What is Self-archiving?

Self-archiving is a strategy used by authors to make their scholarly works available on the open web -- to provide open access by posting their Author's Manuscript. In this context, the contents are usually journal articles, conference or technical reports, theses and dissertations, or data sets.
A scholarly work is self-archived if the author's manuscript is posted to a personal or professional website, deposited in an institutional repository, or contributed by the author to a disciplinary archive such as the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), arXiv, or PubMed Central.
Depending on the terms in the publishing contract, these forms of self-archiving may or may not be permitted; authors are often not aware that they may have signed an agreement prohibiting these forms of distribution. Some authors agreements permit certain forms of self-archiving, but not others: for example, they may permit a pre-peer reviewed copy to be made available, but prohibit distribution of the final, publishers PDF. Sometimes they impose an embargo period.
SHERPA/RoMEO project houses a database of publisher and journal policies that will aid authors seeking to understand their journal's self-archiving policies.

Where to Self-Archive

• Subject Repositories
  Some authors deposit working or final versions of their papers in disciplinary or subject repositories, where it may be more readily found by researchers with similar interests. E.g. arXiv, Social Science Research Network (SSRN), and PhilPapers.
  See Open Access Directory wiki for more subject repository information.
• Personal Websites
  Many authors have professional web pages that describe their research interests and recent publications. Authors often wish to make electronic copies of these publications available for direct download. Lingnan University offers the integrated Research Information Management System (RIMS) - Lingnan Scholars to all academic staff. Click HERE to learn more about the service.
• Institutional Repository
  At Lingnan, it refers to Lingnan Scholars, the scholarly portal to capture all research-related information including research outputs, grants, projects, awards, and the impact of these scholarly activities produced by our renowned scholars. Click HERE to learn more about our service.

Publisher Copyright and Self-Archiving policy

The following table illustrated main publishers' self-archiving policy on journal content in institutional repository:

Individual journal under listed publishers may have separate policies. You are advised to refer to the official journal website for most accurate and updated details. To know more about Self-Archiving Policy of other publishers / specific journals, perform a Search in SHERPA RoMEO, a database of publisher policies on open access and copyright issues

SHERPA/RoMEO

To know more about Self-Archiving Policy of other publishers / specific journals, perform a Search in SHERPA RoMEO, a database of publisher policies on open access and copyright issues:

SHERPA/RoMEO uses Color Classification to help authors determine permissions.

Authors who wish to publish a copy of their articles will want to look for journals classified as green or blue, then check on any additional restrictions.