Information on Copyright and Versions

IMT policy encourages the deposit of IMT research in the Repository; this includes both publication details and full text (or equivalent). However, the Repository must comply with copyright law; in cases where material deposited in the Repository has been accepted or published by a publisher, the relevant copyright permissions will be checked by Library staff before any item is made publicly available.

Over 60% of journal publishers permit authors to post a copy of their paper on an institutional web site1. However, policies vary widely as to which version of the paper may be posted. It is strongly recommended that you retain a copy of each of your publications at three stages of the publication process:

the “Submitted Version” (the author’s version of the paper submitted to the journal, pre-refereeing - often referred to as the pre-print);
your final version of the paper, incorporating any revisions made during the review process (often referred to as the post-print);
Published Version", i.e. the publisher-generated PDF of the article. For helpful tips on managing the various versions of your publications see the VERSIONS Toolkit.

To find publisher policies and for the SHERPA RoMEO site, which lists copyright and self-archiving policies over 600 publishers and provides helpful explanations of the some of the related terminology.

We recommend that resident faculty deposit their final drafts in the Repository as soon as they are accepted for publication. This provides the author with the advantages of early dissemination and increased visibility, and helps to helping to maximize the impact of the research, while ensuring compliance with copyright law. In cases where the use of a publisher-formatted PDF is permitted, the accepted version can be replaced by the published version when it becomes available.

Some journal publishers do not allow authors to post a copy of their article onto a departmental and/or institutional website - to do so would be to breach your copyright agreement; in this case only the publication details will be made available in the Repository. Regardless of whether full text may be posted, where available the Repository contains links to an article's DOI (digital object identifier) and the publication’s official URL on the journal or publisher website, ensuring the published version is clearly identified to users of the repository.

The Repository will comply with any conditions stipulated about making copies of your material openly available through this service. Where the situation is unclear, we will liaise with the publisher on your behalf to seek permission to make a copy of your publication available through the Repository.

[1] Morris, S. (2009) Journal author' rights: perception and reality, PRC Summary Paper 5, http://www.publishingresearch.net/author_rights.htm