This Scholarly Publishing & Communication web site is intended to inform faculty, students, administrators and librarians of the current issues, problems and opportunities in the scholarly information universe, and to suggest actions for consideration by all participants. You will find links to informative materials on the topics of author rights, copy rights, publishers archiving policies and copyright contracts, and innovations in scholarly publishing.

Author Rights: tools and resources for scholars and researchers:

• Dartmouth Publication Agreement Amendment, which enables you to retain the rights to use your published journal material in your teaching or on your course web page, and post the final version on a College or research group web page. It is necessary to use this to retain the right to deposit the final version of your paper in NIH's PubMedCentral, which is required under the NIH Public Access Policy for all journal articles resulting from NIH grants starting on April 7th 2008. Download and sign this form, then attach it to the publisher's contract.
• Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine from Science Commons is an alternative that allows you to select the terms of your author's amendment, including immediate or delayed access for example. It generates a PDF that you attach to your publication agreement.
• Creative Commons offers alternative licensing models and tools for creators of literature, music and visual arts, as well as for authors of scholarly works in digital form.
• NIH Public Access Policy Guide for Research Universities describes the policy and procedures for depositing articles written under NIH grants in the open access PubMedCentral.
• Use SHERPA (Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access) to find publishers' archiving policies and copyright contracts, archiving mandates from different funding agencies, and lists of repositories. SHERPA offers these resources and more:
  • RoMEO Publishers' Archiving and Copyright Policies
  • JULIET Research Funders Archiving Mandates and Guidelines
  • OpenDOAR worldwide Directory of Open Access Repositories
  • Guidance on depositing material; copyright; and a guide to self archiving
• Book authors will find this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education very useful when signing book publishing contracts: "Reading the Fine Print" by Deborah Gerhardt, in the Chronicle of Higher Education, March 22, 2007. For a sample author's contract amendment that covers all kinds of materials, including books, see OhioLINK Library Community Recommendations on Retention of Intellectual Property Rights for Works Produced by Ohio Faculty and Students
• Students will find the "Right to Research" web site and brochure helpful in describing the issues involved when published research results are not openly available, and what options are open to students as writers and creators. Print copies of "Right to Research" are available from the Dartmouth Library.
• Author Rights Video, PowerPoint, and WebCast Available from ARL

• Know Your Copy Rights-What You Can Do, a brochure which gives faculty and teaching assistants tips regarding using materials in teaching. You can print the whole brochure or just the one-page chart that outlines "What You Can Do". Print copies are available from the Dartmouth Library.
• ARL's website Know Your Copy Rights: Using Copyrighted Works in Academic Settings includes the "Know Your Copy Rights-What You Can Do " brochure, which is very useful as a quick reference for faculty regarding their rights to use material for teaching purposes. This brochure is also useful for librarians advising faculty and students regarding their rights to use materials. The website contains ideas and materials for an outreach program on use of materials in teaching and learning.

Return to Top

Background information:

• The Association for Research Libraries Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (ARL SPARC) is an excellent source of news and resources, including the Create Change website and the Resources page, which contains materials relating to repositories, open access and copyright issues. Here you can find the SPARC Author Addendum, a form you can sign and attach to a publisher's contract which covers a set of rights that an author might want to retain.
• For current news, background information, and sources on all aspects of Scholarly Communication, see the Scholarly Communication Toolkit at the Association of Academic and Research Libraries (ACRL) website.

Return to Top