The Research Repository @ WVU

Self-Submission for Faculty, Staff, Graduate Students, and Other Researchers

Faculty, graduate students, researchers, and staff may self-submit their work by visiting the Research Repository's Submit Your Research page. Upon visiting this page, click on the link that corresponds to your status (researchers, postdocs, and staff should submit to the Faculty Scholarship collection), and log in with your valid WVU ID. You will then be asked to agree to the terms of the submission agreement, after which you will be taken to a form to submit your work.

When self-submitting previously published materials (such as journal articles), please be sure that you are uploading a version of your work that is permitted under your publication agreement. This will ensure that your research is not taken down in response to a publisher's take-down notice. For more information, please see the next section on Publisher Policies, or contact your subject liaison.  

Submitting Electronic Theses & Dissertations (ETDs)

Graduate students submitting ETDs should submit their documents, along with all required forms, to the Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problems Reports Collection. Detailed submission instructions are available at https://etd.lib.wvu.edu/. Questions should be directed to the WVU Libraries Institutional Repository Librarian at ETDReview@mail.wvu.edu. 

Submitting Undergraduate Research

The Research Repository welcomes contributions from undergraduate students with faculty sponsorship. To submit an Undergraduate Capstone, Honors Thesis, or Honors Project, visit the Submit Your Research page and click on the link for the appropriate collection. In addition to submitting your capstone, thesis, or honors project, you must also upload a signed copy of the Faculty Sponsorship Form (available below). Instructions for uploading this document are located at the bottom of the submission form. 

If you need assistance, or would like to submit another type of project, please fill out the Consultation Request Form. 

Publisher Policies and Article Versions

Whether or not your published works (such as published journal articles) can be deposited in the Research Repository depends on the details of the agreement you signed with the publisher when your work was accepted. Journals and publishers vary with respect to which versions of papers they will allow authors to upload in online repositories. The Sherpa Romeo database is a searchable resource that provides information about journal publishers' repository policies.

It is helpful to think of a published scholarly article as having three versions:

1. Preprint: The original version of the article that was submitted to the journal. This is a pre-peer review version of the article.
   • Also known as Author's Original Manuscript, Author's Original, Submitted Version.
2. Author's Accepted Manuscript: The version of the article that has undergone peer review and been revised to address any concerns raised by reviewers. This version has not undergone the publisher's final formatting, and does not look like the final version. It will typically look like a Word document.
   • Also known as Accepted Manuscript, Postprint, Accepted Version.
3. Final version: The final, published version of the paper with the publisher's formatting and branding. It will typically contain headers, footers, page numbers, and typesetting.
   • Also known as: Version of Record, Published Version, Final Published Version, Publishers' Version.

If you are a WVU Faculty member, the Libraries will review your publishers' policies for you through our Faculty Deposit Service pilot program. To participate in this program, or to learn more about understanding your publication agreements, request a consultation with the repository team or contact your subject liaison.