When a work is published, you may give up your rights to the copying and distribution of your own work.
If you contract with a publisher, the publisher typically controls the publication of your original work and assumes copyright of the work. Although this saves you much of the burden of advertising, producing, and distributing your work, you may give up some or all of the rights you originally held that directly affect your role as educator and scholar.
For example, unless you receive permission from the publisher, and depending upon a fair use judgment, you may no longer have the right to :
- authorize copies of your work for inclusion in a course pack
- place a digital copy of your work on E-Reserve , a course web site , or on the college's or a professional society's web site or digital archive
- distribute a copy (in print or via email or the internet) to colleagues and students .
What can you do to retain your rights when having a worked published?
SUGGESTED PRACTICE:
- Negotiate to keep those rights which are important to you.
Having raised the issue of your authorial rights, send the publisher a copy of the author amendment or addendum that you would like to include in your contract.
- Once you have reached agreement on the language of the provisions, write a cover letter acknowledging the publisher's cooperation and noting the inclusion of the amendment/addendum. Then mail the contract, amendment, and cover letter to the publisher.
- Get a signed acceptance of your amendment confirmed by the publisher.
Keep a copy of all paperwork for your records.
- Even if you are unable to obtain the right to post your work to your web site or institutional repository now, the publisher may grant those rights in the future. Retain a copy of your work so it may be easily posted at a later date.
(adapted from University of Connecticut
under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommerical license)