Author Rights and Copyright: How To Retain Rights

Authors are encouraged to anticipate their future use of the work and retain any or all of the rights they may need to achieve their academic and professional goals. Authors may want to retain rights to do the following:

• Make copies of the work for educational use, including class notes, study guides or electronic reserves
• Use part of the work as a basis for a future publication
• Send copies of the work to colleagues
• Present the work at conference or meeting and give copies of the work to attendees
• Use a different or extended version of the work for a future publication
• Deposit the work in an institutional or funding agency repository
• Post the work on a laboratory or institutional web site on a restricted network or publicly available network
• Include the work in future derivative works, including a dissertation or thesis
• Use the work in a compilation of works or collected works
• Expand the work into a book form or book chapter

See Practical Guidance When Submitting Journal Articles from SPARC.

The Scholar’s Copyright Addendum Engine created by Creative Commons allows authors to choose from four addenda which will automatically generate amendments to a publisher’s copyright agreement for authors to retain certain rights to their work.

Do you need help with reviewing a publisher copyright agreement? Contact Cathy Sarli for assistance.

Note: Authors who receive funding from agencies that have public access mandate policies must retain the right to comply with these policies. Examples of public access mandates are the NIH Public Access Policy and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Policy on Public Access to Publications.

• Anticipate the ways you wish to reuse and disseminate your work
• Use a publisher that allows authors to retain certain rights or is willing to negotiate
• Review the publisher’s copyright agreement form before signing to confirm that the anticipated uses and rights are noted on the form
• Attach an addendum if necessary, in order to retain rights
• Keep a record of all signed documents
• Comply with any publisher restrictions on use

In some cases it may be necessary to negotiate with a publisher in order to retain rights that are not expressly noted by the publisher on the journal website or the publisher copyright agreement form. One way for authors to negotiate is to discuss their needs with the publisher or Editor-in-Chief. In most cases, the publisher or Editor-in-Chief will support the author’s rationale in favor of retaining of certain rights. Once an agreement is reached authors are encouraged to confirm what was agreed upon by doing one of the following:

1. Ask the publisher to send a new copyright agreement form.
2. Ask the publisher if you can attach an addendum to the publisher’s copyright agreement form in order to retain the rights as desired.
3. Insert the rights you wish to retain in the publisher copyright form. Some publisher copyright agreement forms include a space for authors to insert rights they wish to retain.

Any changes made directly on the form agreement must include the initials of the author and the initials of an authorized representative of the publisher, which are placed immediately adjacent to the handwritten or typewritten change.  Any changes made and initialed by the author will have no legal effect without the approval of the publisher.

1. Review the publisher’s copyright agreement form of a specific journal to determine what rights a publisher allows authors to retain and stipulations that must be followed. Note that policies may vary among journals published by the same publisher.
2. Look under “Instructions for Authors” or “Copyright Information” on the journal web site. Many publishers provide detailed information for authors as to what uses are permitted under the publisher’s copyright policy for a given journal.

NOTE: Some journal publishers have not updated their copyright agreement forms to harmonize with the information provided in the instructions for authors section. Authors are encouraged to carefully review the publisher copyright agreement form before signing to confirm that the anticipated uses and rights or the rights granted up front by the publisher are outlined on the form. If not, authors should seek clarification from the publisher before signing and ask if you can include an addendum.