The short answer
You keep copyright in your article, so depositing it in a repository is largely your decision, not the journal's permission to give. Peer Academics imposes no embargo of any length on any version, at any stage. What the journal asks in return is accuracy: whatever you deposit must be labeled for what it is, and must point to the published article once one exists.
Which version you may deposit, and when
| Version | What it is | When you may deposit it | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Submitted version (preprint) | The manuscript as you sent it, before peer review | At any time — before, during, or after review | Label it as not peer reviewed. Disclose the posting to the editor at submission, and do not name it inside the anonymized manuscript file. |
| Accepted manuscript | Your final peer-reviewed text after revisions are accepted, before copyediting and typesetting | Immediately on acceptance. No embargo. | Add the acknowledgment below, and add the link to the published article as soon as it appears. |
| Version of record | The copyedited, typeset file published by the journal | Once the journal's license terms are published and stated on the article | Redistribution of the typeset file is governed by that license, which the Publisher has not yet fixed. Until it is, deposit the accepted manuscript instead and link to the published article. |
The pending license decision is explained in the Copyright Notice. It affects only what may be done with the journal's typeset file; it does not restrict your own accepted manuscript.
Where you may deposit
- Your institutional repository, and any repository your funder requires you to use.
- A recognized subject repository or preprint server — for example arXiv, SSRN, SocArXiv, OSF Preprints, RePEc, or PhilPapers. The journal endorses none of them and requires none of them.
- A national or thesis repository, including deposit of the article as a chapter of your own doctoral thesis.
- Your own or your department's web page, and your ORCID record.
Academic social networks such as ResearchGate and Academia.edu are not repositories: they offer no permanent identifier, no version control, and no guarantee that a later correction can be attached to what you posted. The journal does not prohibit posting there, but deposit in a real repository first, and post a link rather than a file if you can.
What every deposit must carry
Label the version — "Submitted manuscript, not peer reviewed" or "Accepted manuscript, peer reviewed, not copyedited" — and, once the article is published, add a statement in this form:
"This is the accepted manuscript of an article published in Peer Academics. The version of record is available at [article URL]. Please cite the published version."
Because the journal has no DOI prefix, give the article URL, and cite by journal name, volume, article number, and URL. Enter the same metadata — title, all authors, journal name, volume, article number, year — in the repository record, so that the deposit and the published article can be matched.
Keeping a deposit honest
- Update it. When the article is published, add the link. If the article is later corrected or retracted, add a note to the repository record saying so and pointing to the notice. The journal cannot edit a record held by another service; that is your responsibility. See Corrections and Retractions.
- Do not present an earlier version as peer reviewed. A submitted manuscript that carries no label, or one labeled as though it had been through review, misleads readers and is treated as a misrepresentation of the publication record.
- Do not deposit confidential material. Reviewer reports, editorial correspondence, decision letters, and the identities of reviewers are confidential and may not be posted, whatever the outcome of your submission. See Reviewer Confidentiality.
- Do not deposit anyone else's article from this journal, and do not upload journal content in bulk to any platform. Systematic redistribution is dealt with under the Terms of Use.
Deposit is encouraged, not merely tolerated
Peer Academics is not yet enrolled in a digital preservation network, so a copy of your accepted manuscript in your institutional repository is a genuine safeguard for the availability of your work, not a formality. Deposit it. See Preservation and Archiving for what the journal does and does not yet do to keep content available.
Questions about a specific deposit, or about wording a repository requires that differs from the above, go to [email protected].