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Authors' Rights: Publishing, Copyright, & You

A guide to resources for the "Publishing, Copyright, and You" Library Workshop

Share your work!

Self-Archiving (also known as Green Open Access) refers to the practice of sharing scholarly works in an open access repository like the ISU Digital Repository. You can include your works that have been published in an Open Access journal, works you've published in traditional journals, and works that you don't plan on publishing at all (such as conference posters and white papers). 

Self-archiving is an attractive option if you want to publish your research in a traditional, commercial journal and still share your work openly after it's published.  However, some commercial journal publishers don't allow self-archiving immediately after publication. In these cases, you should consider negotiating your publication contract to allow for self-archiving. They may have a wait period or embargo of a certain number of months.  Negotiating your publishing contract can be relatively easy, and some publishers have self-archiving rights built into their work by default!

Know your rights!

Sherpa Romeo is a unique database that helps you know the rights that specific journals will allow you as an author to retain!

Just search your journal by name in Sherpa / Romeo.  You'll quickly see if you can retain copyright, and which version(s) of your work (pre-print, post-print, publisher's version) you can post ("self-archive") and where, plus any special conditions you'll need to follow.

You can use the information you find to guide your decision on which journals to choose for your publications.

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Abbey Elder
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