Recommendations on secondary publications
The right to self-archive
When publishing your documents, be aware of your right to self-archive them. The willingness of publishers to allow secondary publications varies. A good overview of what publishers permit is provided by the Open Policy Finder database. Please note that the information in the database is not legally binding - your publishing contract or the information provided by the publishers on their own websites is always decisive. Feel free to contact us if you need assistance (publizieren@suub-uni-bremen.de).
Archiving in repositories instead of on institutional or personal websites
Archive your publications in parallel on the media document server as early as possible. Depending on the publisher's contract, this may be immediately possible or after an embargo period. Some publishers allow the publisher's version (or version of record) to be published on the repository. Some only allow the postprint (peer-reviewed manuscript).
As an acadmic based at one of the institutions of higher eduction in Bremen, take advantage of the opportunity to publish your documents on the Media repository. Media ensures permanent availability (via DOIs) of your documents and guarantees that they are visible via interfaces in (scientific) search engines (such as Google Scholar) and, of course, the SuUB library catalogue. Please note that for many other websites this is not a given benfit and your documents could be lost.
Archiving in repositories instead of academic networks
Publishing on academic networks such as ResearchGate and Academia.edu is certainly advisable for networking, but is not considered sufficient from an Open Access perspective. These platforms are commercial enterprises whose development and sustainability are unpredictable. In addition, secondary publications on commercial platforms are often not permitted by publishers.