Faculty, did you know that the vast majority of journals allow authors to make their articles (either the pre-refereed version, the post-refereed version, or the publisher-branded PDF) freely available online? However, the responsibility usually lies with you, the author, to do the online posting, and many journals specify that you can post only in a non-commercial institutional repository (as opposed to sites like Academia.edu).
Happily, the Graduate Center now has an institutional repository, Academic Works, ready to accept, store, and preserve your works — journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, data sets, etc. (Read more about Academic Works.) And the library is hosting a workshop next week to explain why and how to upload your works:
Faculty Workshop: How to Submit to Academic Works
(Open to GC and CUNY doctoral faculty and research assistants)
Tuesday, October 28, 2014, 1-2pm
Graduate Center Library, Room C196.03 (concourse level inside library)
We’ll cover the reasons why to submit in the workshop, but here’s a preview:
- Posting your works online helps you find the widest possible readership. (Most libraries can only afford to subscribe to a fraction of all scholarly journals.)
- Articles that are freely available online are cited more by other articles – it’s called the “open access advantage” (read about it here).
- Posting your works in the institutional repository makes them more findable by Google and Google Scholar.
- Academic Works will send you monthly download statistics so you can see how often your works are being accessed and what searches led people to your works.
- Unlike many disciplinary repositories, Academic Works accepts any kind of scholarly work – not just articles.
- If your publisher requires an embargo period before your work can be made open access, Academic Works can count down the embargo for you and automatically open the work up when the embargo expires.
- Institutional repositories last longer than personal websites (which are generally tied to your employment at CUNY or domain name registration payments)!
The actual act of submitting your work is simple and straightforward, but we’ll cover all the steps in the workshop too.
What about graduate students? We welcome research assistants to attend this workshop with you or on your behalf. However, the repository is not yet ready to accept articles, etc. by graduate students themselves. (We’ll get there soon!)
Can’t make it but want to know more? Contact Jill Cirasella, Associate Librarian for Public Services and Scholarly Communication, jcirasella@gc.cuny.edu.