1. What is PIRA?
The PolyU Institutional Research Archive (PIRA) is an open access repository for The Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s research, teaching and learning digital materials. Managed by the Library, this platform aims to preserve, secure and provide access to these digital materials produced by PolyU researchers, teaching staff and students.
2. What types of research output content can I deposit into PIRA?
PIRA accepts a diverse range of research and scholarly materials in digital form, such as:
- Journal articles (including pre-prints and post-prints)
- Conference publications
- Books and book chapters
- Case studies
- Non-traditional research outputs and creative works
3. How do I get my work into PIRA?
Any PolyU faculty, staff or student are welcome to deposit content to PIRA. For step-by-step guidance, please see our How to deposit page.
4. Which version should I submit?
Publishers have different policies regarding the versions of papers allowed in university repositories like PIRA. Most publishers allow authors to deposit their accepted manuscript in an institutional repository.
What does a Final Accepted Manuscript look like?
The final accepted manuscript is the author’s final draft, which is accepted for publication, includes modifications made in response to referees' suggestions but is prior to the publisher’s copy editing and formatting. The text is often identical to the published paper.
5. What are the benefits of depositing my work in PIRA?
Have your work indexed and archived in PIRA to enjoy the following benefits:
- Make your research and teaching activities visible to worldwide public
- Make your research more discoverable through Google, Google Scholar and other search engines
- Your work is permanently archived for you
- Increase the chance of new contacts, promote research partnerships and facilitate knowledge transfer
6. Do I have to check the copyright before depositing full text works in PIRA?
The Library will check the copyright of each submitted full-text publication before making it available in PIRA for open access. Many publishers allow authors to archive the "accepted manuscript" version of their articles in an institutional repository.
7. How can I check the publisher policy before depositing my paper?
You do not need to check the publisher’s policy. The Library will do this for you at the time of deposit. However, if you would like to check the publisher policy before depositing your paper, you can use the Open Policy Finder. You can search for a journal, publisher, or funder to find out their open access policies. For instance, to look up a specific journal’s copyright and self-archiving policies, you can use the simple search feature and find by either Journal Title/ISSN or by the publisher’s name. The results will provide summaries of the permissions typically granted in each publisher’s terms and conditions.
8. Will depositing in PIRA prevent journals from accepting and publishing my research?
Only the appropriate version of your research manuscript will be made available in PIRA after the journals have accepted and will publish your research work.
9. What about datasets?
