Publication planning

Copyright

Copyright refers to a bundle of rights designed to protect created material from exploitation. Copyright sets out the rules around copying, communicating, altering, publishing and performing and otherwise using works and other materials created by others. Have questions about copyright? Check out the copyright page at UniSQ.

Author rights

Publishing in a scholarly journal includes consideration of your author rights. Make sure you read the author agreement documents before you sign, you can decide which rights you want to retain and which ones you’re willing to relinquish and may be able to negotiate to at least be able to self-archive a copy in an institutional repository by using an addendum to the publishing agreement. Understanding your rights as an author empowers you to make informed decisions about where to submit your work. Organizations like SPARC offer valuable resources to help you navigate your author rights and effectively manage your copyright.

Rights retention in scholarly works ensures:

1. Work is more visible and discoverable, leveraging existing investment in institutional repositories
2. Authors or universities retain the right to make scholarly works open access and authors benefit from a potential citation advantage
3. Increased compliance with institutional open access policies
4. Improved researcher compliance with funder open access policies
5. Clearer communication of reuse rights via consistent licensing

From the CAUL Intellectual property rights retention in scholarly works at Australian universities report, 2020.

Open Policy Finder (formerly Sherpa Romeo)

The open policy finder is an online resource that aggregates and analyzes open access policies of publishers worldwide. It offers summaries of publisher copyright and open access archiving policies on a journal-by-journal basis. You can explore Sherpa Romeo by visiting their website.