Author RightsColleen Lyon, Scholarly Communications Librarian

Oct. 28, 2014

What are author rights?

Basics of copyright

• An item is copyrighted at the moment it is created in a fixed medium

Basics of copyright, cont.

• It last a really long time• Life of the author +

70 years• Corporate author: 95

years from publication or 120 from creation (whichever comes first)

Copyright is actually a bundle of rights• To produce copies and distribute those

copies• To import or export the work• To create derivatives• To perform or display publicly• To sell or cede rights to others• To transmit by radio or video

And one last thing…

• Multiple authors jointly own copyright and each may exploit their rights without getting explicit permission from the others*

What is the point of copyright?• US Constitution: “To promote the progress

of science and useful arts”

• For most publishers:

Copyright and academic publishing

From Journal of the American Medical Association:In consideration of the action of the American Medical Association (AMA) in reviewing and editing this submission (manuscript, tables, figures, video, audio, and other supplemental files for publication), I hereby transfer, assign, or otherwise convey all copyright ownership, including any and all rights incidental thereto, exclusively to the AMA, in the event that such work is published by the AMA.

From PLOS:PLOS applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to all works we publish. Under the CC BY license, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article, but authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy articles in PLOS journals, so long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.

Copyright transfer agreements

Open access publishers tend to be more author-friendly

You can choose your publisher based on their policies

What if you have to publish in ________

journal to get tenure?

The copyright transfer agreement is the start of a negotiation process*

A publisher is not going to say no to your article just

because you try to negotiate!

Author’s final manuscript is almost always ok to share

You can share your work via the UTDR

You can also share your work through subject repositories

When you have the option consider-

Thank you!

List of sources used for images:Slide 1: http://constitutioncenter.org/experience/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions/the-bill-of-rights-exhibit Slide 2: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/09/theres-more-to-know-about-the-more-you-know/380242/Slide 3: http://pixabay.com/en/typing-laptop-computer-296047/Slide 4: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wooden_hourglass_2.jpgSlide 6: http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Retriever-Puppies-Sharing-a-Stick-Posters_i8650381_.htm Slide 7: http://www.kmhkreations.net/2011/09/02/how-to-add-a-dollar-sign-to-prices-in-the-rsform-pro-paypal-plug-in/#.VBrnmfldVAISlide 8: http://www.advisoranalyst.com/glablog/2014/09/10/not-all-stock-markets-are-created-equal.html Slide 15: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/File:The_fonz_thumbs_up.jpgSlide 16: http://figshare.com/articles/Being_open_as_an_early_career_researcher_UT_Austin_Open_Access_Week/1209088 Slide 20: http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/take-home-messages-from-the-2011-nutrition-metabolism-symposium-in-baltimore/10509