Open access and Leicester Research Archive

Leicester Research Archive is the University’s open access digital repository.

It aims to:

• ensure greater use of your research by providing open access to your full text, wherever permitted by publishers
• raise the visibility of your research by opening up your work to search engines such as Google and Google Scholar
• showcase your research to potential collaborators and prospective students
• ensure the long term preservation of your research outputs for posterity through stable web addresses
• help you to comply with the open access requirements of the University and many research funders 

Academic staff should submit their research outputs to Leicester Research Archive via IRIS.  Research students are required to submit a digital copy of their thesis to the Archive in order to graduate.  This policy applies to all publications by staff from 1 January 2006 onwards, although staff are welcome to submit items published earlier than this.  Staff may also submit items published while they were employed elsewhere.  This is in addition to any specific requirements made by research funders, as a condition of funding.

Which version of my work should I deposit?

The Library will do nearly all the work of archiving your publications. While the version that we can make live varies between publishers, you should normally provide us with your finally submitted version rather than the publisher's PDF. 

The author's final version refers to the peer-reviewed and corrected version of a publication you sent to the publisher. We cannot usually archive a publisher's PDF version, although there are some exceptions.

Archiving published work has copyright implications but the Library will check this. We will only archive items where the rights allow. We will also check the file format, converting it if we feel that will help us preserve the work and make it available.

How can I deposit my work in Leicester Research Archive?

Submissions to the Archive are now done directly viaIRIS:

• Log on to IRIS with your University ID

• In your publications list click on the full text tab for the publication you wish to submit 

• Upload your maunscript and grant the license. This will send the publication to the archive managers. They will check the text and contact you once the item is live.

The Library will do the work of archiving for you.  Library staff will check the format of the file, check copyright issues and make the publication available.  All you need to do is submit your manuscript through IRIS. 

If you encounter any issues, contact the Archive staff at lra@le.ac.uk (extension 2039).