Once your Open Educational Resource (OER) is finalised, the next step is to publish and share it with the wider community.

This section will guide you through the essential steps, including obtaining a DOI and ISBN for improved discoverability and academic recognition, understanding legal deposit requirements for OER in New South Wales, and strategies for promoting your OER to ensure it reaches your intended audience. These actions help ensure your resource is accessible, properly archived, and widely disseminated.

When developing Open Educational Resources (OER), adding a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and International Standard Book Number (ISBN) can enhance the visibility, credibility, and accessibility of your work. A DOI is a unique alphanumeric string assigned to digital content, providing a permanent link to your OER that remains stable even if the URL changes. It ensures that your resource can be easily found and cited, facilitating academic recognition and integration into scholarly work.

An ISBN, typically associated with published books, can be applied to your OER to further legitimise it as a recognised academic resource. It aids in the cataloging, distribution, and discovery of your work, making it easier for libraries, institutions, and others to find and cite.

In this section, we’ll walk you through the process of applying for a DOI and ISBN for your OER.

DOI

There are a range of DOI registration agency services available, including Crossref. You can use the areas of coverage table on the International DOI Foundation (IDF) website to find a suitable DOI provider.

If you publish your OER with Charles Sturt on the Pressbooks platform a DOI will be obtained for the book. 

ISBN

Charles Sturt Library can assign ISBNs for self published works authored by Charles Sturt staff and students, this includes OERs published on the Pressbooks platform.

ISBNs can be obtained via the Request an ISBN form.

In New South Wales, the Legal Deposit system is a legislative requirement that ensures that a copy of all published works is deposited with the State Library of New South Wales, University of Sydney Library and the NSW Parliamentary Library. This obligation extends to a wide range of publications, including printed materials, digital works, and increasingly, Open Educational Resources (OER). The purpose of Legal Deposit is to preserve Australia’s cultural and intellectual heritage by ensuring that published works are accessible for future generations of researchers, scholars, and the public.

For OER creators in New South Wales, this means that once your resource is made publicly available, you may need to submit a copy to the State Library as part of your legal obligations. This may improve the long-term accessibility and discoverability of your OER.

If you are publishing your OER on the Pressbooks platform with support from Charles Sturt Library we will arrange legal deposit of your OER when issuing an ISBN.

More information about legal deposit:

Here are just a few ideas to help you promote your OER. Let us know if you have other ideas so we can add them to the list for future authors.

• Add your book to your CRO and ORCiD profiles, add a link to your email signature
• Promote it via social media platforms (LinkedIn etc)
• Consider writing an accompanying piece for The Conversation (if appropriate)
• Share a story with your school or department email newsletters
• Make an announcement or have the book added to the agenda at departmental meetings
• Share the news with your students (again, if appropriate) 
• Email professional bodies 
• Host a morning tea with your colleagues to celebrate
• Consider hosting a larger book launch - either virtual or face-to-face
• Guest on a podcast to talk about your book, or make a mini-series with your co-authors talking about your new book