Making your research publications openly available enables researchers, students, policy makers, and the public worldwide to read and benefit from immediate, reliable, and practical information to help address today’s problems, inform the community, and inspire future research. UC’s Open Access Policies empower researchers to make their scholarly articles freely available to the public in eScholarship, UC’s open access repository and publishing platform.
Verify and deposit your publications in eScholarship
Claim your publication from the pending list or choose a verified publication to deposit
Deposit your publication -- Open Access link, file, and supplemental materials
Frequently asked questions
Step 1. Log into the Publication Management System
Once your article has been published and indexed, you’ll receive an email asking you to confirm your recent publication(s). Click the link in the email to log in and start your deposit. You can also go directly to https://oapolicy.universityofcalifornia.edu, choose your campus, and enter your campus login details to get started.
Example email notification of new items available for deposit.
Example login screen for a UC Irvine user.
Step 2. Click "Claim your publications" or "Claim now" on the home page
Once logged in, you'll be prompted with a carousel or list of several actions you can take in the Publication Management System. To get started with , click the "Claim now" icon. This will bring you to your "Pending list" of items to be claimed (verified).
Example home page for UC Irvine user displaying the action carousel.
Step 3. Claim your publication from the pending list or choose a verified publication to deposit
Claim your publication from the pending list
The Pending list is a list of all publications which the Publication Management System has found that it believes to have been authored by you. If the publication is not yours, click the "Reject" button. If it is yours, click "Claim" as shown in the image below. If the publication falls under the open access policy, you will go directly to the deposit page.
Example publication in the pending list being verified and claimed by a user.
If all of the publications displayed have been authored by you, you can also use the "Select all on page" option and click the "Claim" button to verify them in bulk. Note that claiming all publications will not take you automatically to the item deposit page.
Choose a verified publication to deposit
The Claimed list is a list of all publications which have been verified in the Publication Management System as being authored by you. Publications are verified in multiple ways:
When you or your delegate claims it from your Pending list, for example when claiming in bulk.
When you or your delegate import your publications from another system using a BibTeX or RIS file
Automatically claimed based on a personal identifier, such as your ORCID iD. (Learn more about connecting personal identifiers to auto-claim publications.)
Find the publication you wish to deposit in your list and select the "deposit" icon to go directly to the deposit page.
Example publication in the verified publication list with the "deposit" button highlighted.
Alternatively, click the title of the publication and you will be taken to the publication's information page. Scroll to the Full text section of the information page to see the publication's deposit status, and click the "Deposit" button to go to the deposit page.
Example deposit ("full text") status section of a publication information page.
Step 4. Deposit your publication -- open access link, file, and supplemental materials
If your article has not yet been deposited into eScholarship by a co-author, then you will be prompted to deposit it. You can choose to deposit an OA location if the article is already open access, a file (PDF or Word) if you would like to deposit the full text, or both a file and an OA location if you would like to include both.
a. OA location: Deposit a link
If you article is already available open access on another website, such as the journal's website or PubMed, you can deposit an "OA location" -- a direct link to an open access article. Note that an OA location will not be automatically specified -- you must copy and paste the link directly.
Example deposit of a link to an open access published article's DOI.
b. Upload a file: Deposit the full text and supplemental documents
You can deposit the full text PDF or Word document of your article by Uploading a file to the system. Browse your computer and choose the file to deposit, then select "Use this file" to upload the file to the system.
In some cases, an open access PDF may already be available from one of the Publication Management System's data sources and waiting for you to deposit -- as in the screenshot below.
Example deposit selection screen of a PDF.
Step 5. Add supplemental materials (Optional)
You can add multiple documents if your article has supplemental materials. The system refers to these as "Supporting information". In order for these to display with your publication in eScholarship, you must deposit them along with your publication by clicking + Upload another file, selecting the file, and then selecting File version: Supporting information.
Note: You must select "File version: Supporting information" in order to deposit more than one file to eScholarship. If you do not, the deposit will fail and you will need to start the full deposit all over again.
Example deposit screen of supplemental materials.
Step 6. Specify embargo (Optional)
In some cases you may wish to specify an embargo period on your deposit. To add an embargo, tick the "Specify an embargo" box under Item 2 and specify your desired embargo date.
Note: This embargo begins from the date of deposit and not the date of publication. You will not be able to alter the embargo date at a later time without contacting your campus Library directly.
Review of the embargo options available for your deposit.
Step 7. Specify a reuse license (CC license) (Optional)
You can specify how you would like your article to be used by others with a Creative Commons (CC) license. Once selected, the system will display a brief description of the license. Learn more about Creative Commons Licenses and what they mean.
Example selection of the CC-BY license.
Step 7. Confirm deposit to eScholarship
The final step is to scroll to 3. Complete deposit and click the "Deposit" button. Once clicked, you will see the system actively depositing to eScholarship. The system will display a thank you message when the deposit is complete. Click "View your publication details" to view the list of files that you have deposited or find the link to your publication in eScholarship.
Example deposit confirmation and thank you page.
Step 8. Share your publication
Once your deposit is live, you can choose to share your publication on eScholarship with others to benefit from an open access version of your publication. Find your eScholarship link by returning to the publication details in the Publication Management System and clicking the ID link or Public URL link under the eScholarship data source.
Click the ID or Public URL link under eScholarship to go to the eScholarship deposit page.
Frequently asked questions
My co-author has already deposited our article to eScholarship. Do I also need to deposit it?
No, you do not need to deposit your article if your colleague has already deposited the article to eScholarship and in general you will not be prompted to deposit it again. However if they have deposited an incorrect version -- for example, an early manuscript which still has your notes -- you can make a redeposit.
Which version of the article should I deposit?
We recommend that you deposit the Author's final version or Author's accepted version of your article. This is the manuscript which has already undergone peer review and editing by the journal, but which is not the final published version downloaded directly from your publisher.
Tip: Some journals do allow you to deposit the publisher's final PDF of your article -- click the "SHERPA/RoMEO advice" to learn whether yours does.
Example deposit advice from UC and from SHERPA/RoMEO.