Uploading papers on sites such as Academia.edu - copyright issues/author copy I'm in the process of setting up an account on Academia.edu and as you may know there is an area that allows you to add publications. My question is how does this work with a copyright agreement (Springer International Publishing) that I have signed?

For anyone that may have also signed this agreement: going by Section 3 it looks like I can upload a non-Springer formatted copy as long as I cite the Springer link as the final version?

I have heard people mention author copies before, but I'm not sure if this is a real thing or just a myth that's been circulated down the line (where you can host your papers as long as you make a slight change from the published copy).

The form if anyone is interested (direct download): Springer Copyright Form
You can check here what you are allowed to do; http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/

Some springer journals are Romeo Green, and allow you to upload the author post review final draft to an open Access repository 12 months after publication.

With Open Access publications you can do that straight away