Oxford LibGuides: Getting published: Author rights

Author rights

Authors are often unsure what rights they retain when signing a publisher agreement for a journal article. Our Bodleian iSkills workshops iSkills: Fundamentals of Open Access and iSkills: Foundations of Copyright for Researchers cover the key issues.

Copyright

In order to understand your rights as an author it is important to understand copyright and how it works. The Bodleian Libraries have information about copyright and you can contact copyright@bodleian.ox.ac.uk for further guidance.

Licences

When you publish your work it is important to select the right kind of reuse licence so that others know what they are allowed to do with it. For funded research, you should make sure that the licence you choose is compatible with your funder open access policy.

Creative Commons
Find out the full range of options
Licences for open scholarship at Oxford
Open Access Oxford guide to Creative Commons and other open licences

Publishing agreements and Rights Retention

When your work is accepted for publication you will be presented with a publishing agreement. You should make sure you are aware of what you are signing and what this means for the use and reuse of your work.

The University is currently operating a pilot rights retention scheme which allows the author accepted manuscripts of journal articles and conference proceedings to be made available open access immediately under a Creative Commons licence. The University is looking to update its Open Access Publications Policy in Trinity Term 2024 to incorporate rights retention.

Useful links

Martin Eve Blogpost
Martin Eve on Signing over copyright vs licensing your journal articles encouraged greater awareness among authors with regards to copyright transfer.
cOAlition S blog
Blog from cOAlition S group of funders highlighting recent developments in author agreements presented to academic authors
Ernesto Priego Blogpost
Ernesto Priego, On Reading the Small Print When It’s Too Late also encouraged authors to be more aware and negotiate licensing & access. ‘OA is not only about bringing down the barriers to access and reuse of scholarly publications. Behind it lies the desire to re-connect scholars with the fruits of their own work and to empower them to choose how.’
INLEXIO (editing/publishing services) Blogpost
INLEXIO (editing/publishing services) on Author copyright in the age of Open Access, on the issues around who owns what and when in Open Access publishing. It concludes ‘Understanding a publisher’s requirements and their implications should be an important part of the authors’ decision on where to publish their work.’

Workshops & classes

iSkills: Foundations of copyright for researchers
This workshop will cover the basics of copyright as they apply to researchers at the University of Oxford. It will explain the different types of copyright work that are used or generated in research and the rights and responsibilities for researchers and academic authors in an age of increasingly open scholarship.
iSkills: Fundamentals of Open Access
Are you baffled by open, confused by embargoes? Does the mention of the colour gold or green catapult you into a realm of perplexed irritation? Come to this session, where we’ll break down open access and all its many jargon terms, confusing publishing structures and hint at the advantages you can reap by publishing open.

Contacts

Open Access Helpdesk
openaccess@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Research Data helpline
researchdata@ox.ac.uk

ORA Team
ora@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Symplectic Elements team
symplectic@admin.ox.ac.uk