The main concern of researchers about Open Access is whether they are 'allowed' to self-archive their (own) work to increase its visibility and impact. In the majority of cases this concern can quickly be dissipated. Over 60% of journals permit authors to self-archive their articles, some without any embargo period at all, before they can make them Open Access (see charts below).

 

Institutions implementing an Open Access policy should advise authors on where to find out what the permissions conditions of their favourite journals are.

Information on permission by publisher and by journal is collected in databases compiled by the SHERPA project at Nottingham University and by the EPrints service at Southampton University. Authors can refer to these services to find out whether the journal to which they are thinking of submitting an article allows self-archiving and what embargo period it requires. 

 

If a journal has an embargo requirement, the author should still deposit the paper when it has been corrected after peer review. The two main types of repository software, EPrints and DSpace, have a place where authors fill in the length of the embargo and the software automatically opens up the paper at the end of that period. See types of Open Access policy for more details.