ORA Key Facts

As an end-user the benefits will be:

• Easy search: across the research of the entire collegiate University
• Easy access to your research for your students
• Contacts: Increased possibility of finding others working in similar or related fields to yourself across the University
• Related items: your research can be linked to items by other authors whose research is included in ORA
• Society: benefits society by making publicly funded and other research accessible

My research is available on my personal/departmental website. Why should I deposit in ORA?

• Preservation: long term preservation for full text (or equivalent) is not usually provided on personal and departmental websites
• Persistent links: the links/URLs both of the items and of your personal or departmental websites are unlikely to be persistent or remain stable in perpetuity.
• Use of ORA persistent links: You can use ORA persistent links/URLs on your personal/departmental webpage to provide access to your research
• High visibility
• Full text: many departmental/personal webpages include only the citation of research. ORA will include full text (or equivalent) wherever possible
• Related items: Using ORA it is possible to link related items; your own, your own complex items comprising multiple files or other researchers’ items

Timeliness of self-archiving

Whilst we are expecting that authors will want to include their complete backlist of publications in ORA, we would also like to encourage authors to adopt the practice of submitting items as soon as they are completed as part of the normal dissemination of their research. This way, authors will immediately reap the benefits of ORA, particularly with regard to visibility. It will also help fulfill the requirements of those research councils who require early deposit. Additionally authors might wish to add a record of forthcoming articles to ORA , thus publicising their research at the earliest opportunity

Do other HE institutions have archives like ORA?

• Most UK HE institutions including the Russell Group have archives like ORA
• The numbers of repositories or archives like ORA across the globe have been increasing dramatically. Universities such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford have archives like ORA
• In 2004 the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee recommended that UK higher education institutions set up repositories and that "the requirement for universities to disseminate their research as widely as possible be written into their charters."
• Online archives like ORA at HE institutions are now commonplace in other countries such as the US, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Japan

What does ORA contain?

ORA is a store for any digital items produced as a result of scholarly research. This includes:

• Journal articles (pre- and post-prints)
• Theses (research degrees)
• Conference items (papers, posters, presentations etc)
• Books and book sections
• Working and discussion papers
• Any other digital items produced as a direct result of research activity such as reports, questionnaires, diagrams, studies

Who can use ORA?

• Only members of Oxford University may deposit in the ORA. Items co-authored by academics at other institutions are permitted, providing at least one author is affiliated to Oxford. Deposit of such items must be by the Oxford author (or their representative). Those eligible to deposit are listed in the ORA Submission Policy
• Other members of the University may deposit on behalf of Oxford researchers (for example a member of administrative staff).
• Anyone with internet access may search ORA
• Most of the items held in ORA are freely available to anyone with internet access

What ORA is not

ORA is an efficient and effective means of storing and disseminating your work

• It does not provide a peer-review service
• We do not seek to dissuade you from publishing in scholarly journals – academic freedom to publish remains the same
• ORA does not contain anything illegally. Only items which comply with rights permissions are included.
• ORA is not just for scientists. It contains many works in the humanities, arts and social sciences

How do I deposit items in ORA?

Deposit is straightforward and quick

1. Check you are permitted to deposit the item (ie copyright and multi-authored works. See below and ORA staff can advise)
2. Go to http://ora.ouls.ox.ac.uk/ and click on "Contribute". You will need your Oxford Single Sign on (WebAuth/Herald/WebLearn) username and password (see https://webauth.ox.ac.uk/). Another member of Oxford University may deposit on your behalf.
3. Complete the details on the deposit form. We need certain details which only authors (or their representatives) can provide. These sections are marked as mandatory. The more details you provide, the quicker your item will appear in ORA
4. Upload the file(s) (like adding an email attachment)

Your deposit will be checked by ORA staff before it is made publicly available or stored in the 'dark archive.'

• We ask that depositors read and agree to our Deposit Agreement. This sets out the responsibilities of the Bodleian Libraries and of the depositor. It will appear when you deposit.
• There is help available at every stage. Full instructions are available on this website

What is open access?

Open access means that digital materials are made freely available to users with no barriers to access such as payment or passwords. It is defined in the Budapest Open Access Initiative (2000) as:

"free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited."

• http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml

There are two aspects to open access in the scholarly community:

1. Open access repositories which either hold items produced by members of the institution or by researchers in a single subject area. ORA is an example of the first type.
2. Open access journals which are peer reviewed as usual (see the Directory of Open Access Journals for examples)

• Open access aids dissemination and can therefore increase visibility and citations
• Funding bodies such as the Wellcome Trust are increasingly encouraging authors to publish in open access publications

Your Concerns

What about copyright?

• ORA only contains items which do not infringe copyright
• Most publishers permit authors to deposit some version of their article in a repository such as ORA.
• You can check publisher permissions for journals at SHERPA/Romeo
• You may like to consider retaining the copyright of your own work or amending the copyright transfer agreement provided by your publisher (see copyright guidance for authors for further details)
• Check any copyright transfer agreement you may have signed
• You should be aware of any material used in your work where copyright is held by a third party (for example images,maps or diagrams). Such items may need separate copyright permission.
• You may need to contact your publisher for permission to include works in ORA
• There is further guidance about copyright available on the Copyright and other legal issues pages
• Please contact ORA staff if you have any further queries

What about plagiarism?

• Open Access does not make plagiarism any more likely than other forms of online publication.
• In fact, Open Access simplifies the comparison of electronic sources, so the detection of plagiarism is easier.

Will my peer-reviewed papers be clearly labelled as such?

• Yes
• You should indicate when depositing an item whether or not is has been peer-reviewed or not

What about prior publication?

Publishers vary in their attitudes towards prior publication. You will need to check the publisher’s terms and conditions to see if they consider deposit and access via ORA to be prior publication

Do I need any technical expertise?

• No
• Deposit is easy and there is help at every stage. You can even email your items to ORA staff
• ORA staff will provide help and guidance if you have any queries

What about other subject repositories?

Sometimes authors wish to deposit their works in subject repositories (such as SSRN, UKPMC, ArXiV). We are investigating methods to share and import data from such repositories to provide extra links and publicity.

What happens if I leave Oxford?

• Any items you have deposited in ORA will remain there
• The persistent links to your items will remain so that you may link to them from any other site

What about my publications produced when I was employed at a different institution?

• Providing there are no rights infringements, you are welcome to deposit items produced as a result of research when you were employed at a different institution

Where can I get more help?

ORA email ORA@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

ORA Helpdesk ext 83809