QUT ePrints FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

About eprints

• What are eprints?
• What is the difference between a "preprint" and a "postprint"?
• What are the advantages of using QUT ePrints?
• What if my paper is already freely available on a web page?
• Where can I find more information about eprints and the Open Archives Initiative?
• Is self-archiving the same as publishing?
• Will eprint repositories replace journals?
• What about quality control?

About registration, depositing papers and copyright

• How do I register to deposit my papers?
• Who can submit papers?
• What types of papers will be accepted?
• Is anything unsuitable?
• Which document formats are acceptable?
• What if my document includes images?
• What if I don't have an electronic copy of the document?
• What about version control?
• Is self-archiving legal?
• What about copyright?
• If I deposit a preprint will that affect my prospects of getting it published in a journal?
• Do I need to check if the publisher allows self-archiving of the peer-reviewed version?

Searching for eprints

• Can I search across a number of eprint repositories with one search?
• Will my papers be found by Google?

Getting help

• Who can I contact with queries?
• Can someone else do the depositing for me?

---

Questions and Answers

About eprints

Q   What are eprints?

Eprints are electronic copies of academic papers; usually research articles but they can also be conference papers, book chapters or theses. Eprints are made available, free of charge, via online eprint repositories. Some repositories are discipline-based (eg CogPrints contains cognitive science eprints) others are institutional (eg QUT ePrints or ePrints@UQ).

Q   What is the difference between a "preprint" and a "postprint"?

A preprint is the version of an academic paper which is submitted by an author for peer review (to a journal or conference). This version may be revised by the author as a result of comments made by reviewers.

A postprint is the final version of an academic paper, incorporating the revisions made as a result of the peer review process or as accepted for publication if no changes were made.

Q   What are the benefits of depositing my papers in QUT ePrints?

Benefits include:

•  Wider access to your papers

When you publish your paper in a journal, it can only be accessed by those who have a personal or institutional subscription to the journal. If, in addition to this, you deposit a copy of your paper in QUT ePrints, not only have you provided an additional access point but, you have provided a copy that can be accessed free of charge by everyone on the internet.

•  Enhanced research impact

Wider access often leads to an increase in citations.

•  Safe long-term storage

Depositing copies of your papers in QUT ePrints means peace of mind when your hard drive crashes.

•  Facilitation of research sharing

If you receive requests for copies of your papers, you can direct the requester to QUT ePrints. This saves time and money.

•  Showcase for QUT research output

Presently, QUT research articles are disseminated across thousands of different journals. Once QUT researchers and scholars begin to deposit eprint copies of their papers, it will create a valuable showcase for our work.

Q   What if my paper is already freely available on a web page?

Your paper may be available today but, unless you control the website, can you guarantee that it will be available in the future. Conference websites often disappear after a time. Web pages can be moved to different servers and, if a journal ceases to be published, its website may disappear. There is no need to remove your paper from a current website. By depositing a copy of your paper in QUT ePrints, you will be creating an additional access point. When depositing a copy of your paper in QUT ePrints, you can also insert a link to the current web site in the eprint record (in the "alternative locations" field).

Q   Where can I find more information about the eprints and the Open Archives Initiative?

The following papers provide a good overview of this topic:

Harnad, S. (2001) The self-archiving initiative: Freeing the refereed research literature online, Nature 410: 1024 http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Tp/naturenew.htm

Harnad, S. (2003) Eprints: Electronic Preprints and Postprints. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science Marcel Dekker. http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/eprints.htm

Houghton, J., Steele, C. & Henty, M. (2003) Changing Research Practices in the Digital Information and Communication Environment. DEST. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/41581

Lawrence, S. (2001) Online or invisible. (Edited version of this paper appears in Nature, Volume 411, Number 6837, p521) http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/online-nature01/

Lynch, C. (2003) Institutional repositories: Essential infrastructure for scholarship in the digital age. ARL Bimonthly Report 226. http://www.arl.org/newsltr/226/ir.html

Steele, C. (2002) Eprints: the future of scholarly communication. InCite October 2002. http://alia.org.au/publishing/incite/2002/10/eprints.html

Relevant Websites:

The Open Archives Initiative (OAI): http://www.openarchives.org/

Q   Is self-archiving the same as publishing?

Yes and no.

For scholarly and scientific purposes, publication requires meeting the quality standards of peer review and acceptance for publication by a peer-reviewed journal. Therefore, self-archiving is the same as publishing in the academic sense. It is a complementary process to peer review and journal publication rather than a replacement as most of the material that is self-archived to an eprint repository has already been peer reviewed and published in a journal or conference proceedings.

However, for purposes of establishing priority and asserting copyright, anything that is communicated to others in material form, even on a single piece of paper, meets the legal definition of "publication". Therefore, if you wish to share your work with others before it has been formally published, self-archiving the preprint would protect your intellectual property while you wait to see if the article will be accepted for publication.

Some journals place a pre-publication embargo on documents that are being considered for publication. A journal could choose to interpret self-archiving of the preprint (pre-refereed version) as non-compliance. Note that this is a journal policy rather than a legal matter and the number of journals taking a hard line on this is very small. For example, see the following excerpt from Nature's embargo policy:

Nature does not wish to hinder communication between scientists. For that reason, different embargo guidelines apply to work that has been discussed at a conference or displayed on a preprint server and picked up by the media as a result. (Neither conferences nor preprint servers constitute prior publication.) http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn0503-433

Q   Will eprint repositories replace journals?

Eprint repositories are complementary to, rather than a replacement for scholarly journals. The peer review process provided by journals is of critical importance to scholarship. However, the proliferation of institutional and discipline-based eprint repositories could accelerate changes that are currently taking place in the scholarly communication process. As the number of papers made freely available via eprint repositories increases, the number of journals moving from toll access (reader pays/ subscription-based model) to open access (author-pays/ free access model) will also increase.

Q   What about quality control?

Most of the papers in QUT ePrints will be copies of peer reviewed academic papers. However, some papers will not have been through a peer review process (preprints and articles published in journals which do not have a formal peer-review process).

Only documents which are at the stage where they are deemed (by the author) to be ready for publication or dissemination should be self-archived. It is highly unlikely that any academic will want to disseminate papers of poor quality with his/her name on it.

Un-refereed papers are labeled as such during the deposit process. When searching for eprints, it is possible to limit the search to retrieve only peer-reviewed documents if the prospect of retrieving non-peer-reviewed papers is a concern.

Registration, Depositing Papers and Copyright

Q   How do I register to deposit my papers?

See the step by step Deposit Guide

Q   Who can submit papers?

Only registered users can deposit papers in QUT ePrints. Registration is restricted to QUT staff and QUT postgraduate students.

Only papers authored by current QUT staff or QUT postgraduate students can be deposited in QUT ePrints.

Papers can be deposited by a person other than the author of the document providing the following conditions are met:

• the depositing is done with the author's permission.
• the depositing is done by a registered user.
• the author(s) is involved in the selection of appropriate keywords and ASRC subject headings for the paper
• the author(s) confirms that they have retained the right to self-archive the work or they have obtained the necessary permissions from the copyright owner and that the document does not contain material (images etc) for which any necessary copyright clearance has not been obtained.

Q   What types of papers will be accepted?

Journal articles, conference papers, conference proceedings, conference posters, books, book chapters, theses, working papers, departmental technical reports, research reports, significant project reports and data sets will all be accepted. If you would like to deposit something that falls outside of this range, please contact the QUT ePrints Administrator to discuss its suitability eprints.qut.edu.au

Q   Are any types of papers unsuitable for QUT ePrints?

Yes. The following materials are unsuitable for QUT ePrints:

Q   Which document formats are acceptable?

The following formats are all acceptable: MS Word, PDF, HTML, ASCII, and Postscript.  Note: MS Word files are converted to PDF by the administrators before they are moved to the public site.

Q   What if my document includes images?

With a few exceptions, such as fine arts and histology, digital graphics are generally good enough. Readers can always choose to access the published version if they need better image quality. In some cases, web illustrations are already actually better than images printed on paper. This is particularly true for illustrations in fields where the data are collected digitally in the first place, such as Astronomy.

Q   What if I don't have an electronic copy of the document?

It may be possible to scan a printed copy. It may be necessary to contact the publisher for permission before this is done. Contact the QUT ePrints coordinator to discuss. eprints@qut.edu.au

Q   What about version control?

It is possible that multiple versions of the same document could be self-archived. For example, an author could choose to self-archive the preprint (pre-refereed version), the postprint (the final, peer-reviewed version), and even an updated, corrected post-postprints, peer comments, author replies and revised second editions. This is not a problem because the software will tag each version with a unique identifier. All versions will be linked. Users can compare versions or select the most recent, official or definitive draft.

Q   Is self-archiving legal?

When any new work is created, the author or creator holds the copyright and is free to give away or sell copies, on-paper or on-line (e.g., by self-archiving). This means that the author can legally self-archive a paper they are about to submit to a journal for peer review and possible publication. This version is known as a preprint.

When authors submit the paper to a journal, they are often asked to assign copyright to the publisher. This contract refers to the final, peer-reviewed version (the postprint). If all rights are assigned to the publisher, this version of the paper cannot be legally self-archived without publisher permission.

However, it is not always necessary to assign all rights to the publisher. See Copyright Matters for more information and tips on how to retain the right to self-archive your work.

Q   What about copyright?

See the Copyright Matters page

Q   If I deposit a preprint, will that affect my prospects of getting it published?

Some journals place a pre-publication embargo on documents that are being considered for publication. A journal could choose to interpret self-archiving of the preprint (pre-refereed version) as non-compliance. Note that this is a journal policy rather than a legal matter and the number of journals taking a hard line on this is very small. For example, see the following excerpt from Nature's embargo policy:  If in doubt, read the journal's publication agreement or contact the  editor.

Nature does not wish to hinder communication between scientists. For that reason, different embargo guidelines apply to work that has been discussed at a conference or displayed on a preprint server and picked up by the media as a result. (Neither conferences nor preprint servers constitute prior publication.) http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn0503-433

Q   Do I need to check if the journal publisher allows self-archiving of the peer-reviewed version?

While it is a good idea to be aware of the rights you are transferring and the rights you are retaining when you sign a publication agreement, here at QUT is is not a requirement that you know the publisher's policy before self-archiving a journal postprint.  The QUT ePrints administrators always check the policy of the journal publisher and enable a level of access that is consistent.  In some cases, this will mean that access to the postprint will be restricted temporarily (as some publishers require a post-publication embargo of 6-18 months) or even permanently if the publisher is totally opposed to the open access.  However, it is still worth creating an eprint record for the work as it will increase its visibility and the eprint record will include author contact details. See Copyright Matters for more information.

Searching for eprints

Q   Can I search multiple eprint repositories with one search?

Yes. Most eprint repositories have adopted a common set of standards for describing their eprints (the metadata). This means that they can be cross-searched. There are a number of search engine which can cross-search multiple eprint repositories including:

Q   Will my papers be found by Google?

Yes. Eprints in OAI compliant repositories can be found by Google. QUT ePrints is OAI compliant so records should be retrievable via Google.

Getting help

Q   Who can I contact with queries?

Your Liaison Librarian will be able to provide guidance and or assistance should you need it. If it is a hardware or software issue, they may refer you to a more appropriate person. You can always email the QUT ePrints administrator at eprints@qut.edu.au

See the Contacts and Support page for more information.

Q   Can someone else do the depositing for me?

While it is not ideal, papers can be deposited by a person other than the author of the document providing the depositing is done with the permission of the author(s). It is also a good idea for the author(s) to provide some salient keywords and/or ASRC subject headings for the paper. If the document has not been formally published elsewhere, the author(s) must confirm that the work does not contain material (images etc) for which any necessary copyright clearance has not been obtained. For journal articles, the Library will assume that the author(s) has signed the journal's standard publication agreement and will undertake the necessary publisher policy checking.  If the agreement was varied by the author(s), or if copyright was retained, this information should be provided to the depositor so it can be inserted in the "comments field" in the deposit form.

Some of the information on this page has been adapted from the Self-Archiving FAQ for the Budapest Open Access Initiative, which covers all these issues and more in great detail.