Guides for researchers
Practical, plain-language answers to the questions researchers ask when they share their work: how to deposit and license it, how to get it found in Google Scholar, how to cite data and software, and what DOIs, ORCID iDs, preprints and open access actually mean.
Publishing your work
How to deposit your research on Life of Research, step by step
Every field of the deposit form explained, from abstract to file order, and what happens after you press Publish.
5 min read · Updated 7 Oct 2026Choosing an open license for your paper, data or code
CC BY for papers, CC0 for data, a software license for code: what each allows and when to choose something else.
5 min read · Updated 7 Oct 2026What is a DOI, and do you need one?
How DOIs work, who issues them, when a permanent URL is enough, and how to get a DOI without paying.
4 min read · Updated 7 Oct 2026ORCID explained: what an ORCID iD is and why researchers need one
A free identifier that keeps your work attached to you, whatever your name or employer. How to get one and use it.
4 min read · Updated 7 Oct 2026Getting found and cited
How to get your research indexed in Google Scholar
The technical rules Google Scholar applies, the usual reasons a paper never appears, and a checklist before you deposit.
5 min read · Updated 7 Oct 2026How to cite a dataset, software and a preprint, with worked examples
Copyable APA and BibTeX patterns for data, code and preprints, with the version and identifier details people forget.
5 min read · Updated 7 Oct 2026How scholarly publishing works
Open access explained: green, gold and diamond
Green, gold, diamond, hybrid and bronze compared: who pays, which version is free, and what you may share.
4 min read · Updated 7 Oct 2026Preprints vs journal articles: differences, benefits and risks
Speed versus certification: what a preprint is, what peer review adds, and how to use both for the same work.
3 min read · Updated 7 Oct 2026More resources
- Glossary — definitions of 44 research-publishing terms, from accepted manuscript to version of record
- Repository statistics — live counts of records, deposits, downloads and subjects
- Frequently asked questions — costs, file types, licenses and how Life of Research compares to Zenodo
- Developers and AI agents — JSON API, OAI-PMH and the MCP server