Self-Archiving, Institutional Repositories, and Disciplinary Archives

Self-archiving refers to scholars including making digital preprints or postprints available on the Internet through disciplinary archives, institutional e-print archives, institutional repositories, and personal Websites. When an author uploads a digital preprint/postprint into a disciplinary archive, institutional e-print archive, or institutional repository and fills out a Web form describing the document, he or she is said to be "depositing" it in that system.

A preprint is a draft version of an article. A postprint is a published version of an article. Digital preprints and postprints are collectively called e-prints.

A disciplinary archive includes e-prints (or e-prints plus other types of digital works) by authors from around the world that deal with one or more subjects. Examples of disciplinary archives are the arXiv physics (and related disciplines) archive, the Cogprints cognitive psychology (and related disciplines) archive, and the RePEc economics archive.

An institutional e-print archive includes e-prints by authors in a single academic unit, such as a department, or the entire institution.

An institutional repository (IR) includes diverse kinds of digital works (e.g., electronic theses and dissertations, e-prints, presentations, and technical reports) by authors at one or more institutions. Examples of institutional repositories are the Cornell University Open Access Repository, DSpace at MIT and the eScholarship at the University of California System.

Neither disciplinary archives or IRs peer-review articles, but they typically contain postprints that have been peer reviewed by scholarly journals.

The E-Print Network, The Directory of Open Access Repositories, and the Registry of Open Access Repositories list hundreds of disciplinary archives, institutional e-print archives, and institutional repositories.