Partnering on Copyright

The JISC/SURF ‘Partnering On Copyright’ Project has examined the various issues surrounding Open Access and self-archiving of research output, focusing specifically on copyright. It is partly an outcome of the JISC-funded RoMEO project, which finished in September 2003 and produced a range of outputs including: a series of reports detailing stakeholder requirements of self archiving; a database of publishers’ self-archiving policies (currently maintained by SHERPA); a set of advocacy materials; and a list of recommendations for the future. It is also based on the seven Zwolle Principles which were agreed at the ‘Copyright and Universities’ conference held in the Netherlands in December 2002. These principles were devised ‘to assist stakeholders – including authors, publishers, librarians, universities and the public - to achieve maximum access to scholarship without compromising quality or academic freedom and without denying aspects of the costs and rewards involved’. The outcomes of the other Zwolle conferences have also been taken into account.

The project is split into five distinct work packages – each with a specific set of deliverables. The first four work packages address the rights issues raised by the differing requirements of academic authors, HEIs and publishers. The final work package looks at how rights management is covered in the area of Open Access journals.

For a diagram explaining how the five interrelating work packages can assist authors when they want to publish an article click here.

Publishing Agreements – Copyright Toolkit

This focuses on the Author to Publisher relationship, and aims at assisting publishers, academic authors and Higher Education Institution (HEI) management in determining the rights that are important to them, and, subsequently, creating balanced publishing agreements. It further develops and refines an already existing copyright toolkit.

Project Deliverables

• Web-based copyright toolkit;
• A listing of 'elementary rights';
• 'Terms & clauses'; and
• Model publishing agreements.

University Copyright Policies

This focuses on the University to Author relationship, which encompasses HEI senior management, librarians/IR administrators and academic authors. It looks at how institutional copyright policies can cover the needs and priorities of each stakeholder group, and also considers the rights and warranties required for institutional repositories (IRs).

Project Deliverables

• A study of existing copyright policies in the UK & the Netherlands;
• A listing of good practices & lessons learnt;
• Practical guidelines (arising from the listing above);
• Model author/HEI licence for institutional repositories; and
• A set of 'notice & takedown' procedures.

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Copyright Knowledge Bank

This is an extension of the existing SHERPA/RoMEO listings of publishers’ self-archiving policies, which is a very important resource for both academic authors and those who archive on their behalf, i.e., librarians/IR administrators. It contains the details of Copyright Transfer Agreements (CTAs) of more than 100 leading journal publishers, with added functionality and improved coverage, thereby enabling the easy discovery of information on publishers’ self-archiving policies.

Project Deliverables

• The Copyright Knowledge Bank database.

Advocacy – ‘Know Your Rights’ Campaign

This focuses on helping librarians/IR administrators in particular raise awareness of copyright ownership and management issues in HEIs (covering both academic authors and senior management). A major deliverable of the ‘Know Your Rights’ campaign is the creation of a digital communication toolkit, which is to be implemented with the help of HEI ‘champions’/ambassadors.

Project Deliverables

• A web site for the 'Partnering on Copyright' programme and advocacy 'Know Your Rights' campaign;
• A web-based advocacy 'Know Your Rights' communication toolkit.

Open Access Journals and Copyright

This focuses primarily on copyright aspects with regards to Open Access journals (OAJs). Through the identification of good copyright practices and the study of attitudes and behaviour of authors of articles in OAJs this project contributes to a better awareness and understanding of rights management issues especially among academic authors and publishers.

Project Deliverables

A report consisting of:

• a literature review;
• interviews with OA publishers and copyright experts;
• a study of authors who publish in Open Access journals; and
• a web survey among academic authors, mainly from medical and life sciences.

The projects are being managed by three different organisations: 'Publishing Agreements' and University Copyright Policies' are being jointly undertaken by JISC Legal and SURF; 'Copyright Knowledge Bank' and 'Advocacy - Know Your Rights' are managed by Loughborough University; and 'Open Access Journals and Copyright' is being managed by Pleiade Management and Consultancy. :

It is hoped that the results of these individual projects will contribute to a better awareness and understanding of the copyright issues related to open access among stakeholders, especially authors, and will give impetus to a thoughtful and innovative approach for achieving maximum access to scholarship, while balancing stakeholders' interests.

As well as providing information on the individual projects, this Web site provides details of, and links to, other relevant resources both within the text and in the links section.

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