One way to make sure your article are findable is to provide a persistent link to an electronic version of it.  Journal publishers should provide you with information concerning your "author rights" including which version of your article can be made freely available and when.  There are three versions to consider:

• Version of Record/VoR (the published PDF). Most Publishers DO NOT allow you to make this version freely available unless you have paid an open access fee in advance (in addition to page charges). They will allow you to provide a persistent link to their website version using a DOI they provide. From 2012 forward, when the VoR can be used, it will be deposited on your behalf in the ScholarsArchive@OSU (our institutional repository). 
•  Author's Accepted Manuscript (the final post-peer reviewed version of your article without the publisher's branding) is a good alternative.  Most (but not all) publishers WILL allow this version to be used in the ScholarsArchive@OSU. You are encouraged to retain this version when you are preparing manuscripts for publication so that they can be deposited on your behalf in the  ScholarsArchive@OSU. 
• Author's original manuscript (pre-peer review).  While many publishers WILL allow this version to be made available to the public, there can be substantive differences between this version and the Version of Record, so it is not recommended that these be added to the ScholarsArchive@OSU, though you may choose to link to such a version form your own website.
• In a minority of cases, the publisher will not allow you to make any version of your article  available electronically independent of their website.  

What about articles in Open Access Journals?

• You CAN always provide a link to the publisher version on their website;
• You CANNOT download their Version of Record PDF for deposit in the ScholarsArvchive@OSU UNLESS the publisher indicates this is one of your author rights.

If it is not clear in your copyright transfer agreement whether you have the right to deposit a particular version of your article, there is often information about this on the journal website.

SherpaRomeo is a free service that attempts to compile this information for many publications.  They provide a list of publishers that allow the Version of Record to the deposted as well (but as one publisher merges or takes over another this informaton can change).

If in doubt, send a note to scholarsarchive@oregonstate.edu.

Oregon State University’s digital repository for research, scholarship, and historical records. OSU Libraries is responsible for collecting, maintaining, preserving, and providing access to the items in ScholarsArchive@OSU

1. Connect to ScholarsArchive@OSU
2. Click on login in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
3. Use your ONID Username or ONID email address and your ONID Password to login
4. Click on “start a new submission.”  The first question you will be asked is to select a collection.
   • If there is more than one option, look for the collection beginning  "Faculty Research Publications..."
   • If you see no collections, email ScholarsArchive@oregonstate.edu
5. Respond to the questions asked about the item being submitted.
6. Feel free to leave fields empty – there are only a few which are mandatory.
7. If you are confused by a question, you can:
   • Move to the next page and proceed adding the information you have at hand or,
   • “Save and Exit” – your submission will be there when you login again.
8. As you proceed you will see your progress in the submission process at the top of the screen. 
9. Your submission will not be "live" until it is approved and at that time, you will receive an email which provides the URL you should use to guide people to the deposited version.