Re: Copyright: example of rights-sharing with copyright transfer

From: Sally Morris (Morris Associates) <"Sally>
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:53:32 -0000

In point of fact, Elsevier is one of the publishers that will send you a
'Licence to Publish' variant document if you ask for it

Sally


Sally Morris
Partner, Morris Associates - Publishing Consultancy

South House, The Street
Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3UU, UK

Tel: +44(0)1903 871286
Fax: +44(0)8701 202806
Email: sally_at_morris-assocs.demon.co.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: American Scientist Open Access Forum
[mailto:AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG] On
Behalf Of Heather Morrison
Sent: 15 February 2009 23:28
To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
Subject: Copyright: example of rights-sharing with copyright transfer

As ONE illustration of how rights are generally shared between author
and publisher, even with a copyright transfer agreement, let us look
at the Author's Rights page of Elsevier, a publisher requiring
copyright transfer. Clearly, even with copyright transfer to the
publisher, Elsevier is recognizing a broad range of rights that
remain with the author. For example, as archivangelists have been
pointing out for years, Elsevier authors retain full rights to
deposit preprints and author's post-peer-reviewed manuscripts for
open access in institutional repositories; so that there is nothing
between an Elsevier author and an OA copy in the IR, except for a few
keystrokes. Elsevier here explicitly states permission for sharing
with research colleagues, as long as this is not for commercial
purposes; it is not necessary to state this, but it is helpful.

Please note that this is not meant as an endorsement of Elsevier's
Author's Rights; this is traditional copyright transfer, which is not
necessary. Even many traditional publishers (such as Nature) have
much more author-centric agreements. I would recommend that authors
publishing with Elsevier use an Author's Addendum, to ensure full
rights retention; for example, Elsevier permission for self-archiving
is limited to IRs and personal / departmental websites, which is not
helpful to authors preferring to deposit in disciplinary repositories
such as E-LIS.

Excerpt from Elsevier Authors' Page:

        What rights do I retain as a journal author*?

As a journal author, you retain rights for large number of author
uses, including use by your employing institute or company. These
rights are retained and permitted without the need to obtain specific
permission from Elsevier. These include:

     * the right to make copies (print or electric) of the journal
article for their own personal use, including for their own classroom
teaching use;
     * the right to make copies and distribute copies (including via
e-mail) of the journal article to research colleagues, for personal
use by such colleagues (but not for Commercial Purposes**, as listed
below);
     * the right to post a pre-print version of the journal article
on Internet web sites including electronic pre-print servers, and to
retain indefinitely such version on such servers or sites (see also
our information on electronic preprints for a more detailed
discussion on these points);
     * the right to post a revised personal version of the text of
the final journal article (to reflect changes made in the peer review
process) on the author's personal or institutional web site or
server, incorporating the complete citation and with a link to the
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the article;
     * the right to present the journal article at a meeting or
conference and to distribute copies of such paper or article to the
delegates attending the meeting;
     * for the author's employer, if the journal article is a 'work
for hire', made within the scope of the author's employment, the
right to use all or part of the information in (any version of) the
journal article for other intra-company use (e.g. training),
including by posting the article on secure, internal corporate
intranets;
     * patent and trademark rights and rights to any process or
procedure described in the journal article;
     * the right to include the journal article, in full or in part,
in a thesis or dissertation;
     * the right to use the journal article or any part thereof in a
printed compilation of works of the author, such as collected
writings or lecture notes (subsequent to publication of the article
in the journal); and
     * the right to prepare other derivative works, to extend the
journal article into book-length form, or to otherwise re-use
portions or excerpts in other works, with full acknowledgement of its
original publication in the journal.

*Please Note: The rights listed above apply to journal authors only

From:
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/
copyright#whatrights

Added comment: in addition to the above, please note that the
Elsevier copyright transfer agreement has long made exceptions for
authors of "works-for-hire", such as federal government employees,
who cannot transfer copyright. In other words, even with a very
conservative approach to traditional copyright, some articles are
actually published with no transfer of copyright at all.

Any opinion expessed in this e-mail is that of the author alone, and
does not represent the opinion or policy of BC Electronic Library
Network or Simon Fraser University Library.

Heather Morrison, MLIS
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com
Received on Mon Feb 16 2009 - 04:00:38 GMT

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