RoMEO Frequently Asked Questions
Last Updated: 22 January 2010
About RoMEO
What is RoMEO?
What use is RoMEO to me?
What does RoMEO contain?
Who is behind RoMEO?
Who funds RoMEO?
How long will RoMEO last?
Coverage
What Journal titles does RoMEO cover?
What Publishers does RoMEO cover?
How many publishers are covered by RoMEO?
Entries
What evidence for this policy do you have?
When did you make changes to this policy?
What do the terms Green and Blue refer to?
I have contacted this publisher and they say they allow pre-prints to be archived, but you claim they allow post-prints, why is your entry wrong?
What does Mandated OA mean?
What does Paid OA mean?
What about the Publishers' PDF?
How do I find out when an entry was last updated?
How do i link to a specific entry?
Searching RoMEO
Search Options
Restricting searches by funding agency compliance
I can't find the journal I want.
Why do you not list the Proceedings of National Academy of Science?
Spelling
Making a Suggestion
How do I suggest a new journal?
How do I suggest a change of a publisher for a specific journal?
How do I make a suggestion for a new publisher?
How do I suggest a change to a publishers' policy?
Re-use of data
Do you allow the re-use of your data?
Working with RoMEO
Working with RoMEO
API
Do you have an API for RoMEO?
Other
Do you have an RSS feed?
I hear you have an email alert?
What advocacy material is available?
Is RoMEO available in other languages?
Contacts
What is RoMEO?
RoMEO is a searchable database of publisher policies on the self- archiving
of journal articles on the web and in Open Access repositories.
What use is RoMEO to me?
If an academic author wants to put their research articles on-line, they are
faced with an increasingly complex situation. Evidence shows that citations
to articles made openly accessible in this way are taken up and cited more
often than research that is simply published in journals. Also some funding
agencies require open access archiving for their research, to increase the
use of the information generated.
However, some publishers prohibit authors from using their own articles in this way. Others allow it, but only under certain conditions, while others are quite happy for authors to show their work in this way.
Authors can be left confused: RoMEO helps to clarify the situation.
All information is correct to the best of our knowledge but should not be relied upon for legal advice.
What does RoMEO contain?
RoMEO contains publishers' general policies on self-archiving of journal and
conference articles. Each entry provides a summary of the publisher's policy,
including what version of an article can be deposited, where it can be deposited,
and any conditions that are attached to that deposit.
Who is behind RoMEO?
RoMEO is currently run by SHERPA, at
the Centre for Research Communication, University of Nottingham, UK. It is
a development of the original journal publishers' listings produced by the
RoMEO
Project, at University
of Loughborough.
Who funds RoMEO?
RoMEO is currently funded by JISC.
We have previously received funding from Wellcome
Trust to develop the service.
If you are interesting in funding the maintenance or development of RoMEO, please contact us with your project requirements.
How long will RoMEO last?
There are no plans to close RoMEO.
Coverage
What Journal titles does RoMEO cover?
RoMEO covers peer-reviewed journals and serials, provided by feeds from the
British Library service Zetoc,
Entrez and
DOAJ.
If RoMEO does not cover the title you are interested in, please try searching for the Publisher instead.
RoMEO does not provide self-archiving information on books, monographs, thesis or conference papers, however, some series titles may be covered.
What Publishers does RoMEO cover?
RoMEO provides the general policy of publishers of peer-reviewed journals
and serials, that have been suggested by users. If the publisher you are looking
for is not listed on RoMEO, please suggest it - Making
a Suggestion.
How many publishers are covered by RoMEO?
RoMEO is updated regularly, a current figure for the number of publishers
on RoMEO can be found here on RoMEOs Statistics
Page.
Entries
What evidence for this policy do you have?
Our summaries are based on publisher copyright transfer agreements, open access
policies, other publisher documents that are available online, along with
personal communications with the publisher. We standardise these policies
using SHERPA terms for ease of comparison between publishers. If you believe
the publishers policy has changed please contact us.
When did you make changes to this policy?
Each entry has a section that indicates when that entry was last updated.
Details of these updates can be found here,
for each month. This covers new publishers added to RoMEO and any changes
made to existing entries.
What do the terms Green and Blue refer to?
The RoMEO service uses a simple colour-code to classify policies. More details
on the colour codes used on RoMEO can be found here.
I have contacted this publisher and they say they allow pre-prints to
be archived, but you claim they allow post-prints, why is your entry wrong?
Publishers may use the term pre-print to define all forms of the article prior
to print publication. SHERPA follows an academic practise of defining pre-prints
as a draft of an academic article or other publication before it has been
submitted for peer-review or other quality assurance procedure as part of
the publication process. Preprints cover initial and successive drafts of
articles, working papers or draft conference papers. Post-print is then the
form of the article as it is submitted for printing - i.e. after all peer-review
changes are in place. Further definitions used by SHERPA can be found here.
If you believe the publishers policy has changed please contact
us.
What does Mandated OA mean?
The section on Mandates OA indicates whether the above publisher policy complies
with the listed funding agency mandates. If there is a tick present, then
the policy for that publishers meets that particular funders mandates e.g.
Wellcome Trust,. However if another funder has a cross beside their name,
the publishers policy does not meet their mandates e.g. NIH. Each funder name
links through to their entry in JULIET, which provides
a summary of the relevant funders' mandate.
What does Paid OA mean?
Paid OA refers to the Paid Open Access options provided by some publishers.
These enable the authors to have their work provided in an open access manner
or allow deposit in a repository in exchange for a fee. A list of all of the
Publishers with Paid OA options listed in RoMEO, can be found here
What about the Publishers' PDF?
Each Publisher entry indicates if the Publishers' Verion/ PDF can be archived,
in addition, a list of the publishers in RoMEO which allow the use of their
PDF can be found here.
How do I find out when an entry was last updated?
Each publisher entry contains a date indicating when that entry was last updated.
Currently, RoMEO is unable to provide access to previous publisher entries. However, we are more than happy to consult our records to assist in any such enquiries.
How do I link to an entry?
It is possible to link to individual entries listed in RoMEO. Full instructions of how to create persistent and variables links, to both publisher and journals be found here.
Searching RoMEO
Search options
You can search RoMEO by Journal name, Acronym, ISSN, eSSN and Publisher name.
Common acronyms are provided by the Entrez database.
Restricting searches by funding agency compliance
RoMEO offers the option of restricting your search results by the funding
agency compliance of the publisher policies. This is currently limited to
funding agencies listed in JULIET.
If you feel that a publisher is not listed correctly, please contact us
I can't find the journal I want.
The Journal search function is set as default to 'starts with', if you are
having problems locating a journal you may wish to try altering the search
settings.
We suggest avoiding the use of 'The' in your search terms, e.g. use 'Journal of…' instead of 'The Journal of..'
If you can not find the journal title, try searching by ISSN or eSSN.
If you are still unsuccessful, but know the publishers name, try searching by Publisher for their general policy, as the journal title may not yet be covered.
Why do you not list for example the Proceedings of National Academy of
Science?
Proceedings and Transactions can be listed in various ways, eg 'Proceedings-',
'Proceedings -', 'Proceedings of'. If you are unable to find the desired item,
try using the 'contains' function and enter the Society name instead.
I tried to search by ISSN, but it said the number was wrong.
Please check you have entered the number correctly, in the format XXXX-XXXX
Spelling
RoMEO does not automatically suggest alternative spellings for words.
So check that you have spelt the title correctly, alternatively try the ISSN.
Making a Suggestion
How do I suggest a new journal?
We are happy to take suggestions of new journals for any future developments
of the RoMEO service, please contact us
How do I suggest a change of a publisher for a specific journal?
Please forward your suggestion to e-mail: romeo@sherpa.ac.uk
with details of both the old and new publisher for this title.
How do I make a suggestion for a new publisher?
A suggestion form is available on the RoMEO
home page, or contact us. We confirm all suggested
policies, with the publisher, therefore it may take some time for any new
addition to appear.
How do I suggest a change to a publishers' policy?
Please use the form supplied at bottom of each publisher entry to make suggestions
for that publisher. Note: We confirm all suggestions for changes, with the
publisher, therefore it may take some time for any change to appear.
Re-use of data
Do you allow the re-use of your data?
Yes, however the information provided by the SHERPA RoMEO service is not available
for commercial re-use.
The information is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license.
Full details of our conditions for re-use can be found here.
Working with RoMEO
Working with RoMEO
SHERPA is happy to work with other projects. Please contact
us with details of your project and how you would like to work with RoMEO.
API
Do you have an API for RoMEO?
Details on our API, along with documentation can be found here.
Other
Do you have an RSS feed?
SHERPA provides an RSS feed that list
new publisher entries on RoMEO.
Do you you have an email alert?
We send out a monthly email alert, detailing new entries and updates to existing
entries on both RoMEO and JULIET. This is normally sent at the end or beginning
of the next month. Occasionally, emails may also be sent relating to any disruption
of the service. Please contact us, if you wish to
be added to this list.
You do not need to be on this list to receive this information, as we also provide details on updates and new additions to RoMEO both online and via an RSS feed (new additions only). Notices, indicating any disruption to our service, are also placed on the RoMEO homepage.
Advocacy Material
We have posters and a leaflet that you can download to use in local advocacy.
Leaflet | A1
Poster | A3 poster
Is RoMEO available in other languages?
RoMEO aims to provide publisher policies in thier native language. In addition,
several groups have worked to translate RoMEO into thier native language. Currently RoMEO is available in English and Portuguese.
RoMEO can be found in the following languages:
- German - Deutsche Initiative für Netzwerkinformation E. V. (DINI) - http://www.dini.de/oap/
- Spanish - Recolecta - http://www.recolecta.net/romeo/index.php
- Spanish - Dulcinea - http://www.accesoabierto.net/dulcinea/ (contains additional content)
Contacts
RoMEO administrators can be contacted on romeo@sherpa.ac.uk
Twitter: @SHERPAServices
Blog: RoMEO Blog
All information is correct to the best of our knowledge but should not be relied upon for legal advice.