Will uploading a copy of my paper to Academia.edu harm the journal it’s published in? A paper that I have just had published in a journal is already starting to generate interest. I am allowed to upload a copy to Academia.edu as long as it is not the copy-edited version (peer review came up with very few changes). On the one hand I want people to read it – and this will also promote my own interests as an academic –, but I also don’t want to take potential sales away from the journal, which I like, and whose staff have been very good to me. 

Will uploading it harm the journal or could it generate more interest? I have linked to the journal in the paper page on Academia.edu.
Making the paper accessible to everyone who can't look behind the paywall might hurt the journal's publishing company a little bit by diverting some demand. However, it won't really hurt the people you have been dealing with. Moreover, the journal has given you explicit permission to publish a pre-print, so you're not going against their stated request.

At the same time, you are providing a service to


yourself, by increasing the reach of your paper and the citations that it will receive
the journal, to the extent that the preprint will attract interest to the journal and to the extent that people will cite the journal version rather than the preprint
the public who would otherwise not be able to look at the research. This applies in particular to readers outside of academic institutions and to scientists from poor countries.


Please upload your preprint to a freely accessible repository.