SUBMISSION POLICIES AND GUIDELINES

What are eprints?

EPrints are electronic versions of academic papers. For the Repository@USM you may submit:
  • An article from a journal, magazine or newspaper
  • A chapter or section from a book
  • A book or conference volume
  • A paper, poster, speech, lecture or presentation given at a conference, workshop or other event
  • A monogragh- this includes working papers, discussion papers, project or technical reports, manuals or other documentation.
  • A thesis or dissertation
 You may submit
  • Preprints : a pre-refereed, unpublished paper which may be submitted for publication
  • Postprints : the final peer-reviewed published version of a paper
Who can add EPrints to the Repository@USM?

Schools, academic staff, students or project staff of the Universiti Sains Malaysia.

GUIDELINES FOR DEPOSITING PUBLICATIONS TO REPOSITORY@USM

We provide here step-by-step instructions to deposit your publications to the Repository@USM.
You can deposit your publication by one of two methods:
  • By Email or,
  • By using the Repository@USM online submission system

A. Deposit by Email

You need to send the electronic publication along with minimal bibliographic information to us. We will deposit the publication on your behalf after verifying the eligibility. As a minimum we need the following details:
  • Document Type (Preprint | Conference Paper | Conference Poster | Journal Paper | Technical Report | Book Chapter)
  • Author(s)
  • Department Affiliation of USM Author(s):
  • Title of the Publication
  • Citation (Journal/ Conference/ Book title and other details)
  • Journal Publisher (if you know)
  • Date of Issue/ publication
  • Technical Report Number (if any)
  • Keywords
Use text format file (notepad - *.txt) to enter the information and send it by e-mail to Alamat emel ini dilindungi dari Spambot. Anda perlu hidupkan JavaScript untuk melihatnya.. If you are able to supply electronic copies of your publications in PDF or Word format please send these as attachments. Please note that we can only use the publisher PDF version if this is permitted by the publisher. If you do not have an electronic copy of the full text it may be possible for us to download it via our subscription to the journal (again depending on whether the publisher permits this). If you have only sent bibliographic details and we cannot source a copy of the electronic version we will contact you to ask if you are able to supply this.

If you already make these details available on a personal web site you may send details of the URL rather than including them in a e-mail.
Repository staff will then establish whether the copyright agreement applicable to each of your publications permits us to include them in the Repository@USM. Material will not be added to the repository until this check has been undertaken.

Personal web site: Some publishers will permit authors to make copies of their publications available on a personal web site, but not in an institutional repository. If this is the case we can link to copies held on your personal web site. The details of your publication will be made publicly available in the same way as if it was held in our repository. Ideally this option should only be used where deposit in a repository is not permitted.

Bibliographic details only: Where it is not possible for the full text to be made available in the repository or on a personal web site we will only make the bibliographic details available. If possible we will provide a link to an alternative location, e.g. on a publisher's site. In this case only subscribers to the journal in question will be able to follow the link and access the full text. This means that people searching the repository will be able to find out about your publication, although they will not all be able to access it.

B. Deposit yourself (self-archiving) using the Repository@USM online submission system
Follow the three steps explained below for online submission.


Step 1 :Determine if the publication is eligible for deposit

At least one author must be from USM

We cannot accept submissions from other institutions or bodies unless they have been co-authored by a member of the USM. In other words, at least one author must be affiliated to USM.

Acceptable document types include:
  1. Journal articles
    • postprints (the final draft, as accepted for publication following peer review) or
    • preprints (the draft submitted for peer review)
  2. Conference papers
  3. Conference posters
  4. Conference proceedings
  5. Newspaper/ magazine articles
  6. Books
  7. Book chapters
  8. Departmental technical reports/ working papers
Conformance to Publisher's Copyright Policy:

The Repository@USM has been developed to house the research publications of USM researchers. The aim of such eprints repositories is to make research freely available. One of the major concerns associated with making material available in such repositories is publisher's copyright.
Major copyright concern is with journal articles. Journal publishers generally require authors to sign some sort of copyright transfer agreement or license to publish agreement prior to the publication of articles. Each publisher has their own agreement, and so the rights that you retain (for example the right to self archive/deposit an article in an online repository like Repository@USM) will vary. You need to find out if the publisher permits such depositing. We provide the following guidelines to help you with this.
  1. Check if you have a copy of the agreement you signed. This may indicate whether or not you are permitted to make your publication available in a repository. However, some agreements do not explicitly cover this issue. Also, if the agreement appears to forbid deposit in a repository bear in mind that some publishers do change their agreement and apply this retrospectively.
  2. Contact the publisher directly and ask them
  3. Some publishers do not require authors to sign a copyright assignment form. Instead they ask authors to sign a non-exclusive license to publish and allow authors to retain copyright, including self-archiving.
Interpreting copyright agreements

It may not be immediately obvious from a copyright agreement or from information on a publisher's web site whether authors are permitted to deposit their article in repositories or not. These are some points to look out for.
  • Pre-prints: Many publishers do permit authors to make the pre-prints version of the article available in repositories. By this they are referring to the pre-refereed version.
  • Post-refereed version (Post-prints): Some publishers will allow the post-refereed, final author version, to be included in institutional repositories, but not in the form of the formatted PDF file that appears in the journal.
  • Publisher PDFs: Some publishers prefer the final PDF version to be used, as this is a clear indication that an article in a repository is the bona fide version.
  • Personal or departmental web sites: Some publishers will permit authors to make copies of their publications available on a personal web site, but not in an institutional repository. If this is the case we can link to copies held on your personal web site. The details of your publication will be made publicly available in the same way as if it was held in our repository. Ideally this option should only be used where deposit in a repository is not permitted.
Please note: this document can only provide guidelines and should not be relied on for legal advice.
For further information, please contact administrator, Repository@USM, ext 3982 (Suhana Ishak), 5482 (Husriati Husin) or e-mail Alamat emel ini dilindungi dari Spambot. Anda perlu hidupkan JavaScript untuk melihatnya..


Step 2 :
Convert publication to acceptable electronic format
Preferred format is Adobe PDF format. It is not usually acceptable to deposit the publisher-produced PDF, unless the publisher gives permission to do so. Therefore, you may need to convert a copy of your document to PDF

Converting from MS Word to PDF:
If you have access to the full Acrobat product (not just Acrobat Reader) then use Distiller or PDFMaker to "print" from your Word document (or any other application) and produce a PDF file. If your PC does not have Adobe Distiller or PDFMaker, it may be available on some of your department machines.
It is possible to download free PDF conversion software. Once installed on your PC, this software will convert any file (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, email, HTML web page) to a PDF file. Try this website :
If you need further help send mail to Alamat emel ini dilindungi dari Spambot. Anda perlu hidupkan JavaScript untuk melihatnya..


Step 3 :
Deposit the publication
Checking if the publication is already available in Repository@USM

Before proceeding to deposit your publication to Repository@USM, first check if it already exists. This can be easily done using the search and browse features of Repository@USM. If the publication already exists, you should not submit the publication again.


Deposit your publication

From the Repository@USM home page,
click on Online Submission. The Repository@USM will prompt you to deposit page. Choose the categories and fill in the form.


Entering the information on the e-form:
  • For some fields, you can select the appropriate option from a pick-box.
  • For others, you will need to type in or cut and paste the text into the box provided.
  • Some fields may not be relevant, in which case you should leave them blank.
  • Some fields are mandatory and these are marked with a red asterisk.
  • The web form is spread across a number of pages. Click on the Next button to navigate to the next page.
The information requested includes:

Deposit type (mandatory)

Select the most appropriate type for your deposit. (e.g. preprint, journal article, conference paper, etc.)

Succession/Commentary (optional)

If the publication you are depositing should be linked to any eprints that have already been deposited in Repository@USM, provide the ID number. This could be where you are depositing a postprint version and you would like it to be linked to the preprint version that is already in the repository. It could also be where the eprint being deposited is a commentary on, or critique of, another publication that has also been deposited in Repository@USM. The ID number is displayed in the brief record of each eprint. Search by author or keyword to find the record. If the publication is not linked to any other eprint, leave these fields blank.


Bibliographic details

Status
Indicate the status of the document (published, in press etc)
Refereed
Indicate whether or not the document (this particular version of it) has been through a formal peer review process.
Authors(s)
(mandatory)
Fill in the full names of all the authors. Follow carefully the instructions given in the submission form while entering author names.
Title
(mandatory)
Insert the full title of the publication.
Subject(s)
(mandatory)
Select your Department to describe your publication. For multiple authors, select all relevant Departments. You may need to hold down the CTL key to select the second and third options.
Year and Month
Enter the publication year (4 digits, mandatory) and Month (optional)
Abstract
(mandatory)
You are required to provide an abstract for each ePrint. You may be able to cut and paste the abstract from your manuscript. If not, create a brief abstract in the box provided.
Commentary on
If your deposit is a commentary on a publication that is not in this repository, please enter the full reference for the item here.
Publication
Enter the full title of the publication (e.g. Journal name). In the following fields, enter the volume, Issue number and page numbers (where applicable).
Editor(s)
Enter the name of the editors(s) if applicable (e.g. edited books and conference proceedings)
Publisher
For books and book chapters, enter the name of the publisher and also place of publication (eg Jacaranda Press, Brisbane).
Alternative location(s)
If your publication can already be accessed via a web page, please provide the full URL (e.g. a conference web page, or personal web page). If the publisher requires that you provide a link to the journal's web page from the Repository@USM record as a condition of self-archiving the post-print version, you can use this area to insert the URL for the publisher's web page.
Keywords
Enter here any keywords that are likely to be used by searchers looking for publications on this topic. Separate keywords or phrases with a semi colon.
Additional Information
You can use this field for any other additional information that you think is relevant or may be useful. For example, if you are depositing a preprint (pre-refereed) version of a publication that has been published (because the publisher will not agree to your self-archiving of the postprint version), you can use this field to provide publication details (journal name, volume, issue, pages etc).
References
You may cut and paste the references from your publication here but this is optional.
Comments and Suggestions
Any comments to the administrator (this information will not be displayed to the public). Suggestions (with justification) for additional subject fields.

After entering all the required information, press the
Submit  button.
  • If any mandatory information is missing, you will be asked to provide this information.
Your submission will be checked by the Repository@USM administrator and, after a few days, it will appear in the public repository.

About Repository@USM features are available via the "Help" page.

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