Often, yes. In many cases, there is a way to share your research online, but what you can share depends on your publication agreement, publisher policy, the version of the work, and where you want to share it.

What affects whether I can share it?

Whether you can share your research online depends on:

• the terms of your publication agreement
• the rights you retained as an author
• the version of the work you want to share
• where you want to share it, such as a personal website, subject repository, or institutional repository
• whether an embargo or licence requirement applies

Know which version you have

Some publisher agreements allow authors to share a preprint (the version before peer review), an accepted manuscript (the version after peer review and acceptance, but before publisher formatting), or in some cases the published version. Publishers may also set conditions about where the work can be shared, when it can be made available, what licence must be used, and how the published version should be cited.

Tip: Save your accepted manuscript.
The accepted manuscript is often the version publishers allow authors to share in a repository. Save a copy when your article is accepted, before publisher formatting is applied.

Tip: The publisher PDF is not always the version you can share.
Many publishers allow sharing of a preprint or accepted manuscript, but restrict sharing of the final formatted PDF. If your article was published open access under a Creative Commons licence, the published version may be shareable. If not, check the policy or ask the Library before posting the publisher PDF.

Check the policy

The best place to start is your publication agreement.
You can also check Open Policy Finder, which summarizes publisher policies on copyright and self-archiving. These tools are helpful starting points, but the publication agreement and publisher policy remain important.

For journal articles with a DOI:
You can use MRU’s DOI-based article sharing tool to check publisher sharing permissions and help identify a version that may be suitable for repository deposit.

Check article sharing permissions

Tip: If you are searching a publisher website directly, try searching for terms such as self-archiving, author accepted manuscript, accepted manuscript, repository, or open access policy.

Use a repository

One common way to share research online is through a repository. If you are considering MRU’s institutional repository, see What is MROAR and what can be deposited?. You can also visit the MROAR submissions page.

Tip: Add open versions to your ORCID record.
Repository records and article DOIs can help keep your ORCID profile current. ORCID allows works to be added by DOI, imported from services such as Crossref, or added manually. Find out more about ORCID.

Consider open access publishing

Another option is to publish in an open access journal. Open access journals make the published article openly available, but author rights, reuse permissions, and publication fees vary by journal and licence. To learn more, visit the Open Publishing webpage.

Tip: Open access does not always mean the same reuse rights.
Open access articles may use different licences. For example, some licences allow adaptation and commercial reuse, while others limit reuse to non-commercial purposes or prohibit adaptations. Check the licence on the article page.

Need help?

The Library can help review your publication agreement, identify what version you may be able to share, and talk through repository or other sharing options. Contact the repository team at repository@mtroyal.ca or reach out to your subject librarian.