You Know What You Write, But Do You Know Your Rights? Understanding and Protecting Your Rights As an Author Jill Cirasella The Graduate Center, CUNY

“Sign here!”

Yes, many subscription-based scholarly journals require authors to sign away their rights to their own articles. JAMA’s transfer agreement:

No, authors don’t always fully read and understand what they’re required to sign. Wiley’s transfer agreement:

Do authors WANT to give up all of their rights to their work?

Do authors HAVE to give up all of their rights to their work?

Three Kinds of Journals 1) Traditional Toll Access Journals Subscription-based journals that require authors to transfer copyright to the journal, which then has exclusive rights to the article.

Three Kinds of Journals 2) Open Access Journals (“Gold OA”) Journals that automatically and immediately make their articles available online to all at no cost. (There are a variety of business models, but the articles are always free to read.) Gold OA journals do not take copyright. They use Creative Commons licenses instead.

Three Kinds of Journals 3) Journals that Let Authors Share (“Green OA”) Journals (of any kind) that permit authors to post (aka “self-archive”) their articles in OA repositories. Many of these journals do take copyright, but “give back” some rights to the author.

Is Self-Archiving Allowed? Ugh…

Is Self-Archiving Allowed? Easier! SHERPA/RoMEO Search by journal/publisher to learn its copyright and self-archiving policies

Very Good...

Quite Good...

Not Great...

Very Bad...

Prevalence of Permission? Among Publishers SHERPA/RoMEO covers 2166 publishers as of November % allow some form of self-archiving. For more information:

Prevalence of Permission? Among Journals Of the 18,000+ journals covered by SHERPA/RoMEO in Nov. 2011: 87% allow immediate self-archiving of some version of article 60% allow immediate self-archiving of post-refereed version 16% allow immediate self-archiving of published PDF Allowing for embargoes (usually 6 to 24 months), 94% allow self-archiving of post-refereed versions For more information:

“Voluntary” vs. Mandated Green OA A growing number of institutions have policies to ensure that their researchers’ articles become green OA (i.e., get archived in an OA repository). Some publishers are now trying to make different rules for “voluntary” self-archiving and policy-mandated self-archiving: “You may self-archive if you wish but not if you must.”

“Voluntary” vs. Mandated Green OA Example: EmeraldEmerald “Emerald supports an author’s right to voluntarily self-archive their works without payment or embargo.” “If you are mandated to make your work OA but have no funds for an [article processing charge], you may deposit your work 24 months after official publication, or contact for consideration for an embargo

Can I Negotiate My Contract? Sometimes. Your best shot is the Scholar’s Copyright Addendum Engine:

Can I Ask After the Fact? Yes! (Ask for a sample!) Dear Publisher, I am writing to ask permission to mount a copy of an article of mine, which was published in one of your journals, in the City University of New York’s research repository, CUNY Academic Works… If possible, I would like post the final, journal-braded PDF version. The PDF version is preferable to my manuscript version because it maintains consistency in appearance of the article wherever it is read and more closely associates the article with the journal…

Suppose you have the right to self-archive your article. Where can you self-archive? Where should you self-archive?

Where to Self-Archive? Institutional Repositories An institutional repository (IR) is an online database offered by an institution to collect, preserve, and share scholarly and creative works created by that institution’s community. CUNY now has an institutional repository!

Where to Self-Archive? CUNY Academic Works

Where Else to Self-Archive? Subject Repositories arXiv.org PubMed Central Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) Social Science Research Network (SSRN) Curious if there's a repository for a certain field? Note: Not every field has a subject repository.

Where Else to Self-Archive? Commercial Sites ResearchGate.net and Academia.edu encourage users to upload their works, but they require login for viewing/downloading …and what are they doing with users’ data? Personal Websites A good step in the direction of green OA, but not permanent and therefore not the best option!

Academia.edu vs. Academic Works Adapted from chart by Megan Wacha, CC BY Academia.eduAcademic Works Public AccessYes Improved DiscoverabilityYes Download StatsYes Personal ProfileYesNot Yet Privacy ProtectionNoYes Copyright GuidanceNoYes Preservation / Compliance with Funder Requirements NoYes

Beyond SHERPA/RoMEO There’s more to a copyright agreement than self-archiving policies! Sometimes you need to read the contract itself.

Comparison of Copyright Agreements BioMed Central vs. JAMA vs. Open Library of Humanities vs. Wiley-Blackwell

Creative Commons Licenses Most OA publishers use Creative Commons (CC) licenses, which grant the public permission to use the work in more ways than traditional copyright allows. CC licenses also grant you more rights than you’d have after signing a traditional copyright transfer agreement!

Making Sense of CC Licenses

OASPA Favors CC-BY

Using CC Licenses Most publishers limit your copyright/licensing options. But you create more than just books and journal articles! And you can choose how to license many of your works: posters slideshows conference papers open educational resources reports / working papers blog posts etc.

Advice to Authors 1.Research any journal/publisher you’re considering. (Quality? Peer reviewing process? Copyright policy?) 2.If you have the right to self-archive, exercise that right. 3.If you don’t have the right to self-archive, request it. 4.Choose the best publishing venue for you and your career… 5.…but also think about the system you’re contributing to and the system you want to contribute to. Know your rights to what you write!

Credits This slideshow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported LicenseCreative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Specific graphics may have different licenses. “What Is the Problem?” graphic, content by Jill Cirasella / graphic design by Les LaRue,Les LaRue licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Thank you! Questions? Jill Cirasella The Graduate Center, CUNY