Before Depositing Your First Article

Readers of articles in EPrint archives find them similar to Digital Libraries or search engines.
• Writers of articles find them very different:
  • digital libraries purchase articles from publishers,
  • search engines 'crawl' the web and copy articles by stealth
  • but eprint archives require authors to deposit their articles proactively

Criterion for Archiving

EPrint archiving is performed by the authors of articles, sometimes known as self-archiving
• no-one is stealing your work
• no-one is selling your work
• you are making it freely available to everyone who has an interest in it.
• The purpose of self-archiving is to maximise the number of people who see your work.
  • if this is not in your best interests, you should not be self-archiving

Entering the User Area

In order to deposit eprints in the archive you must enter your personal User Area.
• (This is a web page that contains options for depositing and modifying your eprints.)
• If you haven't yet been asigned a user area, you must first register with the archive.

To register with an EPrint Archive

Click on the button in the navigation bar at the top right of the home page. In an unmodified EPrints installation it looks like this:

1. Choose a name and password to use on the archive
2. Wait for a registration email to be sent to you
3. Activate your account by clicking on the link in the email
4. Return to the archive and click on the button again.

Logging On

Click on the User Area in the navigation bar at the top right of the home page. In an unmodified EPrints installation it looks like this:

You will be asked for a login name and password to identify yourself.
• Not everyone who uses the archive is allowed to deposit eprints
• the members of your institution may have been pre-registered with login names and passwords that match those in use for other institutional services (such as PC logins).
• If not, you will have to register yourself.

Changing Your User Record

The first time you log on, the only option you will see is a link to View/Change Your User Record
• that will present you with a form which you can fill in with information about yourself (name, email, postal address etc.
• You should fill in at least your name. You can also change your password with this form if you wish. If you want to keep your current password, leave that field blank.

Once you submit this form (click on the Update Record at the foot of the page) you will be returned to your User Area with the full set of options.