The agreement that you sign with your publisher will often specify the ownership of legal rights to your publication, and many standard publishing agreements shift the copyright to the publisher. The copyright provisions in your agreement can make a profound difference to the value and usefulness of your scholarship. For you to control and optimize access to your work, you must retain the rights you need.

You May Be Signing Away Your Rights

In many disciplines, publication agreements typically require the author to assign the copyright in full to publisher. These agreements today are often seen among scholars as overreaching. They take all rights from authors, and the publishers sometimes use the copyrights to prevent access to the publication. Researchers often find that they cannot even use their own articles for teaching or as the foundation for future books and other projects. Moreover, when publishers hold all rights, publishers can authorize republication and other uses of your work that may be objectionable.

You Could Lose Control of Your Work

Here are some real situations that have arisen after the author of a book or journal article has assigned the copyright to the publisher:

• Paying To Use Own Work Professor wants to include her own article in a packet of readings distributed at a conference. Because the professor assigned the copyright to the publisher, the publisher’s permission is necessary (assuming it is not “fair use”). The publisher grants permission only through the Copyright Clearance Center, leaving the professor to secure permission and pay fees to use her own work.

• Outdated Research Republished Professor published an article in a leading medical journal, and transferred the copyright to the publisher. Five years later, the article appears as a chapter in a book from the same publisher.  The publisher has the legal rights as the copyright owner, but the reprinting of an early article with a new date is damaging to the professor’s reputation.

• Reuse of Author's Work Without Credit or Royalties Professor publishes a book and transfers the copyright to the publisher. Significant portions of the work appear in a later book from the same publisher under another author’s name. The professor not only lost control of the work, but does not even have rights of attribution or royalties unless provided in the original publication agreement.

• Conflict with NIH Public Access Policy Professor conducts research under a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is obligated by law to submit a version of the research article to PubMed Central. If the agreement transfers all rights to the publisher, the professor is caught between compliance with the NIH policy and compliance with copyright obligations.

What You Want From a Publishing Agreement

A good publishing agreement will not only protect the integrity of the work and the reputation of the author, but it will enable the author and readers to make reasonable and constructive uses of the publication for teaching, research, and other beneficial activities. An innovative agreement can anticipate problems, such as the situations described above, and outline when and how the scholarly work may be reused by the author, the publisher, and even the public. A restrictive agreement, by contrast, can limit the use and value of the scholarly article, book, or other publication.

You Can Negotiate With Your Publisher

Most publishers are willing to negotiate with authors. It is worth your time to read your contract carefully and negotiate for the rights you need. 

Keep a Copy of Your Agreement

Many future questions about the use of your article may be answered by the terms of the agreement you sign. Be sure to keep a copy of all publication agreements in your permanent files. Copyrights last for decades, and you or someone else in the distant future may benefit from having a copy of your publication agreement.

Learn More

• The Public Library of Science's license is an example of an open-access publisher's policy. 
• Nature's author license policy is one of the most author friendly of the subscription-based journals.