BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online Deposit Guide

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To deposit a paper:

• Check that the paper is eligible
• Check that you have the document in a suitable electronic format
• Register with BIROn or, if you are already registered, log in.
• Deposit your eprint.

Alternatively, you can use the Repository Mediated Service.

1. Eligible papers

Eligible papers are those that:

• are authored by a member of Birkbeck College. In the case of multiple authors, at least one must be from Birkbeck.
• are one of the following document types:
• article from a journal, magazine, newspaper
• chapter or section in a book
• a book or a conference volume
• monograph ie. a technical report, project report, documentation, manual, working paper or discussion paper
• thesis or dissertation
• have copyright clearance. (Don't worry if you aren't sure about this - it will be checked by a repository administrator. It would be helpful if you could use the "Comments" box on the deposit form for any copyright information you have.)

2. Format of your document

Many publishers do not allow their PDF of documents to be used in institutional repositories, although some do. The best format for deposits is therefore one or more of the following:

• a Word file
• your own PDF
• publisher's PDF
• plain text

If you do not have your document in one of those formats, and cannot convert it, please deposit it anyway, noting which format it is in in the appropriate box. 

You may deposit items in more than one format - the repository administrators will use the most appropriate.

3. Registering with BIROn

1. From the BIROn homepage, click on the Create Account link.
2. Complete the details on the registration page and click the Register button.
3. Respond to an email that the system will send you. This will activate your password.

If you forget your password, you can reset it by following the link at the top of the login page or the registration page.

You can log in to the User Area using the Login button on the BIROn homepage.

Students and/or those outside of the Birkbeck research community do not need to register in order to search BIROn.

4. Depositing an item

Login with your BIROn username and password.

Choose New Item to deposit your eprint. You will then be asked for information which will be used to create a record for your paper in the BIROn database.

The information you provide will allow your paper to be found by eprint search engines, so it is important that the details are as full and as accurate as possible. If possible, cut and paste details such as the title from the paper itself.

Item type

Choose the most appropriate type for your deposit and click Next.

Uploading your document

• Browse your computer for the file you wish to deposit, then click Upload.
• Select the file Format from the drop-down list. Add a description if your format is "Other".
• Leave the other boxes at the default values and click on Update Document.
• If you need to add further files (eg illustrations, tables or figures) to the document, click on "Need to add additional files to this document?" and upload the files.
• If you have the full text of the document in another format, add the file using the New Document box. 
• Click Next.

Bibliographic info

The screen that follows ask for bibliographic information about your deposit. Only five fields are mandatory:

• Title
• Author(s)
• Refereeing Status
• Publishing Status
• Publisher

School

A mandatory field. Use the drop-down menus to indicate your department

Click on Deposit when you have finished.

If you would like to complete your deposit at a later date you may click on Save for Later at any point.

If you would like a repository administrator to complete the input for you, you may click on Deposit at any point once the mandatory information (such as author and title) has been added.

Once you have deposited the document, it will be held in a cache where it will be checked by a repository administrator. You will be informed if there are any problems, otherwise the eprint should appear in the archive after a short while.

Digital Object identifiers

If you know the DOI number of your article, you can choose Import Item rather than New Item. Copy and paste the DOI number only into the box and select DOI via Crossref in the dropdown menu. Click Test Run and Import. The DOI will automatically populate many of the fields for you, including Type, Title and Author(s).

5. Repository Mediated Service

Although staff are encouraged to add items themselves, Repository Support staff will deposit full text items on your behalf. You will need to supply details about the publication and an electronic version of the paper. It would be useful if you could supply as much bibliographic information as possible. Staff will convert the paper to PDF format and check that the publisher allows inclusion of the paper in an Institutional Repository.

Contact: lib-eprints@bbk.ac.uk

Note: by depositing papers or asking repository staff to deposit on your behalf, you are agreeing to the terms of the Deposit licence. By completing the deposit process you are accepting these terms.