Copyright & Scholarly Communications

Copyright is a form of legal protection that provides authors of original creative works with limited control over the reproduction and distribution of their work. It gives copyright holders a set of exclusive rights to

• reproduce the work, in whole or in part
• distribute copies of the work
• publicly perform the work
• publicly display the work
• prepare derivative works based on the original, such as translations or adaptations

These rights are subject to exceptions and limitations, such as "fair use," which allow limited uses of works without the permission of the copyright holder.

For more in-depth information on this topic see the UNM Copyright Guide.

Copyright protects "original works of authorship." To be protected by copyright, a work must be original and recorded. It cannot be copied or expressed without being recorded.

What is not protected by copyright?

• facts or ideas
• titles, names, short phrases, or slogans
• procedures, methods, systems or processes
• works of the United States government
• works that have passed into the public domain

What does this mean for you as an author?

You do not need to register your work to have copyright over it, once you create a work in tangible form you have the rights to it. You have a right to control:

• where your work is published
• who has access
• whether and how it can be re-used

Quick Tip: Use an author addendum (see box to the left) to customize your publisher agreement and be sure to check your rights as an author in advance! Review your publisher's agreement for details, especially regarding the NIH Public Access Policy or other funder requirements. Effectively managing your rights as a copyright owner can help you to maximize the impact of your research and scholarship.

Note: You must retain the right to deposit a copy of the final manuscript in PubMed Central if you are funded by the AHRQ, ASPR, CDC, FDA, NIH, USDA, and other federal organizations. Check your publisher's agreement for specifics. See our NIH Public Access Policy Guide for more information. 

Creative Commons helps you share your knowledge & creativity with the world.

Creative Commons licenses are a standardized way to give others permission to share and use your work -- on conditions of your choice. You retain copyright of your work while allowing others to make limited use.

Choose a License

Learn more: creativecommons.org

It is important to understand that while you control how the work can be used with Creative Commons the most basic level of the license does mean that others can use your work, you are just indicating how they can use it. Creative Commons is usually more useful for images as opposed to writing.

• One page addendum to be attached to publishing agreement
• Allows the author to retain rights under copyright
• Author can authorize others to use the work non-commercially
• Author can post article on personal or institutional website, or in open-access repository
• Publisher will provide author with a typeset version of the manuscript

Modify your publisher agreement to keep key rights to your articles.  These may include posting your article to your personal website, maintaining the rights to data expressed as figures and charts, and the ability to distribute your work for free to students, among others.

• Most journals will ask you to transfer some or all rights to the publisher
  • Must be transferred in writing
• Exclusive rights
  • Once transferred, only the publisher may exercise that right
• Non-exclusive rights
  • More than one party has ability to exercise right
• Make sure to read and save your agreement!
• Agreements can be negotiated

https://sparcopen.org/our-work/author-rights/

Negotiating Your Agreement

• Step 1: READ the copyright transfer agreement to understand what rights will transfer and which you will retain
• Step 2: Decide if the initial offering is sufficient or not
• Step 3: Indicate to the publisher in writing what specific rights you want to retain

Rejection of Proposed Terms

• If your terms are rejected, you can
  • Try reaching out again, or compromise on what you want to keep
  • Look for another journal in which to publish your work
  • Publish anyway without retaining the rights you wanted
• Negotiating won’t hurt your chances of being publishing

If you are looking for information on copyright restrictions for course materials please see our Course Reserves Guide

Copyright Basics - U.S. Copyright Office

Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians - U.S. Copyright Office

Owning and Using Scholarship: An IP Handbook for Teachers and Researchers - Kevin L. Smith, J.D., Director of the Office of Copyright and Scholarly Communication at Duke University 

Copyright Term and the Public Domain - Cornell University

Public Domain Handbook - University of California at Berkeley Law School

Parts of this Guide were obtained from Copyright Basics by April Hathcock and Andrea Ketchum's Scholarly Communications Guide at University of Pittsburgh HSLS.