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Open Access Publishing

SHERPA/RoMEO - publisher copyright & self-archiving policies

Sherpa Romeo Logo RoMEO is a searchable database of publisher's policies regarding the self- archiving of journal articles on the web and in Open Access repositories.

What use is RoMEO to me?
If an academic author wants to put their research articles on-line, they are faced with an increasingly complex situation. Evidence shows that citations to articles made openly accessible in this way are taken up and cited more often than research that is simply published in journals. Also some funding agencies require open access archiving for their research, to increase the use of the information generated.

However, some publishers prohibit authors from using their own articles in this way. Others allow it, but only under certain conditions, while others are quite happy for authors to show their work in this way.

Authors can be left confused: RoMEO helps to clarify the situation.

What does RoMEO contain?
RoMEO contains publishers' general policies on self-archiving of journal and conference articles. Each entry provides a summary of the publisher's policy, including what version of an article can be deposited, where it can be deposited, and any conditions that are attached to that deposit.

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

DOAJ landing page outlining the following: DOAJ holds journals from 80 languages, 135  different countries, 13444 journals without APCs, 19975 journals listed and 9399697 article records included

Creative Commons

Creative Commons logo

SPARC resources

SPARC logo of white words of SPARC on a black background

Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) is an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system. Developed by the Association of Research Libraries, SPARC has become a catalyst for change. Its pragmatic focus is to stimulate the emergence of new scholarly communication models that expand the dissemination of scholarly research and reduce financial pressures on libraries.

Plan S

Logo of Plan S - a orange padlock with the words in white Plan S - making full and immediate Open Access a reality on a orange background

From the Plan S website:

Plan S is an initiative for Open Access publishing that was launched in September 2018. The plan is supported by cOAlition S, an international consortium of research funding and performing organisations. Plan S requires that, from 2021, scientific publications that result from research funded by public grants must be published in compliant Open Access journals or platforms.

Part of the Plan S initiative includes the development of a Transformative Journal implementation criteria which enables journals to transition to a Plan S compliant journal.

cOAlition S have also developed a Rights retention strategy to enable researches to retain copyright of their research outputs.

Follow the links below to find out more information on these initiatives.

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Creative Commons Licence
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International License. Content from this Guide should be attributed to James Cook University Library. This does not apply to images, third party material (seek permission from the original owner) or any logos or insignia belonging to JCU or other bodies, which remain All Rights Reserved.

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