 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
          |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This document provides a basic introduction to some of the copyright issues relating to eprint repositories and academic publishing. It contains some practical suggestions for managing your copyright. This particular aspect of copyright law is complex and still evolving so please read the disclaimer on this page and, if necessary seek further advice from the University Copyright Officer, mark.magner@qut.edu.au .
Copyright is part of the area of law called intellectual property. The aim of intellectual property law is essentially to encourage creativity and innovation by protecting the rights of creators while, at the same time, ensuring that the public can benefit from the innovation in the form of cultural, social and economic development.
Generally, the author or creator of a work is automatically the first owner of the copyright in the work. Copyright owners can transfer their copyright to a third party. Many academic journal publishers currently ask authors to assign copyright in a work to them as part of the submission process. If a work is created in the course of employment, the employer can sometimes assert ownership of that copyright. For more information see the QUT Intellectual Property Policy.
Copyright owners have a number of exclusive rights, including:
Thus, assigning copyright, on an unconditional basis, to a journal publisher means:
For an overview of the issues, see: the Scholars Copyright Project background briefing.
The establishment of institutional eprint repositories is one of the strategies currently being adopted by scholarly communities around the globe to ensure maximum access to research literature. QUT ePrints is one of these institutional repositories. The papers in QUT ePrints are part of an international corpus of research literature that is freely available online.
It is sometimes possible to negotiate with publishers to retain some or all of your rights. At the very least, you should try to retain the right to self-archive a copy of your work in QUT ePrints.
In fact, it is now QUT policy that copies of all works which constitute the publicly available research and scholarly output of the University, are to be located in the QUT eprint archive. This does not apply to works which have the capacity to produce an income stream for QUT or the author (eg books, textbooks or other marketable material). See the QUT eprint repository policy.
To ensure that you retain the right to deposit a copy of your work in QUT ePrints, a number of steps should be taken:
While journal publishers usually ask authors to assign copyright to them, many now allow authors to retain the right to self-archive the postprint version in an institutional repository. The information may be on the journal's website. Look for links called "Notes to contributors" or "Information for authors". The information could be in the publishing contract. Read it carefully before signing. The SHERPA/RoMEO web site provides a list of publisher policies:
If the publication agreement states that authors may post a copy of the work on their personal or institutional web-site or if assignment of copyright is not required, there is no need to go on to the next step.
If the publication agreement asks you to transfer all your rights to the publisher, you can attach an author addendum. When attached to a contract or agreement, an addendum modifies or supplements the terms of that agreement.
The Science Commons Scholar's Copyright Project has created a suite of three addenda, each of which ensures the freedom to use scholarly articles in teaching, conference presentations, lectures, other scholarly works, and professional activities (including self-archiving in an eprint repository).
The process of depositing (self-archiving) a paper in QUT ePrints includes a deposit agreement. In some ways, this is similar to the publication agreements used by academic journal publishers. QUT ePrints, however, only asks the author for the right to store the works and to make them publicly available. The main function of the deposit agreement is the declaration that the work is the intellectual property of the author. This means that the author (or person depositing on behalf of the author) is declaring that the work does not contain the intellectual property of a third party without the necessary acknowledgements or permissions. See the wording below.
For work being deposited by its own author:
In self-archiving this collection of files and associated bibliographic metadata, I grant QUT ePrints a permanent non-exclusive licence to store them and to make them permanently available publicly for free on-line. I declare that I have the authority to grant this right.
For work being deposited by someone other than its author:
I declare that I have the authority to act on behalf of the author of this work in archiving this collection of files and associated bibliographic metadata; and that the author grants QUT ePrints a permanent non-exclusive licence to store them and to make them permanently available publicly for free on-line; and that I am satisfied that the author has the authority to grant this licence.
Clicking on the deposit button indicates your agreement to these terms.
The documents in QUT ePrints are protected by copyright and it is the copyright owners who control reproduction rights. However, readers may print and save electronic copies of whole papers for individual, non-commercial use. As with printed books and journals, attribution of authorship is essential. Any excerpts, quotations or paraphrasing should be fully referenced. The text may not be published commercially (in print or electronic form), or altered without permission of the author.
QUT ePrints metadata can be harvested by third parties for purposes related to the discovery of the archive's contents. However, harvesting the fulltext documents is not permitted.
The information provided in this document is intended as a general guide to QUT staff and students on the copyright issues that relate to the self-archiving of academic papers in the QUT eprint repository, QUT ePrints. While every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information, Queensland University of Technology excludes any and all liability for any errors in or omissions from the information on this website or any third party website assessable from this website.
For more information or advice on
Copyright, please contact the Acting University Copyright Officer, Mark Magner (mark.magner@qut.edu.au)
If you are a QUT staff member or postgraduate student and you would like some more information or some assistance with the self-archiving process, please contact your liaison librarian (http://www.library.qut.edu.au/contacts/liaisons.jsp).
The following sites were used as
sources of information and inspiration in the creation of this guide.
| QUT Copyright Guide - Writing for Publication | http://www.tils.qut.edu.au/copyright/crguidepublishing.html |
| QUT Intellectual Property Policy | http://www.qut.edu.au/admin/mopp/D/D_08_01.html |
| QUT eprint repository policy for research output | http://www.qut.edu.au/admin/mopp/F/F_01_03.html |
| Australian Copyright Council: For general information about Copyright in Australia | http://www.copyright.org.au/ |
Australian Copyright Council: Assigning & licensing rights |
http://www.copyright.org.au/PDF/InfoSheets/G024.pdf |
| Science Commons Scholar's Copyright Project | |
| SHERPA/RoMEO Publisher Copyright Policies | |
| Create Change: action to reclaim scholarly communication | |
| E-LIS Eprint Archive - Copyright Issues | http://eprints.rclis.org/copyright.html |