Self-archiving, the deposition of the full text by the author into an open repository, is an essential element of the Green Open Access:

An open access model based on making scholarly texts, especially preprints and postprints, available through open repositories. The open access is ensured by the author, who must take care not to infringe the rights of any third parties (usually the publisher). [source tdkiv (Czech Terminology Database of Library and Information Science)]

Nowadays, publishing houses already allow the author to deposit his/her texts in a repository (self-archiving). These are either preprints (a text that has not yet been peer-reviewed) or postprints (a text that has already been peer-reviewed but is not prepared to the journal’s standard in terms of graphics).

Occasionally, a publisher imposes a several-month embargo on self-archiving. In this case, the author can deposit the article in the repository and publish it after the embargo expires.

Policies of selected publishers:

• Elsevier (list of embargo periods)
• Springer (12 months embargo)
• Wiley (12 months embargo)
• Taylor & Francis (list of embargo periods)
• Sage (12 months embargo)
• IEEE (no embargo)
• IOP (12 months embargo)
• AIP (no embargo for postprints, 12 months embargo for final versions)

The best way to find out whether a publisher allows self-archiving is to check the contract between the author and the publisher (CTA – Copyright Transfer Agreement, etc.). The SHERPA/RoMEO database (https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/) is a great tool that contains information on the open access policies of individual publishers or journals.

There are two types of depositories where you can deposit your text:

• subject, field-specific (e.g., arXiv http://arxiv.org/ or RePEc http://repec.org/)
• institutional (e.g. BUT Digital Library https://dspace.vutbr.cz/, others can be found in the repository directory at http://www.opendoar.org/).

Add your article to the BUT Digital Library!

If you are interested in publishing your article in the BUT Digital Library, our librarians will provide you with anything you need; they will also help you find out the rules for self-archiving in specific cases. For more information and contacts, please see https://www.vut.cz/en/uk/digital-library/publishing.