To provide faculty and staff at Darden with a set of guidelines on posting papers that have been or will be published in academic journals to personal websites, Social Science Research Network (SSRN), and ResearchGate.
The information in this guide is meant to be a guideline and is not a substitute for checking the copyright transfer agreement that was signed upon submission or acceptance of an article or the statements posted on a publisher's website, which are linked to in the "Link to Policy" column of the tables below. It does not constitute legal advice.
If you have any questions, please email library@darden.virginia.edu.
Under most circumstances, publishing in an academic journal requires an author to transfer copyright for the article to the journal's publisher; however, in most cases, the author does retain some rights over his or her work.
Increasingly, this includes the right to "self-archive" a pre-publication copy of one's article by posting it to:
There are two main types of pre-publication copies: the original manuscript, which is the version of the paper the author submits for review; and the accepted manuscript, which is the version of the paper that includes any revisions made in the review process. More complete definitions of these terms are included in the "Definitions" section of this guide.
A copy of a journal article after it has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication included any revisions made as part of the review process. It is not copy-edited or typeset for publication.
A copy of a paper that is submitted for review for publication in a journal. It is not copy-edited or typeset for publication and does not contain any edits suggested by a journal's editor(s) or reviewer(s).
A non-commercial website maintained primarily by you. Includes faculty profiles on the Darden website.
The copy-edited and typeset version of a published or to-be-published journal article. Includes pre-publication proofs.
An academic social network. You can find out more about ResearchGate on their About Us page or by visiting the Darden Camp Library's Setting Up and Maintaining a ResearchGate Profile guide.
A repository that encourages social science researchers to share their work--especially pre-publication work--with each other. You can learn more about SSRN on their Frequently Asked Questions page or by visiting the Darden Camp Library's Setting Up and Maintaining an Social Science Research Network Account guide.
An unofficial, simplified term referring to copyright transfer agreements, author's rights pages, submission guidelines, and other documents that detail, among other things, where an author may post work that has been submitted by, accepted for publication in, or published in an academic journal.
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