Open access: Parallel publishing

Parallel publishing, or green open access (OA), means that a publication is also made freely available in an open archive/repository. It is particularly important to parallel publish when publishing in a closed publication channel, but also when the primary publication is OA. Parallel publishing is free for researchers and organizations. Generally, it fulfills funders' and the Ministry of Education and Culture's requirements for OA, similar to publishing in an OA journal.

Where can I parallel publish?

• AboCRIS - ÅAU's research information system
  Easily done simultaneously with reporting publications in AboCRIS. Learn more on the intranet on how to report publications.
• Zenodo.org
  A reliable open archive for all research areas. In Zenodo, you can share and archive articles and other texts, research data, presentations, etc.
• In another open archive found in OpenDOAR (Directory of Open Access Repositories)

Do I have the right to parallel publish?

The right to parallel publish depends on the publisher's policy, but most allow that some version of the article is parallel published. Most publishers also offer the opportunity to parallel publish book chapters.

Check the possibilities for parallel publishing either on the Sherpa/Romeo and How can I share it web services or on the publisher's website. This needs to be done already before submitting your manuscript, especially if the funder requires OA. Information on parallel publishing is also included in the publishing agreement. Search for “green open access”, “open access policy”, “self-archiving”, “repository policy”, “institutional repository”, “sharing policy”, “author’s rights”.

Search for research journals' and publishers' guidelines on parallel publishing: which version can be parallel published and where, as well as the length of any embargo periods

Different versions of a publication
 

• Publisher's PDF, final PDF, Version of Record (VoR) = the final published version with the publisher's layout. Some publishers allow this to be parallel published openly after a certain embargo period. If you have published in an OA journal, this version is free to circulate, which is the point of open access!
• Postprint, final draft, Author's Accepted Manuscript (AAM) = the author's accepted manuscript after peer review. Lacks page numbers and does not have the publisher's layout. This is usually the version that can be parallel published when publishing in a closed journal.
• Preprint, submitted manuscript = submitted manuscript that has not yet undergone peer review. Share the preprint version on an established preprint server, learn more here. Parallel publishing of this version in AboCRIS is not recommended, as it does not provide additional funding and the goal is to distribute quality-assessed versions.

Embargo period

An embargo period, for example, of 12 months means that the publisher does not allow open parallel publishing until 12 months after the publication date. In AboCRIS, you can immediately upload your publication even if it is subject to an embargo period. If you enter the end date of the embargo period when uploading the full-text file, the text will be made openly available only after this date (occurs automatically).

Doctoral and master's theses are published in Åbo Akademi University's publication archive Doria. You can also primary-publish individual texts or series that you publish in Doria, instructions in Swedish here.

Republication of articles in an article-based doctoral thesis:

Republishing the articles as part of the doctoral thesis is a way to give your research more visibility and dissemination.

Instructions for doctoral students are available on the intranet.

Using academic social networking services (ASN) is an effective way to network, share publications, stay updated on the latest research, and maintain a publication record.

However, sharing articles on ASN is not considered parallel publishing, partly because these services cannot guarantee long-term availability of publications. Before sharing publications in ASN, also check the publisher's guidelines, for example, with Sherpa/Romeo. Note that these platforms’ terms of use do not always align with publishers' guidelines.