Deposit a document

Last updated: 27-06-2024

Open the deposit interface

  • Log into SONAR
  • Click Deposit a publication

If you don't see this button:

  • Maybe you are not registered in your institution. Ask your administrator for the right to deposit a publication.
  • Maybe you have a higher role (moderator, administrator). In this case, open the administration interface (Username > Administration) and click on Deposits > Deposit a publication.

Step 1: Upload your file(s)

SONAR allows any file format. For long term preservation purposes, some formats are more recommended compared to others. Examples of usually recommended formats for text:

  • PDF/A (.pdf)
  • Unicode text (.txt)
  • XML (.xml)
  • etc.

Check your institution's guidelines to be sure that a format is accepted.

Step 2: Document metadata

There are three different ways to record a document's metadata:

  • Import the data from a PDF uploaded in step 1
    1. Click on Import metadata > Analyze uploaded PDF
    2. This process retrieves fields like title, abstract, authors and corresponding affiliations, etc. but it does not guarantee 100% accuracy in all cases, it strongly depends on how a PDF is encoded.
    3. Complete or correct the extracted data.
  • Import the data from swisscovery
    1. Search your document by the chosen criteria.
    2. The best way to get the correct record is to use the swisscovery ID (MARC 001). I.e. the numerical section at the end of a swisscovery permalink: https://swisscovery.slsp.ch/permalink/41SLSP_NETWORK/1ufb5t2/alma991142204049705501
  • Enter the data manually

Step 3: Contributors

Enter or correct the data about the authors and contributors of the document. Ideally, enter an ORCID to uniquely identify a person.

If there is no contributor, you can remove the section and go to the next step.

Step 4: Research projects

You can link the document to one or more research projects in the context of which it was published, so that it can be grouped with other publications linked to that project. Either:

  • Search for an existing project SONAR
  • Add a new project

Step 5: Diffusion

If you are a submitter, your submission will be validated by a moderator, to ensure that the data is correct.

When you submit a document on SONAR, you must ensure that

  • the document's authors allow it to be visible in SONAR
  • the publication on SONAR does not infringe third party copyrights, especially publisher's copyright

Currently, more than two thirds of all scientific journals allow authors to archive a preprint or postprint version of the articles they publish. The Sherpa Romeo site lists in detail the conditions of a large number of publishers. The local head of your organisation and the moderators should also be able to provide assistance in this matter.


Search documents | Submission and validation process