Quick Start Guide for Delegates

Getting started


As a delegate, you receive a notification if the system has found any new items in the past two weeks for the researcher to verify or deposit: 


Log in with your campus credentials at oapolicy.universityofcalifornia.edu 

  • If you affiliated with a UC campus and the Berkeley Lab, first try using your campus account to log in. If that does not work, refresh your browser, then try using your LBL account to log in. 

Select the Impersonate Another User icon in the navigation bar at the top of the page. It is the first in the list of icons. You may also access the impersonate page at oapolicy.universityofcalifornia.edu/impersonate.html


Select the name of the researcher whose publications you would like to manage.


You will be directed to the researcher’s Homepage. The actions available will be displayed at the top in list or carousel format (depending on their preferences): 

Action list of actions

Carousel of actions



Claim publications

Claiming publications is verifying that they have been authored by the researcher you are assisting. If this is your first time assisting the researcher and there are a large number of pending publications, we recommend first claiming or rejecting personal identifiers for the researcher to claim or reject a large number of publications at once. 


  1. To get started, click the Claim publications now button in the My Actions block. If you are not automatically taken to the Pending tab, then click Pending. Quick link: https://oapolicy.universityofcalifornia.edu/listobjects.html?as=3&am=false&cid=1 

  2. Review each publication to determine whether it was authored or co-authored by the researcher.

  3. Claim: If the publication was authored by the researcher, then click the Claim button. In some cases,  you will be taken immediately to the Deposit page -- see below for more details.) 


  4. Reject: If the publication was not authored by the researcher, click the Reject button. 


  5. Bulk claim: You can claim (or reject) multiple publications at once by ticking the box next to each publication and clicking the “Claim” button at the top of the list. 




Deposit publications


When you deposit a publication, it is uploaded to eScholarship -- UC’s open access repository and publishing platform. The publication is listed in the “Previously Published Works” series under each campus of the author(s) of the article who have claimed the publication in the UC Publication Management System. In some cases, the publication is also listed under the author(s)’s department series in eScholarship. 


When claiming an individual publication which falls under UC’s open access policies, you will be immediately redirected to the deposit page. 


  1. In the Claimed publications list, click “Deposit” for any items that have not yet been deposited. 
    Quick link: https://qa-oapolicy.universityofcalifornia.edu/listobjects.html?as=1&am=false&cid=1 

    1. Find all items which have not yet been deposited using the Repository status filter in the right column: 


  2. Start the deposit: You can either Upload a file using the author’s PDF or one from a linked open access repository, or you can Add an Open Access location


  3. Upload a file: Upload the PDF or Word Document of the publication manuscript by clicking “Browse”, choosing your file, selecting the file version (optional), and clicking “Use this file”. 


    You can upload multiple files if the researcher has supplemental data to share. Be sure to select the “Supporting information” file type for each additional file -- otherwise the deposit will fail!



  4. Upload a provided file: The system may have an open access PDF already available for you to upload. In this case, click “Use this file”: 



  5. Add an Open Access (OA) location: If the publication is already open access in another system (for example, on the publisher’s website), you can use the “Add OA location” option instead: 

  1. Add a reuse (Creative Commons) license: Creative Commons licenses specify how readers can reuse the publication. When you select a license, a longer description will display. The UC Academic Senate strongly encourages applying a CC BY (Attribution) license. 

    Each option below is linked to a longer, easy to digest description on the Creative Commons website: 

    • CC BY: Attribution 

    • CC BY-ND: Attribution-NoDerivatives

    • CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

    • CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

    • CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial

    • CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives

    • No Licence: No reuse license will be applied.

  2. Optional: Add an embargo: You can choose a period of time (e.g. 6 months) that the article be placed under embargo before it is made public in eScholarship. When you select "6 months", that means that the article will not be made public for 6 months from the date of deposit, not the date of publicationIn general, an embargo shouldn’t be required. If you’re uncertain, contact your campus OA policy support team for assistance. 
    Note: Only the eScholarship administrator is able edit or remove an embargo once it is applied. We recommend strong caution when applying an embargo unless your delegating faculty member has explicitly requested one. 

  3. Complete the deposit: Select “Deposit” to send the publication to eScholarship. 



  4. Deposit success: The system will inform you when the deposit is complete. 


  5. Where is it in eScholarship? Click “View your publication details” to go to the publication’s main information page in the system. Find the eScholarship link at the top: 


    or linked under the eScholarship datasource: 



Which version should I deposit? 


The Deposit Advice tab indicates which version you should upload: 


The Institutional Advice comes from the University of California. When in doubt, upload the Author’s final version of the manuscript, sometimes also called the Postprint or Accepted manuscript. This is the version of the publication that has undergone peer review but has not the version on the publisher’s website which includes formatting, page numbers, etc. 



SHERPA/RoMEO: Some publishers are comfortable with (or even prefer) authors posting the publisher-formatted PDF. SHERPA/RoMEO maintains a database of journal policies on self archiving; check this tab for more details: 


Have questions about your new delegate account?

See our FAQ for Delegates.


If you require further assistance, please contact your campus OA policy team.