Depositing your research outputs

The SHU Research Archive (SHURA) is a repository that aims to capture and preserve the intellectual output of Sheffield Hallam University and make it freely available over the Web.

Please deposit a copy of each research output in SHURA within three months after acceptance of this output. You must do so in order to be eligible for the REF and in line with the SHU open access publication policy.

Additionally, you could also deposit your outputs in a subject repository or on social networking sites (within copyright restrictions). We recommend you do not post files on social networking sites (such as Word or PDF documents ) but only links that refer to your work on SHURA. In doing so, you can be confident that your publisher’s copyright restrictions are respected.

Essential: deposit on SHURA

Uploading to SHURA is easy. This video shows you how:

In SHURA you will need to:

  • provide information about your output, such as the title, the authors, your research centre or department, and (if applicable) the title of the journal
  • upload the final peer reviewed version of your manuscript (for journal articles, conferences papers, etc.)
  • when you are happy with the record, choose ‘Deposit item now’ to complete the submission

SHURA staff will then review the deposit before making it live.  They will:

  • check your submission to ensure it is compliant with your publisher’s requirements
  • set an embargo period for you if the publisher requires this, and set the appropriate license
  • check whether the appropriate evidence for the date of acceptance is available and if not get in touch with you to remind you about this

Journal articles and conference papers with an ISSN:

To comply with the REF requirements, you  must also provide proof of the date of acceptance. This will usually be an email or letter from the journal editor or conference organiser. Please send this to shura@shu.ac.uk

Find out more about the REF requirements and about acceptance dates: Open Access and the REF.

Conferences:

SHURA welcomes the full text of published contributions to a conference such as articles in a journal or papers in a volume of conference proceedings.

In some cases you may wish to upload outputs from a conference that are not published. This could include PowerPoint slides, an unpublished paper, the script of an oral presentation, or a conference poster. Please feel free to upload these items but be aware that they will normally appear in the list of publications on your external profile page, and that uploading these materials into SHURA may limit your opportunities to publish on the basis of these materials.

Empty records and unpublished abstracts are not accepted.

Book chapters:

When depositing a book section to SHURA, where possible attach the accepted manuscript to the record.  It is increasingly likely that you will be permitted to archive it and the SHURA team will do the checks and contact you if necessary. For example, publishers such as ACM digital library, Bloomsbury, Cambridge University Press, Routledge and Sage now allow the upload of manuscripts of book chapters.

You may want to check the information about Open Access provided on your publisher’s web pages or UKCORR maintain a list of Publisher OA policies for books and chapters.

Optional: deposit your output in a subject repository
In addition, you may also deposit your work in a subject repository that is relevant to your discipline. By depositing your research output in a subject-based repository, you are placing it next to those of your peers from other Universities. This may increase the visibility and impact of your work. Examples of subject-based repositories are

You can find more open access repositories via

Check your funder requirements as some funders do require deposit on a subject repository, for example the NIHR.

Optional: use social networking sites (Academia and ResearchGate)

Additionally, you can share your work via social networking sites such as Academia and ResearchGate. These are social networking tools similar to Facebook and LinkedIn but focussed at the research community.

They do not replace SHURA: SHURA guarantees Open Access to research outputs and their long-term preservation so that future generations can access them. Academia and ResearchGate are commercial companies who do not guarantee access and preservation to the items you upload, and who are keen to collect users’ information for their own purposes, which may include selling the data.
When using sites such as Academia and ResearchGate, please make sure:

  • that you deposit your output in SHURA as well
  • that your publisher allows you to upload your work to these social networking sites (remember they are commercial).  You can check your publisher’s Open Access policy via SHERPA Romeo.
  SHURA Academia ResearchGate
Supports export or harvesting of your metadata and publications Yes No No
Guarantees long-term Open Access to your research outputs Yes No No
Supports the long-term preservation of your work Yes No No
Business model Not for profit Commercial (sells job posting services, hope to sell data) Commercial (sells ads and job posting services)
Fulfills the requirements of the SHU Open Access Publication policy Yes No No