Depositing in BIROn

Who can deposit?

• Any staff or students publishing research at Birkbeck.

How can I deposit my work?

• Register for an account with a valid @bbk.ac.uk email address. BIROn will send you a confirmation email. The full process is covered in the updated Deposit Guide and this video.
• Email publication details and full-text to us. We will check copyright and deposit the metadata (and full-text if permissable.)

What sort of work can I deposit?

• Any research output you have published whilst affiliated with Birkbeck, including journal articles, working/discussion papers, book chapters, conference/workshop items and other forms of research output.

What about work I published before joining Birkbeck?

• You may deposit any work published before you joined Birkbeck.

Do I have to deposit full-text?

• From October 3rd 2011, full-text deposit is mandatory, but access to the full-text is at your discretion.  You can decide to lock the file for a period of time, permanently, or not at all.
• Complete books are not generally allowed; in these instances we either request publisher permission to use a sample chapter, or provide a citation-only record.

Which version of my work can I deposit?

• The mandate specifies the author's last draft before publication.  Most publishers do not allow use of the final, published draft (with typesetting, etc.)  In rare cases, publishers only permit first accepted drafts.  BIROn staff will contact you if this happens.  In these cases, if you feel your first accepted draft is not suitable for dissemination, you can restrict access to it.

What does "Request a Copy" mean?

• This appears only when BIROn holds a locked copy of the full-text, and enables users to request a single copy of the item via a simple web-form.  Provision of such is at your discretion and your contact details are never revealed.  The file is distributed under the terms of fair use and must not be distributed further by the recipient.  If you leave Birkbeck, we can amend your contact email address so you continue to receive requests in this way.

What format should my files be in?

• We prefer PDFs for security and sustainability.  Please see the Deposit Guide for further details.  BIROn can also host multimedia videos, pictures and sounds of performances and presentations.

Can you deposit work for me?

• Yes. Although self-deposit is far more efficient, we understand it is not always possible. You can send details and full-text files to lib-eprints@bbk.ac.uk We check the copyright, and deposit the items if permitted.

Does Open Access enable plagiarism?

• Conversely, Open Access makes the comparison of electronic sources and thus the detection of plagiarism easier, helping to protect intellectual property rights.

What happens if I leave Birkbeck?

• Your work will be maintained on BIROn as a record of the college's research output.

Can I withdraw work from BIROn?

• You can request that full-text be removed or restricted.  Equally, we reserve the right to remove work for any professional, administrative or legal reason. A metadata record indicating that the work was stored in the repository will remain visible.

I signed over my copyright. Can I still deposit?

• It depends on the publisher. Most allow self-archiving, even when the author has reassigned copyright.  You can check journal policies at the SHERPA-ROMEO site.  If in doubt, ask us, and we can contact publishers to clarify copyright conditions.  We double-check the copyright status of any paper you deposit.

What if the publisher refuses to allow self-archiving?

• The publisher's decision is final and subject to the terms of your assignment of copyright to them.  To protect your right to deposit in BIROn (and other online environments) in the future, you may wish to suggest ammendments to those terms.  Sample wording can be found at the Copyright Toolbox web site, but there is no guarantee your suggestions will be agreed to!  Deciding whether to proceed on this basis is a matter for each author.

What is 3rd party copyright?

• Third party copyright refers to portions of a work which belong to neither the author nor the publisher.  These can include text, diagrams, photographs and tables.  If you use such material without permission from its creator you may infringe their copyright.  "Fair use" applies where a  less than substantial portion of the work is used, but as the law does not define “substantial”, this is entirely dependent on the context and on its significance in both your own piece and the original work.  You should not assume that if 3rd party copyright has been cleared for publication in a journal, that they will be cleared for use on BIROn.  If in doubt, please contact us and we will investigate.

Is depositing equivalent to publishing?

• No. Publishing in a journal or book should always be your priority. If you are in doubt about depositing a piece of work upon acceptance by a publisher, check with the publisher first, or ask BIROn staff to check for you.

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