Institutional Research Repository

If your item was previously published, e.g. a journal article, you may have signed over copyright to your publisher. Prior to depositing a copy to IRR, you need to determine whether your publisher permits self-archiving and which version of the paper you can deposit. You can use Sherpa Romeo to check this.

Sherpa Romeo is an online resource that aggregates and analyses publisher open access policies from around the world and provides summaries of publisher copyright and open access archiving policies on a journal-by-journal basis. You can access this tool through IRR.

Using Sherpa Romeo in 6 Steps

1. Click on the red Check publisher Open Access Policy link on the right side of the metadata form, and enter the journal title in the search box.


2. Read the Journal information section; make sure you are consulting the correct journal.


3. Check the Open Access pathways section to see the Open Access policies for the Publisher Version, Accepted Version and Submitted Version of your article. Click on the dropdowns to expand the sections.


4. Pay attention to the following sections: OA Fee, Embargo and Location. These sections tell you if you need to pay to make your work Open Access (OA Fee), if you have to wait a certain amount of time before you can make that version Open Access (Embargo) and where you can put that version once it is Open Access (Location).


5. Click the link under Open Access Pathways to view the full policy information on the Sherpa Romeo website.


6. You can save the policy information for the journal by clicking on the Apply Changes button. This will allow you to go back and view it at a later date.

If you can't find information on your journal in Sherpa Romeo, you can check the publisher's website. There may be information on copyright and archiving policies in sections such as About this Journal, Copyright Policies or Author Guidelines. You can also contact the Library.