Scholarly Publishing

Copyright law gives the creator of copyrighted works exclusive rights, including the right to: 

• reproduce the work in copies (e.g., through photocopying)
• distribute copies of the work; 
• prepare translations or other derivative works
• perform or display the work publicly
• authorize others to exercise any of these rights. 

Your works are protected by copyright as soon as you fix them in a tangible medium, including electronic media. When you write an article for a scholarly journal, you are typically asked to sign a publication agreement or a copyright transfer agreement. The purpose of this document is to transfer your ownership of copyright to the publisher. 

Copyright is a bundle or package of the rights cited above. You can “unbundle” these rights and transfer only some of them to publishers. For example: 

• You can transfer ownership of the copyright, but retain the right to do certain things such as include articles in course packs, or place articles on a personal web site or an institutional repository.
• You can retain ownership of the copyright and grant a non-exclusive license to the publisher, typically for the right of first formal publication.