LibGuides: Copyright & Plagiarism: Author Rights

Copyright Publisher Agreements

Authors routinely sign publishing agreements that transfer copyright to the publisher. Therefore, an author cannot assume that he retains the rights to his article.

Author's Rights, Tout de Suite by Charles W. Bailey, Jr.
Author's Rights, Tout de Suite by Charles W. Bailey, Jr. provides a quick introduction to key aspects of authors' rights, and supplies addiitonal information through relevant references to online documents and links to pertinent Web sites.
NIH Public Access Policy
The NIH Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. It requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication. To help advance science and improve human health, the Policy requires that these papers are accessible to the public on PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication. NIH Manuscript Submission System provides submission information to ensure your publishing agreement allows the paper to be posted to PubMed Central in accordance with the NIH Public Access Policy. For more information regarding the NIH Public Access Policy, peruse the Public Access Frequently Asked Questions
SPARC Author's Rights
Initiative provides an informative website including the SPARC Author Addendum . A legal instrument that modifies the publisher’s agreement and allows you to keep key rights to your articles. The Author Addendum is a free resource developed by SPARC in partnership with Creative Commons and Science Commons established non-profit organizations that offer a range of copyright options for many different creative endeavors.

Sample Author Addendums

Many authors do not realize that when they sign an agreement with a publisher to publish their articles that they also shift their copyright to the publisher as well. Retaining your rights as an author is important to ensure you can use your writings in teaching or as a foundation for future publications. Attaching an author addendum to the publisher agreement will help ensure you retain the rights you need.

The following are examples of author addendums provided at other Universities indicating institutional support:

Author Addenda
"This is a list of author addenda. An author addendum is a proposed modification to a publisher's standard copyright transfer agreement. If accepted, it would allow the author to retain key rights, especially the right to authorize Open Access. The purpose is to help authors who are uncomfortable negotiating contract terms with publishers."
SPARC Author Addendum
A free resource developed by SPARC in partnership with Creative Commons and Science Commons. The SPARC Author Addendum is a legal instrument that modifies the publisher's agreement and allows you to keep key rights to your articles.
University of Minnesota
Endorsed by the University of Minnesota Senate. The author addendum was created in 2007 and is very similar to the SPARC Author Addendum.