What is BodoArXiv?
How do I upload a paper?
What is open access?
What is a preprint?
What is BodoArXiv’s moderation policy?
What can I post to BodoArXiv?
How should I license my work on BodoArXiv?
How should I use the taxonomy and can I modify it?
What journals allow me to share preprints in BodoArXiv?
Does Google Scholar index BodoArXiv?
Do papers that are uploaded to BodoArXiv receive a Digital Object Identifier (DOI)?
What are the benefits of using BodoArXiv?
What is the legal status of BodoArXiv?
How can we make sure that BodoArXiv remains a non-profit?
What are the Center for Open Science (COS) and the Open Science Framework (OSF)?
Why use BodoArXiv and not other sites?
BodoArXiv is an open archive of works in medieval studies, created by the non-profit ScholarlyHub and powered by the Open Science Framework of the Center for Open Science, both of them non-profit organizations as well. BodoArXiv provides a free and publicly accessible platform for medievalists across disciplines to upload working papers, pre-prints, published papers, monographs, translations, data and images. BodoArXiv is dedicated to opening up medieval studies, reaching greater audiences more effectively, improving research, diversifying mentoring and building the future of scholarly communications.
How do I upload a paper?
You can go straight to BodoArXiv, click on “Add a Preprint,” and follow the instructions. (If you haven’t yet, you will need to create a free account on the Open Science Framework as part of that process; it only takes a few minutes) Here is a basic guide on how to upload papers onto any OSF preprint service, which is very similar to what would happen at BodoArXiv. Our colleagues at SocArXiv have produced this video tutorial on how to upload a paper.
What is BodoArXiv’s moderation policy?
Papers are moderated after they appear on BodoArXiv, a process we expect to take about two days. Our policy involves a five-point checklist, confirming that papers are (1) scholarly, (2) in research areas that we support, (3) are plausibly categorized, (4) are correctly attributed, and (5) are in languages that we moderate. In addition, we seek to accept only papers that authors have the right to share, although we do not check copyrights in the moderation process and do not take responsibility for any work shared on our platform. If we are notified of any copyright violations, OSF will remove the work from the website. For details, view our moderation policy.
What is open access?
Many journal articles and book chapters are published behind “paywalls,” which means only those who have a subscription (often through their learned society or university library), or else the ability to pay, can access and read them. Open access refers to the practice of making academic research (often funded by tax-payers’ money) publicly available for free, to allow more people to have access and read it.
What is a “preprint”?
A preprint is generally considered to be “a manuscript draft that has not yet been subject to formal peer review, distributed to receive early feedback on research from peers” (Source: Open Research Glossary). Some people also refer to this as an “unrefereed preprint.” By another definition, “preprint” includes texts, including monographs, that have been accepted for publication but not yet been “printed” (on paper or electronically). For example, when journals post accepted papers online that have not yet been “published,” these may be called preprints as well. However you define a preprint, if it is your own scholarly work which you can legally share, it is welcome on BodoArXiv.
What can I post to BodoArXiv?
BodoArXiv hosts scholarly works at a number of stages in the research process:
- Working papers (or unrefereed preprint): Any draft of a paper that is ready to share with interested parties, but has not yet been peer reviewed. If you are sharing your work with a group of colleagues, a planned or accepted conference panel, or a journal’s editorial board, this may be the perfect time to widen the circle and post it on BodoArXiv.
- Preprints (traditional): As distinct from working papers, this category includes versions of a paper that have been peer reviewed by a journal or academic publisher but are not yet published. Another term commonly used for this category is an “author accepted manuscript” or AAM.
- Post-prints: After a paper has been published by a journal, this is a version that you elect to share on BodoArXiv. It may be a version that does not include the journal’s formatting or other changes, or it may be the publisher’s copy (or “version of record”) if you have the right to distribute it. This is the version you share when you’ve published something but it’s behind a paywall and you want anyone to be able to read it.
- Although it may be less relevant to most medieval studies fields at present, the platform does support uploading code, data sets and images.
How should I use the taxonomy and can I modify it?
The taxonomy offers a set of universal tags in the broad categories of Subject, Area, and Period. Use these tags to identify the content of your paper. When uploading a paper, tick any and all boxes in the taxonomy that apply. You will also have an opportunity to add your own tags. If your subject falls between the tags listed in the taxonomy, choose the closest one or use two or more tags. Then enter a tag of your own design that most accurately describes your subject. The tags available for describing the geographical area are based on modern political or regional boundaries; choose one or more than seems closest to your area. If your subject spans more than one century, include all centuries that apply. You can certainly make suggestions to revise the taxonomy. The taxonomy will be reviewed and revised on an annual basis or more frequently, if needed. Send suggestions to the editorial board. We will regularly review existing user-defined tags to see whether any of these should be promoted to the taxonomy.
How should I license my work on BodoArXiv?
There are three options: No license, CC-0 1.0 Universal (public domain waiver), or CC-BY Attribution 4.0 International. Both CC options are excellent choices that allow reuse, adaptation, copying and distribution, including commercially, while guaranteeing you credit as the original author. A CC-0 option is a donation of the work to the public domain (no permission required), whereas CC-BY allows the author to retain copyright, and requires the reader to give credit to the source and to provide a link to the license terms. Both licenses promote openness and efficiency by providing certainty to the user as to what reuses or adaptations can be made. Read more here.
What journals allow me to share preprints?
A growing number of publishers permit sharing preprint and even post-print versions, especially in non-commercial repositories such as BodoArXiv. And most journals will let you submit a text that has previously been posted as a working paper. A partial list of prominent journals in medieval studies that have developed clear guidelines regarding preprint/archive policies includes: Speculum, Medium Ævum, The Medieval Globe, Early Medieval Europe, Journal of Medieval History, and Traditio. In any case, you can check a specific journal’s policies by looking at their website or try Sherpa Romeo, which is a database of publisher copyright and self-archiving policies. Contact the journal’s editors directly if the information is unclear.
Does Google Scholar index BodoArXiv?
Yes, Google Scholar ingests and links to BodoArXiv papers (and other papers on the OSF Preprints server).
Do papers that are uploaded to BodoArXiv receive a Digital Object Identifier?
Yes. In addition, if a paper previously received a DOI from a different publisher, that information can be included when uploading it to BodoArXiv, which will allow the paper to link to the latest published version (“versioning”). Note also that the OSF platform on which BodoArXiv runs creates a permanent URL for every paper.
What are the benefits of using BodoArXiv?
- Stable, persistent URL to use in your CV, professional portfolio, citations, etc.;
- Download statistics;
- Getting your work out faster than traditional publishing;
- One place to store the range of texts you (co)authored; and
- Promote humanities scholarship by supporting open access, open source, public goods research infrastructure.
What is the legal status of BodoArXiv?
BodoArXiv is an initiative of the non-profit ScholarlyHub and is hosted on the OSF Framework. As a legal entity, BodoArXiv is a subsidiary of Stichting ScholarlyHub, a non-profit (ANBI status) based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. BodoArXiv’s Steering Committee plays an advisory role in its activities and shaping its policies.
How can we be sure that BodoArXiv remains a non-profit?
As a subsidiary of ScholarlyHub, BodoArXiv is legally prohibited from making a profit, including by being sold or trading on users’ information. Moreover, BodoArXiv does not own the papers uploaded to it. In addition, the Center for Open Science system (COS) is backed up by a $250,000 preservation fund for hosted data in the event that COS has to curtail or close its offices. If activated, the preservation fund will preserve and maintain reading access to already hosted data.
What is the Center for Open Science (COS) and the Open Science Framework (OSF)?
COS is our technology partner and the owner of OSF Preprints, the platform on which BodoArXiv and many similar services run. OSF Preprints is a part of OSF, which “provides free and open source project management support for researchers across the entire research lifecycle.” It not only hosts BodoArXiv papers, but also allows you to link your papers to other components of your research projects, such as data and code. You can learn more about COS by visiting its FAQ page.
Why use BodoArXiv versus other sites?
| ResearchGate, Academia [dot] edu, etc. |
Personal websites | Institutional repositories | BodoArXiv | |
| Free to upload | yes | if hosted by your university | yes | yes |
| Free to read | may require registration | yes | yes | yes |
| Non-profit, public-interest service | no | if hosted by your university | if hosted by your university | yes |
| Complete metadata, including co-authors, DOI, ORCID, etc. | maybe | no | possibly | yes |
| Link to repository for data, code, etc. | no | if you build it | possibly | yes |
| Persistent URL across versions | ? | no | no | yes |
| Create DOI for your paper | ? | no | some | yes |
| Download count | some? | maybe | maybe | yes |
| Contributing to the future of open scholarly communication | no | weakly | maybe | yes |
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