Since 2016 Aarhus University has had an open access policy stating that all AU researchers are expected to make their academic articles available in PURE as far as possible. This is a good idea both for AU and for our researchers, because it helps to draw attention to all the hard work they do.

Unexploited OA potential at AU and Arts

The efforts made in this area by Danish universities are measured each year by a national open access indicator. The latest figures show that only 15% of the articles published by AU in 2016 were published as open access articles. So there’s plenty of room for improvement! Many academic journals permit what’s known as “green open access”, which allows you to publish a postprint without paying an article processing charge. Articles in this category must be published in PURE.

This is what you need to do:

You can publish “green open access” articles by uploading a copy of each article in the form of the approved, accepted manuscript (a postprint) in PURE. Please note that in many cases you are not allowed to upload the final published version.

You are responsible for checking your publishing contract to find out which version you are entitled to upload; and please make sure that you observe any embargo periods that may apply. Your accepted manuscript (a postprint) is the same as the finished article – without your publisher’s layout and logo. Click here for a quick guide.

If you have already received a mail about postprints, all you need to do is reply to this mail attaching a postprint and a completed cover sheet. AU Library will then make sure that your article is uploaded and registered correctly in PURE.

To make sure that citations are correct and that the relevant rights connected with the accessibility of postprint articles are respected, AU Library has drawn up a cover sheet template. We recommend that you use this.

Copyright and co-authors

The mail from AU Library respects your copyright as a researcher based on the SHERPA/RoMEO system, which is an international list of publisher copyright policies for open access articles. 

The SHERPA/RoMEO system defines standard rights for open access articles. Unless you have agreed special terms and conditions with your publisher, these are the rights that apply.

If you have written articles with OA potential in collaboration with one or more co-authors, you must make sure that everyone agrees before you upload a postprint.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the library at openaccess@au.dk. You can also read more on the open access website.