Transforming Scholarly Communication
Scholars taking control of the scholarly communication and publication system to maximize dissemination of research
Retaining Rights To Your Work - Information for University of Iowa Authors
Why Retain Rights | Your Rights | Which Rights to Retain | How to Retain Rights
Publisher Agreements | Questions?
University of Iowa's Authors Addendum (pdf)
Why retain rights?
- Often publishers create significant barriers for authors who want to reuse their work, or allow others to use it. Negotiating changes to these standard agreements can help authors avoid unfortunate barriers to reuse and sharing.
- Some research funders request or require that work created with their funds be made available openly on the web (example: the NIH requires grant receivers to deposit articles into PubMed Central, see UI Division of Sponsored Programs' NIH Public Access Policy web page, or Hardin Library's web site for details). Funder policies can be reviewed in the University of Nottingham’s SHERPA/JULIET web site. Other institutions also have open access policies or mandates.
- Making research and scholarship as widely available as possible supports the University of Iowa’s mission "to advance scholarly and creative endeavor through leading-edge research and artistic production; to use this research and creativity to enhance undergraduate, graduate, and professional education, health care, and other services provided to the people of Iowa, the nation, and the world."
What are your rights?
- Know your rights as an author. As the author of a work, you are the copyright holder unless or until you transfer your rights (view sample publication agreements)
- Copyright law gives the creator of copyrighted works exclusive rights, including:
To reproduce the work in copies (e.g., through photocopying)
To distribute copies of the work
To prepare transitional or other derivative works
To perform or display the work publicly
To authorize others to exercise any of these rights
- UI authors are often most interested in retaining rights to:
Reuse their work in teaching, future publications, and in all scholarly and professional activities.
Post their work on the web page (sometimes referred to as “self-archiving”), in a discipline archive (such as PubMed Central or arXiv), or in an institutional repository (Iowa Research Online is UI's institutional repository)
- Know your rights under Fair Use, the TEACH Act, "public domain," and permissions to use copyrighted work. Copyright protection exists from the time the work is created in a fixed, tangible form of expression. However, registering a work for copyright affords the owner additional legal rights. You can register a work through the Copyright Clearance Center or directly with the U.S. Copyright Office.
The author of the original works owns the copyright unless the work was for hire and then the employer owns the copyright. The University’s Intellectual Property Policy, in the Operations Manual at V-30, addresses when copyright belongs to the University.
Which rights to retain?
- At a minimum: Transfer Copyrights But Reserve Some Rights
Negotiating changes to the standard contract before publication can help authors retain rights, thus increasing options for authors as well as readership, citation, and impact of the work itself. Before signing, strikeout and modify language of the publishing contract by changing the contract from granting "exclusive" rights to the publisher to granting "non-exclusive" rights to the publisher. Initial the changes and submit a signed copy to the publisher. In many cases, publishers will accept changed contracts.
- Ideally: Keep Copyrights and Transfer Limited Rights to the Publisher
- Option One: Cross out the original exclusive transfer language in the publication contract that your publisher provides and replace it with text such as the following:
“The author grants to the Publisher exclusive first publication rights in the Work, and further grants a non-exclusive license for other uses of the Work for the duration of its copyright in all languages, throughout the world, in all media. The Publisher shall include a notice in the Work saying "© [Author's Name]". Readers of this article may copy it without the copyright owner's permission, if the author and publisher are acknowledged in the copy and copy is used for educational, not-for-profit purposes.”
- Option Two: Use the University of Iowa's Authors Addendum (pdf). This provides you with the additional opportunity to grant other rights to the public - such as the freedom to use the work for non-commercial purposes provided attribution is given - which fosters further use and impact of your work.
- Option Three: The Creative Commons helps you publish your work online while letting others know exactly what they can and can't do with your work. When you choose a license, CC provides you with tools and tutorials that let you add license information to your own site, or to one of several free hosting services that have incorporated Creative Commons.
How to retain rights?
- Check the SHERPA/RoMEO web site to view the self-archiving and copyright policies of your publisher.
- Publisher policies and agreements are usually linked from the author information or article submission section of a journal’s website.
- If the policy for the publisher you want to use isn’t listed in the SHERPA database, or isn’t what you desire, you can retain rights by specifying to the publisher of your article which rights you would like to keep.
- The UI Authors Addendum (pdf) enables authors to continue using their publications in their academic work and to deposit them into any discipline-based research repository (including PubMed Central, the National Library of Medicine’s database for NIH-funded manuscripts).
- Use a Creative Commons license in place of the license provided by the publisher.
Which publishers are likely to be flexible about these rights?
- Publisher policies and agreements vary considerably. The SHERPA/RoMEO database offers a summary of publisher copyright policies & self-archiving.
- While some publishers will not accept an addendum outright, they might respond by sending back a second, more author friendly publishing contract.
- Publisher policies change over time, and the terms stated on their web sites often vary from the terms of their actual agreements, so it is important to read the agreement itself.
Examples of Publisher Copyright/Publication Agreements:
Where do I go with questions about these issues?
Edward Shreeves, Associate University Librarian & Director, Collections and Scholarly Communication,
335-5867
Karen Fischer, Collections Analysis & Planning Librarian, 335-8781
Your Librarian (departmental liaisons)
University of Iowa Office of the General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel Grainne Martin, 319-335-2742.
