Scholarly Publisher's Toolkit

Under U.S. federal law, the copyright holder has the following exclusive rights:

•  The right to copy or reproduce the work in any format, whether digital or analog.
• The right to make derivative works (all kinds of adaptations of the work, including translations, revisions, film versions of books, etc.).
• The right to control the distribution of new (but not used) copies of the work.
• The right to perform the work publicly.
• The right to display the work publicly.

More information is available under the headings " Exclusive Rights in Copyrighted Works"  U.S. Copyright Code, 17 U.S.C. § 106, through the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School.

Know your Author Rights

• Negotiate: You have the right to change your publication agreement!

• National Grants: If you have conducted your research using a national grant, you may be REQUIRED to make it publicly accessible.

• Local Repositories: FAIR USE allows you to place your work in a library repository under certain restrictions.

• Addendum: The easiest way to alter an agreement is by attaching a stanadarized addendum like the one from SPARC.

• Choose Wisely: You can choose to publish in a journal that supports OPEN ACCESS or SELF ARCHIVING

For More Information:

In general, publishers require you to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement. These agreements usually favor the publisher and not the author and will vary by publisher. The below resources can be utilized to help an author amend the standard agreement in order to retain key rights to their works.