Responsible sharing

Share your publications responsibly

If you are doing research, no doubt you also want to share the research results you get with a wider audience. By sharing, you increase your visibility in your field, which can potentially help your research get more cited, strengthen your reputation, and advance your research and you in your career. On the other hand, by sharing your results, you also make your own research output available to other researchers in the field. Sharing is, thus, an important part of carrying out research and it is worthwhile doing it responsibly. An essential part of responsible sharing is knowing what, where, and how you can share your results – there are differences between publications.

Before you post your article anywhere, you should look for a few things:

  • Does the publication agreement state that scholarly sharing is allowed, also in social media?
  • Which version of the paper does it allow?
    • Pre-print (before peer review)
    • Final draft (i.e., post-print, author’s final manuscript after peer review but before publisher copyediting)
    • Publisher’s final version (the file you see on the publisher platform)
  • Where can the file be shared—author’s personal website, departmental website, or institutional repository? Non-commercial site only?
  • Is there a waiting period (embargo) before the file can be shared?

Sherpa Romeo

Sherpa Romeo is an online resource that aggregates and presents academic publishers’ and journals’ open access policies from around the world. All registered publishers or journals held in Romeo are reviewed and analysed resulting in summaries of self-archiving permissions and conditions of rights given to authors on a journal-by-journal basis where possible.

The policy information provided through the Sherpa Romeo service primarily aims to serve the academic research community. Since the service launched over 15 years ago, publisher policies and the open access sector have changed a great deal. Open access policies can be complex and vary according to geographical location, the institution, and the various routes to open access — all of which affect how and where you can publish your research. To secure responsible sharing, as an author you must always check the policies of the publisher.

In addition to Sherpa Romeo, How Can I Share it service helps you get the most out of scholarly sharing. Find relevant information and practical tools to ensure your articles can be shared with your colleagues quickly and easily.

How to share?

You can use DOI (Digital Object Identifier) links as an easy and the most responsible way to share. A DOI link is subject to share with anyone, on any platform and via any communication channel.

  • Copy the DOI of the document you want to share. For example, doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2011.03.031. -> The correct format for citing or creating a link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2011.03.031

If a publication displays an Open Access label, you can share according to the end user license:

  • CC-BY licensed articles may be shared with anyone, on any platform and via any communication channel. You must give appropriate credit to the authors.
  • CC-BY-NC-ND licensed articles may be shared on non-commercial platforms in unadapted form only. Again, acknowledge the authors.
  • More information about CC licenses.

You may want to share your article in one form or another on scholarly collaboration networks (e.g., ResearchGate or Academia.edu). Before doing that, you need to check your publication agreement and other publication policies either on a publisher’s website or on Sherpa Romeo.

You may usually share your own publications privately, such as with individual colleagues via email for their scholarly or research use. You may also use your publications for classroom teaching and internal trainings at your organisation and include your publications for grant funding or patent application purposes.

Remember:

  • Sharing your research outputs is an important part of doing research and it is worth doing responsibly.
  • Always check what you can share and where.

(8/2024 KH)

Move to the next page “Open peer review“