Date of Start of Embargo: Defined

Date of start of embargo

The date that an embargo comes into force and from whence the length of the embargo period is counted. The start date of a period during which access to a document or file or record is restricted. This could be: “date of online publication” or “publication date” or “date of online availability” or “date of deposit”. This date and the triggering event to start the embargo are defined by the copyright holder or the repository governance or the law.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 17 Aug 2026

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Worked examples

Is an instance

A publisher's self-archiving policy sets a 12-month embargo on the accepted manuscript, counted from the date of online publication; if the article is published online on 15 June, the date of start of embargo is 15 June, and the resulting date of end of embargo falls on 15 June the following year.

Date of start of embargo is the date an embargo comes into force — the point from which the embargo’s length is counted. The triggering event and the date itself are set by the copyright holder, the repository’s own governance policy, or applicable law, and are commonly tied to one of several other dates in a work’s publication lifecycle: date of online publication, date of acceptance, or date of deposit.

Which date typically triggers an embargo

Publisher self-archiving policies vary in which event they use as the embargo’s starting point, and this choice materially affects when the resulting date of end of embargo falls:

Date of online publication is the most common trigger for journal-article embargoes — the embargo clock starts once the version of record goes live, wherever it is hosted.
Date of acceptance is used by some publishers, particularly for depositing the accepted manuscript — the embargo runs from when the manuscript was finalized, which can start the clock earlier than online publication.
Date of deposit is occasionally used directly, particularly by repositories applying their own local embargo policy independent of the publisher’s terms.

Because different publishers and funders anchor the embargo start to different events, checking a specific journal’s self-archiving policy — for example via CASRAI’s guide to checking self-archiving policy with Open Policy Finder — is the reliable way to determine both the trigger and the resulting length for a given article, rather than assuming a standard convention.

Worked example

A publisher’s self-archiving policy sets a 12-month embargo on the accepted manuscript, counted from the date of online publication. If the article is published online on 15 June, the date of start of embargo is 15 June, and the resulting date of end of embargo falls on 15 June the following year.

Counter-example

A repository record deposited with no applicable embargo policy has no genuine date of start of embargo — the field is only meaningful for records where a real access restriction actually applies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who decides when an embargo starts?

The copyright holder (typically the publisher, under the terms of the author’s publishing agreement), the repository’s own governance policy, or applicable law — depending on the specific arrangement and jurisdiction.

Does the embargo always start at publication?

Not always. While date of online publication is the most common trigger, some publisher and repository policies instead count the embargo from date of acceptance or date of deposit — always check the specific policy for the journal in question.

What happens if I don’t know which date triggers my embargo?

Check the journal’s stated self-archiving policy directly, or use a policy lookup tool such as Open Policy Finder (formerly SHERPA/RoMEO) — see CASRAI’s guide on checking a journal’s self-archiving policy.

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Date of start of embargo"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/date-of-start-of-embargo" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

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  "description": "The date that an embargo comes into force and from whence the length of the embargo period is counted. The start date of a period during which access to a document or file or record is restricted. This could be: “date of online publication” or “publication date” or “date of online availability” or “date of deposit”. This date and the triggering event to start the embargo are defined by the copyright holder or the repository governance or the law.",
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  "dateModified": "2026-08-17T01:58:51",
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