Selecting Journals for Publication

Under federal law, as an author or creator, copyrights are attached to certain types of intellectual property.  Since 1992, copyrights have been granted at the time of an author’s creation of an original expression (work) in a fixed medium. Authors/creators do not have to apply for or file a copyright.  You are the copyright holder unless you transfer some or all of your rights to another via agreement.  

An author has the right to: 

• Reproduction – make copies of your protected work  
• Distribution – sell or distribute your work to the public 
• Derivative works – create adaptions (derivative works) and prepare new works based on your existing protected work 
• Display or perform – Perform a work (such as a play) or display a work to the public 
• License others – sell or license any of the above rights  

Often, a publication agreement will assign some or all the author’s rights to the publisher. Publishers need rights to publish and distribute your work, make it available commercially, and receive proper attribution as the journal/version of record.  

If a publishing agreement requires a complete transfer of your copyright to the publisher, you would no longer have the ability to use that work without permission. Some agreements may only require that some of your rights be transferred. Negotiating contract terms can help ensure you retain rights that are yours. Publishing open access, rather than in a traditional subscription access journal, can also be a way to retain more of your copyrights.  

Copyright Registration 

Under copyright law, a creator of an “original work” created in a “fixed tangible medium” is immediately and automatically the copyright owner of the work, and your work is protected.   

You do not need to register your work with the U.S. Copyright Office because it is automatically protected. However, there can be some benefits to registration. Registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney’s fees in successful litigation; and registration within five years of publication is considered prima facie evidence in a court of law. For more information on registration, visit the Registration Portal from the U.S. Copyright Office. 

Author Rights Resources:

Author Rights -- Scholarly Communication (Milner Library)
Overview of authors' rights from the Scholarly Communication guide, including information on negotiating publisher agreements, contract terms, and other resources. 

Scholars Copyright Addendum Engine
From Creative Commons, a tool tool that will help you generate a PDF form you can attach to a journal publisher's copyright agreement.

SHERPA RoMEO
Gives information on publisher open access policies from around the world and provides summaries of self-archiving permissions and conditions of rights given to authors on a journal-by-journal basis.

SPARC--Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Collection 
Global coalition committed to making Open the default for research and education.

SPARC--Author Rights and the Author Addendum
SPARC resources on author rights and the SPARC author addendum, which can be used in copyright transfer agreements with non-open access journal publishers.

What does that mean, 'Publication Goals in Copyright'?

Obvious goals are desires such as having your work published, fulfilling components to gain tenure and promotion, and of course, scholarly recognition. 

But publishers have come to realize authors have other requirements and thus offer differing copyright options to meet those needs.

As you search for a publisher, consider the publisher copyright requirements through these choices:
(from Columbia Law School):

• Non-commercial
  • Free distribution--you really want anyone to have access to your work and you aren't too concerned about payment.  For an author to achieve this open access goal, you pay the publisher.
    • You can license your work through 1 of the differing types of Creative Commons licenses
    • Why think about a license?  From CC: the license allows a creator to "retain copyright while allowing others to copy, distribute, and make some uses of their work — at least non-commercially".
  • Intermediary Distributors--usual for academics.  You need exposure and help so work through a distributor, a publisher. You may or may not receive payment.  While some publishers always require full transfer of the author's copyright to the publisher, others will negotiate. 
    • You can negotiate to either fully or partially retain your copyrights, or
    • License your rights through the various Creative Commons licenses, or using the SPARC Addendum
• Commercial
  • Income from your work is important and thus you wish to be paid for allowing access.  Likely you will need to negotiate with commercial distributors--whose goals (may) differ from yours.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is legal protection for content creators.  It falls under the legal umbrella of Intellectual Property.

Intellectual Property is the Fruit of your mental labor, the creations of the human mind.  It can not be transferred or taken away. 

There are 2 subdivisions:

1. Industrial Property--new solutions to technical problems
   1. This includes patents and trademarks
2. Copyright
   1. The form of expression of ideas AND the fixation of that form in some sort of medium.