LibGuides: Author Rights: Author Rights

Under U.S. law, any work a person creates in a fixed medium (including digital files) is the intellectual property of that person. As such, the author owns the copyright to the work, which grants them the rights to publish, use, transform, reproduce, perform, and distribute that property or to transfer those rights to another party.

Understanding these rights is important for every author. Once certain rights are signed away, the author no longer has any control over what is done with their work. The resources on this page have been compiled to help faculty and researchers understand their rights as authors and retain any they wish to keep.

Understanding Author Rights

Author's Rights, Tout de Suite This paper, published by Digital Scholarship, is designed to give journal article authors an introduction to concepts such as copyright, self-archiving, and open access. It provides links to addenda to insert into publisher contracts, as well as links to further information, tools, and reports on topics related to author's rights and copyright.
Understanding and Negotiating Book Publication Contracts This guide identifies clauses that frequently appear in publishing contracts, explains in plain language what these terms (and typical variations) mean, and presents strategies for negotiating “author-friendly” versions of these clauses.
Creative Commons License Chooser Creative Commons has this handy tool to help content creators choose a license model and retain copyright. Choose licenses based on who they want to let use their work, whether they want to allow modifications, etc. Some publishers may allow a Creative Commons addendum on their standard contracts.

Addenda, Language, and Licenses to Modify Publisher Contracts

Some publishers may be open to negotiating certain rights with their authors, from the right to distribute a free version of the work in a repository all the way up to full copyright. The following tools and language may be useful for authors hoping to retain particular rights to their work, and should be attempted before signing any publishing contract.

Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine Science Commons provides this handy tool to generate a license addendum so authors can grant Creative Commons licenses allowing for reuse of their work, deposit their work in OA repositories, and more. The author just needs to input information about their article and a PDF will be generated that can be added on to a publishing agreement.
SPARC Author Addendum SPARC's Author Addendum modifies the publisher’s agreement to allow authors to keep key rights pertaining to their articles, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transform their work. SPARC's page also gives information on factors to consider when entering agreements with publishers.
Model Publishing Contract for Digital Scholarship The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Emory University and the University of Michigan developed this model author-publisher contract and relevant addenda optimized for the publication of long-form digital scholarship.
Big Ten Academic Alliance Statement on Publishing Agreements The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) is a consortium of 14 world-class American research universities, advancing their missions by sharing expertise, leveraging campus resources and collaborating on innovative programs. In 2006, the Provosts of the BTAA member universities unanimously endorsed this statement and addendum to publication agreements. Since that time, faculty governance of 12 BTAA campuses have also endorsed the statement and addendum.
Managing Copyright & Negotiating Publishing Agreements UC Berkeley Library Scholarly Communications Services has compiled this helpful page of advice and sample language for addenda to allow authors to retain copyright, or even to completely rewrite a publisher's standard contract.
Additional author addenda from the Open Access Directory This page lists additional author addenda that can be modified for inclusion in publisher agreements. It is organized alphabetically by sponsoring organization, mainly universities and research groups.
How to Retain Ownership of Your Copyright when Dealing with Publishers: A Very Short Guide to Negotiation A guide from Arizona State University Library with tips for negotiating author rights with publishers, including how to prepare, what to discuss, and how to close the deal.

Tools for Termination of Transfer/Regaining Author Rights

Tools to help authors get their rights returned to them.

Authors Alliance/Creative Commons Termination of Transfer Tool A tool to help authors understand if "termination of transfer" rights exist, and if not, when they may exist in the future. With rights back in hand, authors have many options for getting their works in front of new audiences, from sharing their works with the public using a Creative Commons license to negotiating new agreements with publishers.
Authors Alliance Termination of Transfer Resources Page Resources to help authors understand the complex termination of transfer provisions and how to evaluate whether and when a work might be eligible for termination, and if a work is eligible, exercise termination rights.
Termination of Transfer Information and Templates for Notices of Termination Under § 203 and § 304(c) Templates and information created by the Authors Alliance for serving notices of termination to the U.S. Copyright Office and relevant parties