Place articles preprints or postprints in an open access repository.

Preprint repositories have become very popular in recent years across many disciplines.  Some may be restricted only to preprints while others allow a variety of materials to be deposited.    Most include the option to add a link to the final published version of an article at a later date.  For a brief explanation of preprints, see Preprints: The What, The Why, The How.

So what's the difference between a preprint and a postprint?

Opinions differ but here are the definitions from Sherpa/Romeo:

"This listing characterises pre-prints as being the version of the paper before peer review and post-prints as being the version of the paper after peer-review, with revisions having been made.

This means that in terms of content, post-prints are the article as published. However, in terms of appearance this might not be the same as the published article, as publishers often reserve for themselves their own arrangement of type-setting and formatting. Typically, this means that the author cannot use the publisher-generated .pdf file, but must make their own .pdf version for submission to a repository.

Having said that, some publishers insist that authors use the publisher-generated .pdf - seemingly because the publishers want their material to be seen as a professionally produced .pdf that fits with their own house-style." (Sherpa/Romeo definitions)

Where to deposit?

There are repositories for specific disciplines and some that are multidisciplinary.  Check out the (not comprehensive) list of repositories on the Research Impact guide.  New ones are cropping up all the time.

Publisher policies and copyright

Most publishers allow authors to post a preprint (pre-peer review version) of their articles or post an author’s draft after publication.  The Sherpa/Romeo tool (http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/) provides a quick summary of a publishers policies but it is always a good idea to check the journal’s webpage to be sure.

(Example)

Copyright

Copyright Services can assist with understanding author agreements and retaining your rights as an author.