Use your author’s rights to make articles freely available | Impact of Social Sciences

"Most academic journals allow authors to post their articles online after a while, for instance 12 or 18 months after publications. Very few social scientists do, unfortunately. Making publications available in this way is referred to as ‘green open access’ or ‘self-archiving’. While the debates about open access and the future of academic publishing continue, self-archiving is something most authors could do right away to make their work more widely available. To start self-archiving, you must be aware that an article exists in three important versions: 1) the version that you originally submitted; 2) the version that was eventually accepted for publication, after peer review; and 3) the published version incorporating copy-editing, layout and correction of proofs. It is version 2 that you are usually allowed to post after a certain period of time, never version 3. The difference between your final text (version 2) and the copy-edited published text (version 3) would usually make little difference to the general reader. Part of the argument for open-access publishing is indeed that science should become more widely available to all, not just people with access to university libraries. For academics who might want to cite your paper, the difference could matter. In my view, it would be fine to make a general reference to the article (i.e. to the published version in the journal) after having seen only ‘version 2′ in a repository. Citing specific passages would not be possible, since the page numbers are different and sentences could have been changed in the course of copy-editing. Here is what you need to keep in mind when you publish, in order to have the option of self-archiving ..."