversion of documents to Portable Document Format. There is also a lot of online help.
Can the ePrintsUQ data be used for the annual return to DEST?
The co-ordinator of ePrintsUQ is currently working with staff of the UQ Office of Research and Postgraduate Studies to find ways of sharing data between our two systems, both for the annual return to DEST and for input into Research Solutions.
Can I get figures on how often my papers are being downloaded?
Yes, there are self-service statistics on the web site. These allow you to search by name for your own download statistics. The figures are broken up into Full Downloads and Abstract Views. The figures are for the current twelve months and are updated daily. You can also see statistics on the Top 50 papers and the Top 50 authors.
What does OAI-compliant mean? What is the OAI?
The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) develops and promotes interoperability standards to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content. The OAI championed ePrint archives and other scholarly digital repositories as a means of increasing the ongoing availability of scholarly communications. Since ePrintsUQ complies with these standards, information about the works deposited in our archive is open access and can be harvested, for example, by Internet search engines such as Google or by cross-archive search tools such as OAIster. Open access greatly increases the visibility of your research.
Where can I find out more about open access archives and the free online scholarship movement?
The Library has compiled a page of further information on ePrint archives. This page includes links to current articles, organisations involved in digitisation, reports and online discussions of the issues around open access research.
Open access Open access signifies a "publication model where in neither readers nor a reader's institution are charged for access to articles or other resources. Users are free to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright … should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited (Source: Budapest Open Access Initiative http://www.soros.org/openaccess/index.shtml) Definitions of open access also often include the provision that the article or resource will be deposited in an open access repository committed to long-term preservation." Taken from the Glossary, Library of Congress Summit on Serials in the Digital Environment.
Adapted from the Self-Archiving FAQ for the Budapest Open Access Initiative, which covers all these issues, including copyright, peer review, authentication and plagiarism, in exhaustive detail.
|
