Open Access (OA) to information refers to the free, immediate and online access to the results of scholarly research to the worldwide scientific community. Open Access removes the barriers to accessing the results of scholarly research and scholarly publications. Increased discoverability and exposure of scholarly research and publications will directly lead to furthering the academia, medicine, science, industry and society as a whole.
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Open Access mandates are policies implemented by universities, research institutions, research funders or governments which require researchers to make their published peer-reviewed journal articles and conference-papers available in an open access institutional repository, for example: A*Star Open Access Mandate​. Other than to preserve an organization’s research legacy, the aim of such mandates are to ensure that the institutions’ research are made freely discoverable and available to the wider research community thus empowering further research. It is important for researchers to comply with the open access mandates put in place by the respective institutions as this will ensure that the collective knowledge of the institutions are preserved.

In line with the growing worldwide trend to make research publications freely available on the Internet, NTU has implemented an open access policy on its research publications with effect from 1 July 2011. Under this policy, All NTU faculty and staff must deposit their final peer-reviewed manuscript of journal articles and conference papers electronically to the Digital Repository (DR-NTU) maintained by the Library upon acceptance of their publications, so that these can be made available, whenever possible, for global access through the Internet. All PhD and Masters degree (by research only) students are required to submit the complete full-text digital version of their theses to the Library via DR-NTU for open access. For details of the policy, please click here.


2. Funders’ requirements for Open Access 

Local Singapore research funding agencies including Agency for Science and Technology (A*STAR), Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Health (MOH) and National Research Foundation (NRF) require publications to be made open access within 1 year from publication date.

3. Tips to meet the open access requirements by funders and NTU

To meet the open access requirements by funders and NTU, please take note of the following matters:

1) Publish and keep your copyrights
In most publication agreements, all rights, including copyright, belong to the journal. However, this may result in researchers unable to comply with the open access requirements imposed by funders and employing institutions. Researchers will not be able to gain maximum exposure for their work as authors when a publication cannot be archived online nor disseminated to the community. However, it is possible for authors to get their paper published but also retain the rights to self-archive and disseminate their work, please refer to the SPARC Author Addendum to get legal instrument on how to modify the publisher’s agreement to allow authors to keep key rights to their articles here.

2) Do not lost the accepted version of your papers!
Many journal publishers allow authors to self-archive their publications in open repositories such as DR-NTU, but different publishers may allow different version of the papers to be archived: some allow publication version, some allow pre-print (ie pre-refereeing) and post-print (ie final draft post-refereeing), some allow either post-print or pre-print only, and some do not formally support archiving at all. According to RoMEO statistics, about 41% of academic publishers allow pre-print and post-print to be archived for open access, thus, NTU authors get a chance to deposit their final manuscript after peer-review, namely the accepted version, in DR-NTU for a higher accessibilities and wider exposure, please do not lost it!

3) Checking of publisher copyright and self-archiving policies
Prior to submitting a manuscript to DR-NTU, please ensure that your publisher allows the publication to be made open access and the exact version that is allowed for archiving. To check the publisher’s copyright and self-archiving policies, you may check the publisher’s website or use the SHERPA RoMEO website.

4. DR-NTU (OPEN ACCESS)

DR-NTU (Open Access)​​ is the University’s institutional repository, which captures, stores, and preserves the journal articles, conference papers, theses and dissertations (PhD and Masters by Research only) of NTU staff and students. Free access is granted to the public to view the full text.

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Why use DR-NTU?
There are a few reasons for you to choose DR-NTU to deposit your publications:

• Permanent URL to your publications: Once your publication is submitted to DR-NTU, a persistent URL (i.e., a permanent URL which will not change) will be assigned to it. You can insert this in any web pages or forward it to your students, colleagues and the public to link and read the full-text from DR-NTU 
  
  
• Permanent Archive of your publications: DR-NTU acts as a permanent archive of all your submitted publications. Once your publications are in DR-NTU, you can easily retrieve them anytime and anywhere. You no longer need to remember which hard disk or CD you keep them
  
  
• Wider audience: More people will have access to your publications as they will be freely available rather than being limited to exclusive subscribers of databases and journals
  
  
• Easily retrievable via search engines: Your publications will be easily searchable on Google, Google Scholar and other search engines. The wider exposure of your publication is likely to lead to a higher citation count of your works
  
  
• ​Indication of use of your publications: DR-NTU provides features that will keep you informed of how many users download your publications and other usage statistics. This will give you an indication of the use of your publications
  

​5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the Open Access Policy at NTU.

​1.​​	​What kinds of publications could I submit to DR-NTU as part of the NTU’s Open Access Policy? For faculty and researchers, you should submit the following publications into DR-NTU as part of the OA Policy: Conference papers Journal articles Faculty and researchers are also encouraged to submit their books and book chapters to DR-NTU, provided that they submitted a proper version which complies with the publisher’s copyright and archiving policy. For PhD and Masters Degree (by research only) students, you are required to submit the full-text of your thesis or dissertation in pdf file to DR-NTU for open access.
​2.	​Can I deposit my conference presentation slides, posters, course notes into DR_NTU? According to NTU’s Open Access Policy, only journal articles, conference papers and theses can be deposited in the DR-NTU for open access.
​3.	​Which version of papers do I submit to DR-NTU as part of the OA Policy? Different publishers may allow different versions of the paper to be archived: some allow publication version, some allow pre-print (ie pre-refereeing) and post-print (ie final draft post-refereeing), some allow either post-print or pre-print only, and some do not formally support archiving at all. According to RoMEO statistics, about 41% of academic publishers allow pre-print and post-print version to be archived for open access, thus, you should submit your final manuscript after peer-review, namely the accepted version which incorporates referee’s comments.
​4.	How do I know which version of my article the publisher allow me to deposit? Please check the website, Sherpa Romeo, to ensure that the publisher of your article allows self-archiving of the paper in PDF. Sherpa Romeo is a site that lists publisher’s information on self-archiving rights. When in doubt or when information is not available, always submit the accepted version to DR-NTU.
5.​	How do I identify different versions of my paper? Published version: Final version of the publication produced by the publisher. The layout of published version is formatted by the publisher, with the volume, issue, page number and publisher’s logo displayed. Accepted version: Author’s final manuscript of the publication after peer review, which is submitted to the publisher for publication. Also known as the Post-print version. The layout of accepted version is unformatted, with default page numbers but usually without publisher’s logo.     Pre-print version: Author’s complete manuscript before peer review. Post-print version: The version of the publication after peer-review, with revisions having been made. This is the final version of the publication before it is sent off the journal for publication. Also known as the Post-Print. Before you submit your paper to DR-NTU, please check your publisher’s website about their self-archiving policy to ensure that they allow you to do self-archiving and you have submitted a proper version.
6.​	If the publisher does not support self-archival policies, can I still submit my publications to DR-NTU? Yes. The Library will then publish only the bibliographic details and abstract of your publications on DR-NTU.
7.​	Can I deposit my conference papers into DR-NTU before being published? To ensure that we do not infringe publishers’ copyrights, authors are strongly encouraged to submit their publications to DR-NTU after the papers have been published.
8.​	My thesis has confidential information; may I ask for an exemption? According to NTU’s Open Access Policy, all PhD and Masters Degree (by research only) students are required to submit the complete full-text digital version of their theses to DR-NTU for open access. If your thesis contains data or information, such as pending patent application or journal/conference publication, you can set an embargo period when uploading the PDF. During the embargo period, only the title and abstract can be viewed. The full text will only be released after the embargo date is expired. Normally, an embargo period should be between 6 months and 24 months. In special cases, a maximum of 5 years may be allowed with sufficient reasons.
9.​	Why is the full-text of my paper not available in DR-NTU (open repository) even after I have successfully submitted it? Even though you have successfully submitted the document into DR-NTU, the Library will still need to process and verify the document before it is made available on DR-NTU (open repository). Please note that the Library complies with the respective publisher’s self-archiving policy, for example, some publishers may require an embargo period to their publications before making them open access. As such, should the publisher of your paper request an embargo setting, the PDF version of your paper will be released for public viewing only after the embargo period has expired. Publications that are affected by publishers’ embargo instructions will have limited information available for public viewing during the embargo period.
10.​	I did not submit my paper to DR-NTU, why is my paper available in DR-NTU? This is because the library has done a librarian-mediated submission on behalf of NTU’s authors to comply with the OA policy of NTU. Librarians download NTU paper records from Scopus and Web of Science regularly and deposit the proper version of these papers to DR-NTU according to the publisher’s self-archiving policy. So, please do a title search for your papers in DR-NTU before you submit to avoid duplicates. Please contact us if you have further questions or need any clarifications.
11.​	I have some papers published before I joined NTU, can I deposit these papers into DR-NTU? Currently DR-NTU aims to capture, store and preserve the scholarly output of Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Authors are strongly encouraged to submit their publications to their own universities or institutional repositories when these papers were published.

1. DR-NTU (Open Access) 
   
   You can find published works written by NTU scholars such as journal articles, conference paper, book chapters and many more here. These works are free to access for the public.
   
   If you are a researcher who would like to submit your paper or a higher degree (PhD or Master by research) student to submit your thesis, please log in here with your NTU network account and password. You can click here for more information on the paper submission, or click here for the higher degree thesis submission guide.
    
2. DR-NTU (Restricted Access) 
   
   You can find unpublished works written by NTU student and scholars such as theses, final year project reports, research reports and many more here. The full-text of these works are only accessible to NTU staff and students.
   
   If you are a undergraduate to submit your FYP report or a Master degree (by coursework) student to submit your thesis, please log in here with your NTU network account and password. For more information about the submission guide, please click here.
    
3. DR-NTU (Data) 
   
   You can find published research data by NTU researchers here.
   
   If you are a NTU researcher who would like to deposit your final research data, please login here with your NTU network account username and password. For more information about the steps to deposit, please refer to this guide.

1. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure the quality, validity and authenticity of the submitted materials.


2. You need to check the publisher’s self-archiving policy via Sherpa/Romeo for the allowed version of the paper that can be deposited in DR-NTU. Please see the image below to differentiate an accepted version from a published version.
   
   


3. If the publisher requires an embargo period for their publications, you can set an embargo period for your paper during the submission.

1. Submit to DR-NTU (Open Access) directly:
   1. Login to DR-NTU
   2. Click on Submissions to start a new submission
   3. Follow the instructions on the screen and enter all the necessary information
   4. Attach the appropriate version of your paper in PDF format
   5. Set embargo if requested by the publisher
   6. You will be required to grant NTU Library a Non-exclusive Distribution License upon submission
      
      
   Your paper will be added to DR-NTU for open access after the Library has processed your submission.
   
   Alternatively, you can submit your paper via RIMS. After logging into RIMS, you can submit your paper by clicking the “DR-NTU” tag. Please complete the required fields as fully as possible and attach the appropriate version of your paper in PDF format. If you encounter any problems or require clarification, please email spi@ntu.edu.sg.


2. Do a librarian-mediated submission
   In order to minimize any inconvenience to faculty and staff, NTU Library does a librarian-mediated submission to increase the coverage of DR-NTU:
   
   
   1. Library staff download NTU paper metadata from citation databases such as Web of Science and Scopus
   2. Library staff check the publisher’s archiving policy to avoid any copyright infringement before asking the paper from NTU authors
   3. Library staff solicit a proper version of the paper from NTU author(s) and get his/her agreement to grant NTU Library a Non-exclusive Distribution License.
   4. Library staff proceed to submit the paper into DR-NTU for open access.
      

• Publishing or supporting the creation of scholarly publications and dissemination of scholarly works that are peer reviewed
  
• Engage in new and traditional tools and format to provide multimodal scholarly publication
  
• Promote public access to scholarly works and support scholars by contributing quality, scholarly works to the public through open access publishing
  
• Provide perpetual access to scholarly works
  

• Custom-designed journal sites to host content
  
• Assistance with journal policies and editorial workflow
  
• Register and promote identifiers for scholarly works [ISSN, ISBN, DOI]
  
• Registering journal in online directories and abstracts & indexes databases
  
• Provide analytics information such as number of downloads and attention that research outputs receive online
  
• Altmetrics score that provides qualitative data that are complementary to traditional, citation-based metrics
  
• Search engine optimization for high online visibility
  
• Consultation on publishing such as publishing contracts, open access, etc