Answered By: Thun Wendy
Last Updated: Feb 08, 2023     Views: 5857

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Archiving your research article can make your work freely accessible, stops your research from being taken down, and gets you a wider audience to increase your research impact. But, it can be a bit tricky to know your rights and choose the right version of your work to share. We outline the various versions of your article, how to find them, and when you can share them.

Pre-print or submitted version

Also known as: Preprint, Author's manuscript, original manuscript, first draft. Example.

preprint.png

Definition: Draft of the manuscript before formal peer-review, or the first version sent to the journal for consideration.

 

Looks like: An essay with no journal branding, it is commonly a .DOCX or other text format

 

How to find it:  

  • Search your email, computer hard drive and cloud storage
  • Contact your co-authors
  • Log into the journal's submission page and retrieve a copy of the submitted version
  • Contact the journal by email and ask for a copy of  the submitted version of your article

 

Can you share it? You can check for your journal's self-archiving policy at https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/

Post-print or accepted version

Also known as: Postprint, AAM, accepted manuscript, author accepted manuscript, accepted author manuscript. Example.

Definition: Final version of the manuscript after formal peer-review but before being type-set by the publisher. It contains all revisions made during the peer-review process.

 

Looks like: An essay with no journal branding, usually double-spaced, might have corrections on the sides. it is commonly a .DOCX or other text format

 

How to find it: 

  • Search your email, computer hard drive, and cloud storage
  • Contact your co-authors
  • Log into the journal's submission page and retrieve a copy of the accepted version or AAM
  • Contact the journal by email and ask for a copy of the accepted version of your article

 

Can you share it? You can check for your journal's self-archiving policy at https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/

 postprint.png

Publisher's PDF

Also known as: Published version, version of record. Example.

published.png

Definition: Version of the manuscript published in a journal with the journal's type-set and branding

 

Looks like: Has the journal branding and logo, it is commonly a PDF downloaded from the journal's website

 

How to find it: 

  • Log into the journal's submission page and retrieve a copy of the published version of your article

 

 

 

Can you share it? Subscription journals typically don't allow authors to legally share the published version of their article online. You can easily find information on your journal's self-archiving policy at https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/

References & thanks

Special thanks to Ross Mounce for sharing his article:

Mounce, R., Rivers, M., Sharrock, S. et al. Biodivers Conserv (2018) 27: 907. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-017-1472-z

Elizabeth Gadd, Charles Oppenheim, Steve Probets, (2003) "RoMEO studies 1: the impact of copyright ownership on academic author self-archiving", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 59 Issue: 3, pp.243277, https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410310698239

Definitions taken from Inefuku, H. (2013) Pre-Print, Post-Print or Offprint? A guide to publication versions, permissions and the digital repository, Cal State LA Faculty Publications: Pre-Print, Post-Print or Publishers' Version?, Pre-Prints, Post-Prints And Final Articles: What's The Difference.

Reviewed by:

  • Chealsye Bowley
  • Ross Mounce
  • Maria Aghazarian
  • Sarah Melton

Licensed CC-0. Share or Contribute with: openaccessbutton.org/direct2aam.

 

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