Authors - Keep Your Copyright! - Copyright - LibGuides at California State University Dominguez Hills

Your Scholarship, Your Rights

“Be a responsible steward of your intellectual property. Retain vital rights for you and your readers while authorizing publishing activities that benefit everyone by making scholarship more widely available.”

— Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)

What can authors do? Librarians are happy to help with the process!

Negotiate with the publishers to retain explicit ownership of your content (Author's 5 Basic Rights)
Transfer, via an author addendum, to the publisher only those rights needed for publication.
Specify other rights of particular value to you or your home institution
Consider publishing with an organization that will facilitate the widest dissemination of your work in order to help you fulfill your personal and professional goals as a scholar.

Author Rights Handout

Know Your Rights

Copyright holders retain 5 basic rights:

Right to Reproduce
Right to Prepare Derivative Works
Right to Distribute
Right to Display Publicly (related to artistic works)
Right to Perform Publicly (related to musical or dramatic works)

What Could You Lose if You Sign Away Your Rights?

The right to:

Use your work in a course pack
Place copies on print or electronic reserves
Mount a copy on your web site
Deposit a copy in your institutional repository
Distribute a copy to colleagues

Author Addenda to Copyright Agreements

SPARC Author Publisher Agreement addendum
From the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. For more information on this addendum: https://sparcopen.org/our-work/author-rights/brochure-html/
Author Addendum by Becker Library’s Scholarly Communications
From the Washington University School of Medicine
Sample publishing agreement language and model licenses
From the University of Michigan
more-lessons-on-negotiating-a-contributors-contract

Termination of Transfer

Termination of Transfer Tool
Often publishers will request or require a copyright transfer that results in the copyright of a work vesting exclusively with the publisher for the life of the author plus seventy years. There are cases however where authors may regain rights they have signed away: a termination of transfer. This helpful tool from The Author's Alliance and Creative Commons explains termination of transfer and helps creators decide whether they should seek legal counsel to determine if a termination of transfer is possible in their case.