Understanding Your Author Rights, Part Two

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In the previous post, we discussed the importance of understanding, retaining, and exercising your author rights when you’re publishing your work. But what about your earlier publications? If you’re unsure which rights the publisher permitted you to retain and/or can’t find a copy of your Author Agreement or Copyright Transfer Agreement, the following resources may help.

 Finding Information Online

RoMEO, managed by SHERPA services out of the UK, is “a searchable database of publisher’s policies regarding the self-archiving of journal articles on the web and in Open Access repositories.” (RoMEO FAQ). You can search by a journal’s title, ISSN, or publisher to find information regarding the journal’s open access options and self-archiving policies, the key information included in the publisher’s boilerplate Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA). RoMEO entries often include publisher contact information.

RoMEO’s data also powers other services such as http://rchive.it/.   Like RoMEO, searching for a journal or publisher will yield information regarding OA and self-archiving policies, but adds explanatory and contextual information designed to assist authors in understanding the fine print.

Contacting the Publisher Directly

In our experience, most publishers are very responsive when it comes to answering authors’ questions regarding permissible uses of their work. While few may be willing to alter a CTA post-publication, it’s not unheard of for specific requests to be honored on a case-by-case basis.

If RoMEO doesn’t include a journal or provide the publisher’s contact information, Ulrichsweb is a good next step. The online directory includes all available contact information for the over 300,000 journals and serials indexed.

If you need additional assistance, we’re here to help! Contact Sarah Leadley, sleadley@uwb.edu, with your questions.

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Understanding Your Author Rights, Part One

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After the years-long process of proposing the project, collecting the data, analyzing the data, and positing conclusions, you are finally ready to share your findings with the world. But do you know what rights you have to your work, before, during, and after you submit your research for publication?

Before Publication

Even if you have yet to make your research public, it is protected under copyright. This gives you, the creator, the exclusive right to distribute, reproduce, perform and/or display publicly, and modify your work.

During Publication

Once accepted for publication, publishers routinely ask you to sign a Publication or Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA). These are often boilerplate CTAs that ask authors to sign over their copyright wholesale. This could create barriers if you want to:

  • Use sections of your research in later works;
  • Distribute copies of your article to colleagues or students; and/or
  • Upload your article to a personal or institutional website
  • SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) provides an overview here:  http://www.sparc.arl.org/resources/authors/addendum

The good news: CTAs are, in fact, negotiable, as publishers technically do not need the full copyright in order to legally publish your work. The publisher needs:

  • The non-exclusive right to publish, distribute, and receive financial return from your article;
  • To receive attribution as the journal of first publication; and
  • Permission to migrate your article to any future formats and include in collections.

With those rights granted, you retain:

  • The right to re-use and build on your work without restrictions;
  • The ability to increase access, shareability, and citations by sharing your work online; and
  • Your attribution and citation rights as the author.

A simple way to negotiate your rights is to fill out and attach the SPARC Author Addendum (http://www.sparc.arl.org/sites/default/files/Access-Reuse_Addendum.pdf) to the CTA provided by your publisher.   Even if the publisher does not sign the addendum, publication of your article represents tacit acceptance of addendum terms.

After Publication

Depending on the specifics of your CTA, you can archive a pre-, post-, or publisher’s version of your article in ResearchWorks, University of Washington’s online institutional repository. Doing so will increase access to and visibility of your work and provide you with a permanent, stable URL to your article.

If you need additional assistance, we’re here to help! Contact Sarah Leadley, sleadley@uwb.edu, with your questions.

References & Resources