Save a copy of the “accepted manuscript” of every article you (co)author. Of course, save a copy of the published version too, but there’s a good chance that someone will ask you for the “accepted manuscript” instead.
What’s that? The “accepted manuscript” (sometimes called a “post-print” or an "author manuscript") is the “final version of the article manuscript after formal peer-review but before being type-set by the publisher. It contains all revisions made during the peer-review process" (https://openaccessbutton.org/versions-explained).
Most research funders require funded authors to make a version of funded articles open access--often this version is the “accepted manuscript” if not the published version. IUPUI is one of many universities that have adopted an open access policy for all articles authored by our faculty. This is an opt out policy at the article level, but it helps our funded-authors comply with other public access mandates. You can deposit and/or opt out for an article at: https://openaccess.iupui.edu/.
Under our policy authors retain rights to the “accepted manuscript” of otherwise paywalled or limited access articles. You have the rights to make these free for any reader to download from IUPUI ScholarWorks. This policy increases your readership and even your citation rates. (You can also use IUPUI ScholarWorks to share other products--including posters, chapters, presentations, reports, theses, and capstones.)
But, remember, if you didn’t save a copy of your article’s accepted manuscript, you might be out of luck.
-- Jere Odell
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.