There are two main ways you can make your work openly available:
The resources below will help you find open access journals in your field. You can also talk to mentors or colleagues, or contact your librarians.
How you can share your work will depend on a number of factors. The diagram and outline below walk you through the process. The Gordon Library is also available to help you determine how you can easily and effectively share your work openly. Contact us at library@wpi.edu.
Besides publishing in open access journals, you can look for other venues where you can share your work openly, such as open access repositories.
A repository is a digital collection of online works, often institution- or subject-based. Repositories offer a number of benefits to authors, including:
Digital WPI
Digital WPI is WPI's digital repository, which provides global digital access to knowledge and scholarship created by the WPI community. To submit your work to Digital WPI, email digitalwpi@wpi.edu.
Subject Repositories
Subject repositories collect works from specific disciplines. You can find lists of OA subject repositories below, searchable by subject area, content type, or repository type.
General Repositories
As long as you have not signed your copyright away–such as in a publishing agreement–you can make your work available in any venue you would like. Note that if your work contains any third-party material, you’ll need to make sure you have the appropriate license or permission to make that work available.
When you make your work available, you should attach a license to it, such as a Creative Commons license; this license tells others how they can reuse your work.
Journals/publishers often post their sharing policies on their websites. You can also check the SHERPA RoMEO database of publisher policies. When you're looking at policies, look for the following conditions:
If you would like assistance finding journal/publisher policies, contact the Gordon Library.