Copyright Corner (May, 2015)

University of Lethbridge Faculty Association May / June 2015 5 Copyright Corner 1 Your Author Rights and the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy As of May 2, 2015, the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy for research grants awarded by NSERC, SSHRC, and CIHR requires peer-reviewed journal publications arising from Agency-supported research to be freely accessible within 12 months of publication. This brings NSERC- and SSHRC-funded grants in line with the open access requirements that CIHR-funded research has complied with since 2008. The point, of course, is to make publicly funded research freely available to the public, and to encourage wide dissemination and exchange of research results. However, this new policy has led to many questions about copyright and who owns the rights to peer-reviewed journal articles. In general, you automatically own the rights once you create a document in a fixed form (e.g., on paper or saved on a computer hard drive). In Canada, your copyright protection lasts for your lifetime plus fifty years. As the author of a work, you are the copyright holder until you transfer the copyright to someone else in a signed agreement. However, most commercial publishers require you to sign copyright over to them through a legally binding publication agreement. It is important to read the publication agreement and understand what rights you may be signing away. Some publishers allow authors to retain copyright, or at least allow authors to archive journal articles in a repository; others will cheerfully have you sign away your rights to use, distribute, or archive your own work. Sherpa/Romeo is a database of publisher and journal policies on copyright and self-archiving, which you can use to identify journals that have more open copyright policies. It is also important to know that you can negotiate with a commercial publisher in order to retain some of your rights. Publishers require only the rights to publish; they do not need a wholesale transfer of copyright. They should at least allow you to deposit a copy of your peer-reviewed article in a non-commercial open access repository, such as the U of L Institutional Repository or a discipline-based repository, where it will be archived and freely available. When dealing with commercial publishers, one way to retain your rights is to use an author addendum to amend a publication agreement. The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) has developed a standard author addendum, and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has adapted it into a standard Canadian author addendum (see links below for more information). The SPARC Canadian author addendum enables authors to retain select rights, such as the rights to reproduce, reuse, and publicly present the articles they publish for non-commercial purposes. Another option to comply with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy is to publish in an open access journal. Open access journals will provide either immediate free access, or free access after an embargo period (usually 12 months). They also allow authors to retain their rights and to deposit their articles in repositories, use them in class, post them on websites or course management systems (e.g., Moodle), and so on. There are many reputable and high-impact open access journals. You can use online databases such as Sherpa/Romeo and Directory of Open Access Journals to verify the legitimacy of an open access journal. If you are unsure about the credibility of a journal, feel free to consult a librarian. The links below will provide you with more information, and direct you to all of the tools mentioned above. University of Lethbridge Faculty Association May / June 2015 6 Copyright Corner continued… 2 Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (check the FAQ and Toolbox): http://www.science.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=F6765465-1 CAUT Intellectual Property Advisory: Retaining Copyright in Journal Articles: www.carl-abrc.ca/uploads/pdfs/ip-advisory1-en.pdf SPARC Canadian author addendum and SPARC information (use with commercial publishers’ agreements to retain your rights as an author): http://www.carl-abrc.ca/uploads/pdfs/EngPubAgree.pdf http://www.sparc.arl.org/resources/authors/addendum Sherpa/Romeo database of copyright policies for publishers and specific journals (use to identify reputable open access journals and/or to select commercial journal publishers that will allow you to self-archive your articles in a repository): http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/ Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) database (use to identify reputable open access journals): https://doaj.org/ University of Lethbridge Library Open Access Guide (for more information and resources): http://libguides.uleth.ca/open Sandra Cowan, Acting University Copyright Advisor For those of you who have entered into discussions regarding retirement and/or have began to think about retirement in the future there is a variety of information ULFA has to pass on to you. One such tidbit is that upon retirement, you DO NOT lose your library privileges. Yes, that is correct. Since the late 1990s, retired academic staff retain their library privileges including online access to databases, ILL privileges, or access to The Alberta Library (TAL) Card (for borrowing at other libraries in Alberta). That said, you will be required to renew your library privileges annually, either by visiting us in person or completing the online form for library privileges (currently located under the Quick Links) on the Library webpage. There are other benefits that come with retirement (besides your pension) so you might also want to check out the Retired Faculty website: http://www.uleth.ca/retired-faculty/ Maintaining your Library Privileges as you Retir