This site is used by Lancaster academics to archive and disseminate their work and can also be used to record related RAE information. Why bother? Firstly, it's a simple feedback loop:

• Research →
• Output →
• Increased visibility/profile/accessibility (the bit where E-Prints is useful) →
• Increased funding / Enhanced career ☺ →
• Research → ...

Secondly, it's an archive of your work and, if you use the ability to create multiple versions, a history of the development of your work. If you turn out to be as important as Newton, Darwin, Einstein, etc. then future historians will be able to to use Eprints to help trace the development of your work.

To create yourself a user account and start archiving items, read on:

• Go to E-Prints Registration and provide your name, an email address (preferably a Lancaster one), a username (preferably your Lancaster Network login, for the purpose of future integration) and choose a password (this is a different one to the one you use on the Lancaster network(we are looking into this)).
• An email will be sent to the email address you provided. It contains an activation link which must be clicked. Do so, you are now ready to start depositing material.
• Following successful registration go to the 'Login' page. There is always a button at the top of every E-Prints page for this.
• Click on 'New Item' to start depositing an item. This will walk you through a number of screens asking for information at each point. This may seem a little tedious at first but soon becomes second nature. The entry of meta data about items is important, it is what turns E-Prints from a mere file store into a powerful academic archive and publishing platform. At an absolute minimum (fields marked with a red *) you will need the following information for a item:
  • Title and Authors
  • Status, whether published, submitted, etc
  • Subject/Department category
  • The actual document to archive (PDF (preferred), HTML, Postscript, ASCII, other)
  Other information you can provide includes ISBN/ISSN, DOI, abstract, keywords, references, etc. For complete documentation look here.

That's it! It's worth taking a look at the self-archiving FAQ and the publisher policies.