# If you have already published your works, but want to know how you can still make make them openly available: Contact Us.
# For unpublished works, getting started with Open Access at Purdue can be done in three easy steps…
Step 1: Publish Where You Want
Where you wish to publish is your choice, but there are a couple of options to consider.
Option 1: Publish where you normally would, but make sure you review your author agreement to ensure that you will retain enough rights to openly share some version of your work online after publication. This approach is known as “Green Open Access”. It involves an individual author making their published peer-reviewed articles publicly accessible on a website, repository, or digital open archive.
Option 2: Choose to publish in journals that are fully open access, or offer an open access option (the former are preferable). This approach a publisher provides immediate open access to the articles by making them publicly accessible online, often but not always in exchange for a fee from the author. .
Step 2: Before You Sign, Review Your Publication Agreement
In most publication agreements you will find a clear statement about whether you are allowed to post a version of your article online and, if so, whether it is the version you initially submitted for review (pre-print), the version you submitted once changes had been made in response to reviewer comments (post-print), or the final copy edited and typeset version by the publisher (publisher’s version/PDF). Sometimes an “embargo period” is also specified.
We offer author resources such as contract addenda that you can use to ensure that you retain enough rights in the publication agreement to make your work openly accessible. To learn more, please visit the Author Rights Resources page.
Step 3: Send Us Your Citations and Papers
The Libraries will deposit your works on your behalf in Purdue e-Pubs, minimizing the work you need to do as an author to maintain an online version, and providing benefits such as Google Scholar indexing, monthly download reports, and stable URLs.