Regarding the question of whether publishers allow self-archiving, the results show that the majority of scientific journals permit authors to deposit the final version of their article (postprint) in institutional repositories. Moreover, publishing houses such as Emerald allow self-archiving without embargo periods, while others, such as Springer and Elsevier, impose embargoes ranging from 6 to 32 months after official publication. Current open access policies of publishers and funders are recorded in the Jisc Open Policy Finder platform (formerly Sherpa services).
Source: Based on: Shafee, Thomas (2020). Typical publishing workflow for an academic journal article (preprint, postprint, and published) with open access sharing rights per SHERPA/RoMEO. Own work; adapted from diagram by Ginny Barbour Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0 International).
The primary goal of publishing in open access journals (gold and diamond routes) or through self-archiving (green route) is to make the research work of academics and researchers, as well as their institutions, visible and accessible to anyone with internet access. This ensures that works that have undergone peer review are searchable, retrievable, and ultimately useful to any potential reader. Maximizing public online access to research outputs enhances the visibility, usage, and impact of these works.
This increase in visibility and usage of research results brings significant benefits to researchers and their institutions, strengthening reputation, credibility, and resource allocation. Moreover, it reinforces research itself through the dissemination of findings, applications, and overall growth in research productivity and progress. When research works are made available through Open Access, the research cycle is accelerated, as results are read, cited, and serve as a foundation for new studies.
Bibliometric studies show that articles made open access through self-archiving receive between 50% and 370% more citations (depending on the discipline) compared to articles that are not self-archived but are published in the same journal. This increase in impact benefits not only the authors and their institutions but also the journals and publishers, as it contributes to raising the journal’s impact factor.