When publishing an article in a subscription access journal you are almost always asked, or even required to give some or all of your copyrights to that publisher. This does not have to be case. You should familiarize yourself with your rights as an author and utilize resources that support those rights to allow you to maintain control over your work after publication.
Know Your Rights as the Author
- The author is the copyright holder and remains the copyright holder unless and until the copyright is transferred to someone else in a signed agreement.
- Normally, the copyright holder possesses the exclusive rights of reproduction, distribution, public performance, public display, and modification of the original work. An author who has transferred copyright without retaining these rights must ask permission unless the use is one of the statutory exemptions in copyright law.
- The copyright holder controls the work. Decisions concerning use of the work, such as distribution, access, pricing, updates, and any use restrictions belong to the copyright holder. Authors who have transferred their copyright without retaining any rights may not be able to place the work on course Web sites, copy it for students or colleagues, deposit the work in a public online archive, or reuse portions in a subsequent work.
- Transferring copyright does not have to be all or nothing. The law allows you to transfer copyright while holding back rights for yourself and others. This is the compromise that an Author Addendum helps you to achieve.
