Open Access Policy at Virginia Tech: Version Prep

As best practice, we recommend that the accepted manuscript file should include:

• A statement on the title page that says "This is the accepted manuscript of..." followed by the full citation of the published version, including the DOI, if available.  Example:
• 
• If your accepted manuscript was anonymized, add author information.
• If line numbers are present, remove them (in Word, go to Layout > Line numbers > None).
• If double spaced, consider reverting to single spaced for easier reading and fewer pages for printing.
• Add figures, tables, etc.
• If supplementary data or files were included, add a link to these if possible.
• If you assign a Creative Commons license to your accepted manuscript, place it on the title page, for example, "This article is licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International", linking the text to the license.  When you deposit the file, ensure that the license you choose matches the one on the title page.
• Check accessibility.  In Microsoft Word, for example, go to Review > Check Accessibility and then address any issues found.  You can also deposit the Word version in addition to the PDF, which provides greater accessibility.
• Convert the file to PDF.  Google Scholar mostly indexes PDFs, and PDF is a preservation format.  In Microsoft Word, for example, go to File > Save As > File Format: PDF.

If you have questions or would like assistance in preparing your manuscript, please contact vtechworks@vt.edu.