Repository and Self-Archiving Policy

This policy supports author self-archiving and repository deposit. It is designed to be compatible with transparent open-access practice and should be read together with the journal’s Copyright, Licensing, and Open Access policies. It uses the article-version terminology of the NISO Journal Article Versions (JAV) recommended practice and is registered with Sherpa Romeo (Open Policy Finder).

Policy Statement

Authors are permitted to deposit versions of their open-access scholarly work in institutional, subject, funder, or general-purpose repositories, subject to accurate version identification and respect for third-party rights. No permission from, or fee to, the publisher is required. Deposit may be made by the author, by the author’s institution or funder on the author’s behalf, or by the publisher.

Article Versions

For the purposes of this Policy the following versions are recognised:

• Submitted Manuscript (preprint): the version submitted to the journal before peer review, including any version posted to a preprint server.

• Accepted Manuscript (AM, post-print): the author’s final peer-reviewed version accepted for publication, before copy-editing, typesetting and publisher formatting.

• Version of Record (VoR): the final published article, as typeset and released by the publisher, including any subsequent Corrected or Enhanced Version of Record.

Permitted Deposit by Version

• Submitted Manuscript: may be posted at any time, before, during or after peer review, to preprint servers, institutional or subject repositories and personal or institutional websites. Authors must disclose any preprint at submission and cite it in the manuscript.

• Accepted Manuscript: may be deposited immediately upon acceptance, without embargo, in any repository or on any website. The AM should be labelled as such and, once the VoR is published, updated with the full citation and a link to the VoR through its DOI.

• Version of Record: may be deposited and shared immediately upon publication, without embargo, in any repository or on any website, under the Creative Commons licence applied to the article. Authors are encouraged to deposit the VoR in preference to earlier versions so that a single authoritative version circulates.

• Supplementary material, data and code: may be deposited under the licence applied to them, as described in the Licensing Policy and the Research Data and Code Policy.

Embargo

No embargo is required for repository deposit of open-access content. Authors may make permitted versions publicly available immediately, provided the deposited version is clearly identified. This applies to the Submitted Manuscript, the Accepted Manuscript and the Version of Record alike, in all repository types and on all websites.

Deposit Conditions

Every deposited version must:

• be clearly labelled with its version (Submitted Manuscript, Accepted Manuscript or Version of Record) in the file and in the repository record;

• include the full citation of the published article and a persistent link to the Version of Record using the DOI (https://doi.org/[DOI]) as soon as it is available;

• state the Creative Commons licence under which the article is published, using the wording shown on the article;

• for the Accepted Manuscript, carry the statement: “This is the accepted manuscript of an article published in [Journal], [Year], available at https://doi.org/[DOI]. © [Year] The Author(s), licensed under [licence].”;

• exclude or obtain separate permission for any third-party material that is not covered by the article licence;

• not be presented as the Version of Record if it is an earlier version.

Preprints

The journals consider manuscripts that have been posted on recognised, non-commercial or community preprint servers. A preprint is not regarded as prior publication or duplicate submission. Authors must disclose the preprint, including its DOI, at submission; must not update the preprint with the peer-reviewed text before publication of the Version of Record; and are encouraged, upon publication, to update the preprint record to link to the VoR. Preprints are not cited by the journal as peer-reviewed literature. Media coverage of a preprint does not affect consideration of the manuscript.

Publisher Deposit and Metadata

The publisher registers a DOI with Crossref for every article and deposits full article-level metadata, including the licence URL, funder information and reference lists. Metadata is exposed for harvesting through an OAI-PMH endpoint and supplied to DOAJ and other indexing and aggregation services. Where an author’s funder or institution requires deposit of the Version of Record in a designated repository (for example a funder repository or a national open access platform), the publisher will deposit, or assist the author to deposit, the VoR at no charge.

Funder and Institutional Mandates

This Policy is intended to allow authors to comply with funder and institutional open access mandates, including cOAlition S (Plan S), which requires immediate open access to the Version of Record or Accepted Manuscript under a CC BY licence. Authors subject to such mandates may select CC BY 4.0 for their article (see Licensing Policy). The publisher recognises rights-retention statements included by authors in their submitted manuscripts and will not require their removal. Authors remain responsible for confirming that their deposit meets their funder’s requirements.

Personal Websites and Scholarly Networks

Authors may post any version of their article on personal, departmental and institutional websites and in non-commercial repositories. Sharing on commercial scholarly collaboration networks is permitted to the extent allowed by the Creative Commons licence applied to the article; where a NonCommercial licence applies, authors may share the article on such networks in reliance on their own copyright, but third parties may not. The publisher does not issue takedown notices for lawfully shared versions of open-access articles.

Corrections, Retractions and Deposited Versions

If an article is corrected or retracted, the Version of Record in the journal is the authoritative statement of the article’s status. Authors are expected to update repository records to reflect the correction or retraction and to link to the notice; the publisher may notify repositories and preprint servers of the change. Deposited versions are not deleted, but must not be presented as current where the VoR has been retracted.

Long-Term Preservation

Repository deposit complements, and does not replace, the publisher’s long-term preservation of the Version of Record through a recognised digital preservation service as described in the Archiving and Digital Preservation Policy.

Policy Registration and Review

This Policy is published on the journal website, linked from the author guidelines, and registered and kept current in Sherpa Romeo (Open Policy Finder). It is reviewed at least annually and whenever funder, indexing or repository requirements change. The version number and date of last revision are displayed on the journal website.