Open Access: How Do I Archive My Article?

Be very careful to archive the exact version of the article that your journal permits. If it allows a preprint and you archive the publisher's version, you are in violation of copyright and the consequences can be expensive and disruptive. You can look up the exact terms for depositing/archiving at SHERPA/RoMEO.

At present, Empire State University does not have an institutional repository. Complying with a SUNY mandate we are in the process of developing Open Access policies, processes, and an institutional repository for Spring 2020.

Despite the .edu domain name, Academia.edu is, like ResearchGate and Mendeley, a business. These sites are a combination of content aggregator and social networking site for academic researchers. Google Scholar indexes them, and they have alerts which can be helpful for getting your article read by more scholars. However:

• Because these are neither personal websites nor true repositories, and they often host content that was not archived by authors who had permission to self-archive, these sites are subject to DMCA takedown notices and lawsuits.
• These sites are known to aggregate and sell your information for their own interests. 
• There are sometimes "premium" memberships that charge you.
• If their commercial interests do not remain profitable, your articles may disappear. 
• If they lose their copyright lawsuits, your articles may disappear.

They're popular, and if you do have the right to put your article up there, you may decide that the additional exposure and opportunities for social networking with peers in your field make it worthwhile. But you should also deposit your article in an appropriate disciplinary or institutional repository.

If your publication contract permits self-archiving, then you may certainly put your article (or at least preprint) up on your personal website. This may be a simple and straightforward solution, however, it has major downsides.

• An article on your personal website is unlikely to be on the first page of Google Scholar search results, if it is indexed in Google Scholar at all. (You would need to know how to apply the right metadata.)
• Once you no longer maintain your website, the article will vanish. 

So while it's fine to put your article on your website, you should also archive it in an appropriate disciplinary or institutional repository.