Since I routinely use this space to complain about the intellectual property practices of various academic publications, I thought I would say something nice for a change. I recently signed publication agreements with Duke University Press (for a coauthored piece with Tara Rodgers that’s going in differences) and the Canadian Journal of Communication. Both had clear publication agreements, were not unnecessarily restrictive, and allowed me to retain my basic rights as an author. Also, I just signed a contract with USC for the summer humanities institute, and it had a really noxious intellectual property clause, but when I inquired, I was told to just cross it out. Which is the next best thing to no noxious clause, I suppose.
Duke asks for copyright but immediately returns basic rights to the author:
The Publisher, as assignee, grants to the Author the right to quote from this article in any book or article that he/she may later write, the right to photocopy the article for his/her own use (including use in his/her own class), and the right to republish the article in any book he/she may write or edit after the journal has appeared. In case of republication, notice of previous publication in this journal must be given.
Believe it or not, a lot of presses are not automatically granting those rights.
The CJC agreement is especially nice–kind of incredible, really–so I reproduce it below. Insert Canadian joke here. The author not only retains all sorts of rights–which are enumerated clearly–including turnaround time for publication (again, all too rare).
Canadian Journal of Communication
c/o Simon Fraser University
515 West Hastings Street,
Vancouver, B.C. V6B 5K3Copyright Licence
Title of Manuscript (Please print): __________________________________________
Author (Please print):_____________________________________________________
Address (Please print:_____________________________________________________
Preamble
Congratulations! Your article has passed the rigors of peer review and has been accepted for publication in the Canadian Journal of Communication (CJC). The Canadian Journal of Communication Corporation is party to this contract with you as it is the legal entity that owns and operates the journal. It is a non-profit corporation under the Canada Corporation Act. This letter of agreement requests that you, as the creator(s)/(author(s) of the above named article, grant an exclusive licence to the CJC for the publication of your article for one year in print and electronic form, followed by a non-exclusive licence allowing the CJC to make the work available in print and/or electronic form in perpetuity. The CJC undertakes to publish your article in print and electronic form and, in general, to pursue its dissemination throughout the world. This licence assists you, as author(s), and the CJC as publisher, to be recognized and, in some cases, compensated for use of your article.
More specifically, the terms of the licence the CJC offers are as follows:
1. The exclusive right to publish your article hereinafter called “the work” in print and electronic form or in any form it may choose that is in keeping with its role as a scholarly journal with the goal of disseminating the work as widely as possible for one year; and thereafter the non-exclusive right to continue to publish the work in perpetuity making it widely available to potential readers;
2. The right to make the work freely available to the public within a period of 24 months, as determined by relevant journal staff under the Creative Commons Licence form (Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives). The reason the journal suggests a period of 24 months is to balance the CJC’s need to maintain subscription revenue with the goal of not unnecessarily standing in the way of public access;
3. The right to negotiate and grant republication rights to itself (for example in an anthology) or to others in print, electronic, or any other form, on behalf of you and the journal. Any revenues earned in this activity will be shared equally between you the author(s) and CJC (the journal);
4. The right to administer permissions to others to use portions of the article. The CJC will seek recompense for commercial and educational use when it is common to receive such funds and the fees involved are substantially more than the costs of their administration.
5. The right to take advantage of opportunities to have the article included in databases aimed at increasing awareness of the article, for example, the Synergies or EBSCO databases;
6. The right to accrue any revenue based on reprography, digital reproduction, or print reproduction and to share that revenue at the discretion of the journal. Large single payments for single article usage (greater than $200 will be shared 50/50 with authors);
7. Notwithstanding the exclusivity requested in the preamble and in clause #1, the CJC wishes you to retain the right to republish the work, with acknowledgment of the CJC as the original publisher. You may republish the work in whole or in part, for example in a scholarly monograph, in any other publication of your own, including any anthology that you might edit with up to three others;
8. The CJC wishes you to retain the right to place your final submitted version of the work on your personal Web page or that of your university or institution with an acknowledgement of its original publication in the CJC. The CJC expects that you will include this notice: A fully edited, peer-reviewed version of this article was first published by the Canadian Journal of Communication,
, , , to . You are free to determine the exact style of the citation. 9. You will be given an opportunity to proofread the final edited version of your article however you must return a proofed copy to the journal within the time period specified. In any event, the CJC will proceed to publication after the time period for proofing has elapsed.
Should you be approached to allow a reprint or a digital reproduction of your work, the CJC requests that you direct inquiries to the CJC. Should you have a strong desire to grant permission personally to a request, you may do so as long as the work and its original publication in the journal is properly cited, you inform the CJC, and any fees received are shared equally with the journal. If you are of the strong opinion that your work did not benefit from first publication in the CJC in attracting a request for republication rights or permissions, you may pursue such opportunities on your own without recompensing the CJC.
MY (AUTHOR’S) SIGNATURE BELOW CONFIRMS THAT THE MANUSCRIPT IN QUESTION, THE TITLE OF WHICH IS NOTED ABOVE, HAS NOT BEEN PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE IN WHOLE OR IN PART AND THAT NO AGREEMENT TO PUBLISH THE WORK IS OUTSTANDING; THAT IT CONTAINS NOTHING THAT IS LIBELLOUS OR OFFENSIVE, NOR DOES IT INVADE THE PRIVACY OF ANYONE, AND THAT I INDEMNIFY THE JOURNAL AGAINST ANY DAMAGES THAT MAY BE BROUGHT FORWARD AS A RESULT OF ITS PUBLICATION.
SHOULD THE WORK CONTAIN MATERIAL WHICH REQUIRES WRITTEN PERMISSION FOR INCLUSION, I AGREE THAT IT IS MY OBLIGATION IN LAW TO IDENTIFY SUCH MATERIAL TO THE EDITOR OF THE CJC AND TO OBTAIN SUCH PERMISSION. THE CJC WILL NOT PAY ANY PERMISSION FEES. SHOULD THE CJC BE OF THE OPINION THAT SUCH PERMISSION IS NECESSARY, IT WILL REQUIRE ME TO PURSUE SUCH PERMISSION PRIOR TO PUBLICATION.
AS AUTHOR, I WARRANT THAT THE WORK IN QUESTION IS ORIGINAL TO ME. SHOULD THE WORK NOT BE ORIGINAL IN WHOLE OR IN PART, AND SHOULD WHAT IS NOT ORIGINAL BE NOT FULLY AND PROPERLY CITED, THE CJC RESERVES THE RIGHT TO WITHDRAW THE WORK FROM PUBLICATIOIN AND, IF IT CHOOSES, TO POST A NOTE OF EXPLANATION.
Provided the foregoing terms are satisfactory, and that you are in agreement with them, please sign and date this letter and return it to my attention at the address above as soon as possible.
For the CJC:
, , I,
____________________________________________ agree to accept and abide by the terms and conditions described herein. Name_____________________________________ Date_________________________