Staff Copyright Guide

When your article is accepted for publication in a journal, you as the author will sign a form laying out the terms of the publication contract between yourself as the author and the publisher in question. These contracts are obviously legally binding and it is important you know what you are agreeing to.

1. In most cases you will be required to assign the copyright to the publisher. Assigning the copyright to the publisher means that they own the copyright to your article for the duration of the copyright term. You retain your moral rights, i.e. the right to be identified as the owner, but the publishers holds the copyright, and you would need to seek permission for any subsequent use of your article. Most publishers prefer this option, as it removes all ambiguity as regards ownership, and allows the publishers to negotiate subsidiary licences or to act in cases of copyright infringement or plagiarism.
2. Occasionally a contract will specify a licence to publish instead of assignment: this means that you are granting the publisher an exclusive licence to publish your article but you retain the copyright.

The publication contract is not simply one-way: most contracts contain clauses requiring the publisher to act on your behalf in cases of copyright infringement or plagiarism; to ensure that your article is correctly catalogued and metadata-tagged to facilitate discovery by search engines; to negotiate permissions and licences for database aggregators, for example; to ensure your article is safely archived and a copy deposited in a Legal Deposit Library.

It is also important to check the contract for any clauses pertaining to open access or institutional repositories. The University of Derby, like most higher-education institutions, has its own institutional repository, known as UDORA. Many publishers permit authors to deposit a preprint (i.e. a version of your article created prior to editing and peer-review) in their institutional repository. There is sometimes a 12 or 18-month embargo from the date of publication - again, it is important to check with your publisher.

Once a journal article has been accepted for publication, you are bound by the terms of the contract agreed between yourself and the publisher.

In most cases your contract will likely grant you permission to upload a pre- or post-print version of your article to your own personal website or institutional repository, with an adequate disclaimer. You may not use the PDF used for publication, as the format and layout are copyrighted by the publisher. There is sometimes also a 12 or 18-month embargo from the date of publication.

If you wish to re-use diagrams, illustrations or build on the research in a subsequent paper, you will need to seek permission from your publisher, as they will hold the copyright to the material.

This depends on the terms of the various contracts signed between yourself and the respective publishers. Most publishers allow a single copy of a journal article to be uploaded either to the author's personal webpage or to an institutional repository - not both.

If your publisher does permit this, it is important that you check which version of your publication you may upload - the publisher's or a pre- or post-print version:

1. The publisher's version is the specifically arranged version as it appears in the journal, including font, type-setting and layout. A few publishers will allow their PDF to be uploaded, but it is important to check.
2. A pre-print is the version of your journal article prior to peer-review and editing, often prior to any contact with the publisher at all. It is important you preserve this version, even after publication, as it may be the only version you are permitted to upload.
3. A post-print is the version of your article accepted for publication after peer-review, fact-checking, editing - it usually differs to the published version only in format and layout.

If you have co-authored any papers with other academics, you will need to seek their permission before uploading anything to UDORA, unless you have agreed otherwise beforehand.

You may also need to clarify your position with your publisher: most publishers allow a single copy of a journal article to be uploaded to the author's personal webpage or to an institutional repository. However, where there is more than one author, the publisher may not necessarily consent to each individual uploading to a separate website or repository.

It is always best practice to draw up some kind of agreement when you commence a joint paper, to avoid any awkwardness later. You may wish to include an agreement on the split of any possible royalties, for example, or rights to use the work as the basis for future research.

Most publishers will only allow you to have your papers uploaded to one website or repository. You will therefore need to arrange to have your research output removed from your previous institution's repository, either by removing them yourself or arranging for the department in charge of the repository to remove them for you.

It is important that you do not upload any content to your new institution's repository before all content has been removed from the previous institution's repository. Failing to observe this could be construed as a violation of the contract/licence between yourself and your publisher(s).