Partnering on Copyright

Making your research openly accessible will maximise its dissemination, and, therefore, its research impact. Open Access articles have a 50-250% increase in citations.

Your research can be made openly accessible by either self-archiving it in an institutional repository or subject-based repository in addition to publishing it in a traditional journal, or by publishing it in an Open Access journal.

It is important to be conscious of copyright issues, so as to ensure you have the necessary control over the access and use of your work. Identify the rights you require of research and those required of other stakeholders so as to be able to actively collaborate and work towards the effective rights management of research.

Retain your rights by either negotiating with the publisher and amending a publishing agreement, or by choosing a less restrictive publishing policy. 93% of RoMEO registered journals now allow self-archiving. These can be identified using the SHERPA/RoMEO database or the Copyright Knowledge Bank.

Recognise the different publishing agreements of both Open Access and traditional publishers, including those offering the ‘author-pays’ Open Access option, so as to make an informed choice.

Where to get more information and advice
For more information and guidance on self-archiving and copyright see the Publishing Agreements project and the Copyright Knowledge Bank.

More details on Open Access publishing can be found in the report ‘Towards good practices of copyright in Open Access Journals: A study among authors of articles in Open Access journals’.

A list of further articles and other resources of interest can be found on the links page.