RETIRED - Journal Publication Information

Visit UNC's informative Copyright web pages for a comprehensive overview.

Read Owning and Using Scholarship:  An IP Handbook for Teachers and Researchers by Kevin Smith which provides a clear explanation of the law coupled with concrete examples drawn from actual issues encountered by scholars.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS AS THE AUTHOR:

• The author is the copyright holder. As the author of a work you are the copyright holder unless and until you transfer the copyright to someone else in a signed agreement.

• Assigning your rights matters. Normally, the copyright holder possesses the exclusive rights of reproduction, distribution, public performance, public display, and modification of the original work. An author who has transferred copyright without retaining these rights must ask permission unless the use is one of the statutory exemptions in copyright law.

• The copyright holder controls the work. Decisions concerning use of the work, such as distribution, access, pricing, updates, and any use restrictions belong to the copyright holder. Authors who have transferred their copyright without retaining any rights may not be able to place the work on course Web sites, copy it for students or colleagues, deposit the work in a public online archive, or reuse portions in a subsequent work. That’s why it is important to retain the rights you need.

• Transferring copyright doesn’t have to be all or nothing. The law allows you to transfer copyright while holding back rights for yourself and others.

The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resource Coalition (SPARC) offers excellent information on securing the rights for works that your have authored.

Today many authors are signing amended publisher agreements that permit them to retain certain rights, such as the SPARC Author Addendum. Also, these same authors can selectively pre-grant permission for others to use or distribute their works according to pre-set conditions through such means as a Creative Commons license. This idea of selectively retaining rights has become a central point in reshaping the concept of Scholarly Communication.

MIT Libraries offers some information on what it means to retain your author rights, including what the benefits are for authors and the public, which rights to retain, and how to identify publishers that are likely to be flexible about rights. It is becoming increasingly important that authors are aware of their options for negotiating their rights when they sign a contract with a publisher.

In addition to impact and cost-effectiveness, factors to consider when choosing a publisher include the publisher's copyright and archiving policies.  A consortium of UK academic institutions has developed the Sherpa/RoMEO database.  You may use this database to find a summary of permissions that are typically given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement.  Use this as a baseline from which to negotiate with the publisher for greater control over your scholarship.