OA & Copyright

The use of a non-exclusive licence to publish rather than full copyright assignment allows copyright and control of one’s own work to be maintained by an author.

Copyright assignment entails an author signing over rights to a publisher, and results in the author losing copyright and in some cases even losing the right to post a copy of their article to a personal or departmental website or using their own work in a later publication. Some publishers advertise the use of an exclusive license to publish, but many of these still effectively take all rights for use and allow the author to keep the copyright in name only. Use of a non-exclusive license to publish, alternatively, allows an author to keep copyright and necessary re-use rights and allows the publisher to have the rights they need for publication. Some publishers have switched to non-exclusive licenses, though in all cases it is important that authors read copyright agreements and make author amendments when necessary to ensure their rights are retained.

JISC & the SURF Foundation. (n.d.). Copyright Toolbox.
http://copyrighttoolbox.surf.nl/copyrighttoolbox/authors/

JISC Legal. Legal Guidance for ICT Use in Education, Research and External Engagement.
http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/

SURF. (2006). Copyright Management for Scholarship.
http://copyright.surf.nl/copyright/

SPARC. (2006). Author Rights: Using the SPARC Author Addendum to secure your rights as the author of a journal article. http://www.arl.org/sparc/author/addendum.shtml

Advertisement