For Authors

Author Rights and Publishing Agreements are a critical part of the process of making scholarly published works openly available. Without due caution, authors can easily sign away valuable rights and significantly limit the accessibility of their works. This page contains information and resources pertaining to author rights, including important considerations before signing publishing agreements and ways to make works openly available even after those agreements have been signed.

An Introduction to Publication Agreements for Authors. In a brief article, Professor Timothy Armstrong of the University of Cincinnati College of Law discusses author rights as they relate to publishing agreements, and an author’s ability to openly share their work.

[Know Your Rights!]

Publishers may or may not allow works to be shared. Check your agreement carefully to see what the publisher’s policies are. We can help authors determine whether a particular work may be shared or not. Send the author accepted manuscript (AAM) of your work and the publisher’s agreement to scholcomm@arcadia.edu.

Even if you have already signed an author agreement, you still may be able to share your work. Check your agreement carefully to see what the publisher’s policies are. We can also help, send us the author accepted manuscript and the citation of your work so we can help determine if the work can be shared or not to scholcomm@arcadia.edu.

Perhaps the most useful resource: SHERPA/RoMEO

A database devoted to providing publisher copyright and self-archiving policies.

Below are three options available to authors before they submit their works for publication, or at the time of the authors agreement.

The ideal solution from the author’s perspective would be to retain the copyright and all associated rights in their work while licensing to publishers only the rights the publisher needs to conduct its business. The author gets to determine who can use the scholarship. For example, the author could grant the publisher an exclusive license for the first formal publication of the work (in print, digital, or some other form). In addition, the author might want to grant the publisher non-exclusive rights to authorize (or accomplish themselves) the following:

• Subsequent republication of the work
• Reformatting of the publication (from print to microfilm or digital formats)
• Distribution via document delivery services or in course packs

The key issue with Option 1 is determining what the minimum bundle of rights that the publisher needs in order to protect its investment in the publication. This will vary from publisher to publisher.

The author can assign copyright to the publisher, but at the same time reserve some specific rights themselves. Rights authors might want to receive from the publisher include:

• The right to make reproductions for use in teaching, scholarship, and research
• The right to borrow portions of the work for use in other works
• The right to make derivative works
• The right to alter the work, add to the work, or update the content of the work
• The right to be identified as the author of the work
• The right to be informed of any uses, reproductions, or distributions of the work
• The right to perform or display the work
• The right to include all or part of this material in the a thesis or dissertation
• The right to make oral presentation of the material in any forum
• The right to authorize making materials available to underdeveloped nations for humanitarian purposes
• The right to archive and preserve the work as part of either a personal or institutional initiative, e.g. on a web site or in an institutional repository.
• The copyright in every draft and pre-print version of the work.

The weakness of Option 2 is that it is often difficult to anticipate in advance everything that an author may wish to do with a work, especially over time and with changes in information technology.

Option 3 is the traditional solution, but is the least desirable from the author’s perspective.

Source: Cornell University Libraries, published under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 U.S. License

Copyright is a form of legal protection for authors of original works, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and other intellectual products. Copyright was established in the Constitution: “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries” (Article 1, Section 8). While the details of copyright law have changed in the ensuing centuries, the essential impetus to promote future creative works remains a defining feature of the law.

Under U.S. law, “copyright” is a bundle of exclusive rights, conferred by federal statute (the 1976 Copyright Act, found in Title 17 of the United States Code) automatically, upon the author of a work, at the instant of its creation. Original works created after January 1, 1978, are protected by copyright from the moment they are fixed in a tangible medium of expression.

The author of a creative work holds copyright to that work unless he or she has transferred that right to another (for example, a journal publisher). Publication is not essential for copyright protection, nor is marking the copyrighted item with the well-known symbol ©. Copyright registration is not a requirement for protection by the law, but it does establish a public record of the copyright claim and, for works of US origin, it is required before an infringement suit may be filed in court.

Subject to a number of statutory limitations, the owner of the copyright in a work has the exclusive right to do and to authorize any and all of the following:

• To reproduce the copyrighted work in copies;
• To prepare derivative works (e.g. the film version of a book);
• To distribute copies of the copyrighted work publicly;
• To perform (e.g., an opera) the copyrighted work publicly;
• To display (e.g., a sculpture) the copyrighted work publicly, and
• In the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

On this page we have broken down the process for Arcadia faculty authors to contribute their works to our open access institutional repository, ScholarWorks@Arcadia, into these easy steps.

The two statements below represent the most common starting points for authors looking to get started. Click on a statement to get started, and follow the steps to make your works openly accessible. It’s as easy as 1–2–3.

I am currently working on an item that I have not published yet, and I want to make sure I can make it openly available.

Step 1: Publish Where You Want

Where you wish to publish is your choice, but there are a couple of options to consider.

Option 1: Publish where you normally would, but make sure you review your publishing agreement to ensure that you will retain enough rights to openly share some version of your work online after publication. This approach is known as Green Open Access. It involves an individual author making their published peer-reviewed articles publicly accessible on a website or institutional repository.

Option 2: Choose to publish in journals that are fully open access, or offer an open access option (the former are preferable). This approach is known as Gold Open Access. Under this approach a publisher provides immediate open access to the articles by making them publicly accessible online, often but not always in exchange for a fee from the author. Visit the Open Access page in this resource to find an open access journal to publish your scholarship in.

Step 2: Before You Sign, Review Your Publication Agreement

Too few authors read their publication agreement. These are legally binding documents that may restrict your ability to provide open access to a version of your scholarship. These documents deserve a few minutes’ study. In most publication agreements you will find a clear statement about whether you are allowed to post a version of your article online and, if so, whether it is the version you initially submitted for review (Pre-Print), the version you submitted once changes had been made in response to reviewer comments (Post-Print), or the final copy edited and typeset version by the publisher (Publisher’s Version/PDF). Sometimes an “embargo period” is also specified.

If you are still unsure what the publisher’s policy is, then check SHERPA/RoMEO. This resource provides an easy interface with information on publishers’ known policies regarding open sharing. It is searchable by publisher name or journal title. We can also assist in checking for you, contact us today with the name of the journal or publisher and we will investigate on your behalf. We can also help identify fully open access journals and publishers as well other publishing options such as author addenda.

Step 3: Send Us Your Citations and Papers

Once you have checked your agreements, and have the version of the article that the publisher allows you to share, send it to the Scholarly Communications Librarian along with bibliographic details about where it is being published. The Library will deposit your works on your behalf in ScholarWorks@Arcadia, minimizing the work you need to do as an author.

Please note: If you are unable to secure enough rights to share a version of your article openly, you can still send us the citation and abstract of the work to be added to ScholarWorks@Arcadia, along with a link to the publisher’s version where available. This provides another mechanism for faculty works to be discovered and referenced.

I have already published my works, but I want to know how I can still make them openly available.

Step 1: Review Your Publications Agreement and/or Check SHERPA/RoMEO

If you have a copy of the publication agreement you signed, you will normally find a section in which the publisher describes what version of your article they will allow you to make openly accessible online. This may be the version you initially submitted for review (Pre-Print), the version you submitted once changes had been made in response to reviewer comments (Post-Print), or the final Publisher Version/PDF, copy edited and typeset by the publisher. Sometimes an “embargo period” is also specified.

If the wording is unclear, or you are unable to locate your publication agreement, then check SHERPA/RoMEO. This resource provides an easy interface with information on publishers’ known policies regarding open sharing. It is also searchable by publisher name or journal title. SHERPA/RoMEO is a widely-trusted resource but will usually only tell you a publisher’s current policies. Referring to the author agreement is always preferable if you have access to it, as many publisher’s policies have changed over time.

We can also assist in checking for you, contact us with the citation of the work and we will investigate on your behalf.

Step 2: Locate the Version of the Work the Publication Agreement Says You Can Deposit to Your Institutional Repository

Publishers and libraries generally recognize three different versions of a work in the scholarly process of writing an academic journal article: Pre-Prints, Post-Prints, and Publisher Version/PDF. The publication agreement will tell you which version the publisher will allow you to deposit in an open access institutional repository. The Post-Print is the most common, but it’s important to check the publication agreement or SHERPA/RoMEO to be sure. Some publisher’s definition of “Post-Print” can also vary, so consult the agreement, or contact us for assistance.

Step 3: Send Us Your Citations and Papers

Once you have checked your agreements, and have the version of the article that the publisher allows you to share, send it to the Scholarly Communications Librarian along with bibliographic details about where it is published. The Library will deposit your works on your behalf in ScholarWorks@Arcadia, minimizing the work you need to do as an author.

Please note: If you are unable to secure enough rights to share a version of your article openly, you can still send us the citation and abstract of the work to be added to ScholarWorks@Arcadia, along with a link to the publisher’s version where available. This provides another mechanism for faculty works to be discovered and referenced.