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Please note: this document can only provide guidelines and should not be relied on for legal advice.
Copyright defines the ownership of a piece of intellectual property and the associated rights to make and distribute copies of it. In the first instance, the creator of a work is also the copyright owner, but copyright can be transferred. In practical terms, even if you are the author the permission of the copyright owner is required to:
It is common for journal publishers to routinely ask authors to transfer copyright to the publisher, although a small number of publishers allow the author to retain it. You should carefully read and retain any copyright statement that you sign. You may be able to negotiate variations to the copyright agreement if the publisher is willing. As author, you always retain the right to be identified whenever the work is distributed or published.
If your article is in the repository, it will be freely available to all users of the Internet. The full text will be indexed by search engines like Google Scholar, which will significantly increase its readership.
One of the following will need to apply before you can deposit the work into the repository:
You should:
Most of the major academic publishers will allow you to place your article on a university website or in a digital repository but there may be some restrictions:
It is the formal version of the article (generally a PDF) with all of the branding and page numbers. Broadly speaking, if the PDF has been downloaded from the publisher’s site, or by using your CSU access, then it is the publisher’s version. The publisher may provide you with your own copy of the PDF, but this will also be the publisher’s version and may not be placed on a website or in a repository.
Your own final version of the article (after peer review) will probably be as good as you can get. Make sure that you hold onto this as a Word document even after you receive the publisher’s final proof and your own copy of the published PDF. Minor variations between this and the published version will generally not be important.
It is generally a requirement, as the publisher may sell the article to someone who absolutely needs the publisher’s version. It is also good practice because it enables anyone with a right to access this version to do so.
That would also be subject to copyright. A scan is just a copy of the publisher’s version of the article and unless you are the copyright owner you are not allowed to distribute it.
If your article is in the repository, then anyone on the Internet is able to access and read it even if they don’t have access rights to the journal through a subscription. Placing your article in the repository will significantly increase its readership and may lead to citations of the article in other scholarly works.
Check the publisher’s or journal website and the documentation you were sent by the publisher when your article was accepted. A UK higher education consortium called SHERPA provides SHERPA/RoMEO, a searchable database of publisher policies. See <quote>http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php.</quote> For conferences, it is best to contact the publisher of the conference proceedings directly.
Generally speaking, your work is no more or less vulnerable in a repository than in any other published form such as in print on the publisher’s website. You retain the right to be identified as the author and any use of your work that did not acknowledge your authorship would constitute plagiarism and even breach of copyright if a substantial portion was used.
Used with permission from CSU Libraries Digital Repository page