Scholarly Communications

"Author Rights" are the rights afforded to the creator of content by copyright law.

Authors who publish articles in scholarly journals often sign away copyright to their scholarly work without knowing. Many times this can be avoided by negotiating with the publisher to maintain your copyright.

By retaining control of your copyright, you will be able to:

• Reuse your work in teaching, future publications, and in scholarly and professional activities.
• Post your work online or "self-archive".
  • Some publishers allow authors to post the original manuscript or the "accepted manuscript" online - not the version created by the publisher.
    • See "Sharing different versions of your article" from Taylor and Francis for an example of what would be required. 

1. Educate yourself on the options you have as an author.
2. Negotiate your publishing contract to retain important rights to your work.
   • SPARC's Author Addendum
3. Consider publishing in journals that are open access or that have copyright policies that honor authors' rights.
   • To find peer-reviewed OA journals in your field, see the Directory of Open Access Journals.

ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognized. Some journals are now requiring an ORCID identifier for publishing.  You can sign up for your own ORCID id here.