Authors' rights

Overview

In this guide, the term “author” includes creators of all types of works that are protected by copyright, not just texts.

In most cases, authors own copyright in their work unless they have agreed to assign it to someone else. All too often, authors sign away their copyright to publishers during the author-agreement stage of publication. In many instances, the power that authors have over their work—to distribute, create derivatives, or publicly perform it—disappears upon transfer of rights. Awareness of copyright, authors' rights, the fine print in publishing agreements, and negotiation strategies can go a long way to maximizing the value of your authorship in teaching and research practices.

How well do you know your rights as an author? Test your knowledge with The Author’s Rights Quiz created by CoalitionS.

Work created at Concordia

“The University affirms the principles of wide freedom of research and of free publication of the information generated.” (Policy on Intellectual Property)

Intellectual property created by the University's employees and students is governed by Concordia University's policies and guidelines through the following documents:

Policy on Copyright Compliance
Copyright Guidelines for Instructors
Policy on Intellectual Property, which does not supersede provisions in applicable collective agreements or individual contracts of employment. Such agreements should be consulted by the applicable individuals.

Concordia Members who author a work shall generally be the owner of the copyright in the work created, except in the cases of commissioned works (see s. 30 of the Policy on Intellectual Property, which does not supersede provisions made in applicable collective agreements, including the CUFA and CUPFA collective agreements, or the Policy on Postdoctoral Fellows) or work assigned to the University further to another agreement. Note that commissioned works involve a written agreement and should be read carefully. Meanwhile, compliance with the Copyright Act and Concordia's Policy on Copyright Compliance is the responsibility of all members, including students, faculty, staff, and administration.

For instructors

You will want to be familiar with the ways in which copyright intersects with your research and teaching practices via the University's policy on Copyright compliance, student IP, Copyright guidelines for instructors, and the provisions of your collective agreement.

For students

It's important to understand that certain University policies, laws, and practices with respect to copyright apply when you're a student, both in terms of the work you create and the situations in which you can use others' work. In addition, the authors' rights discussed in this section apply to work that you create as a student and that you want to publish.

Publishing contracts: Authors, keep your rights

As part of the publishing process, journal and book publishers ask their authors to sign an agreement. By default, the agreement will typically stipulate that the author transfers economic rights to the publisher. These agreements may vary in granting the publisher certain exclusive or non-exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce, translate derivatives, distribute, sell, license, publicly display copies, and so forth. Always read any publishing agreement closely and assess any effects that the granting of any rights to the publisher may have on you going forward.

Authors may want to gain the benefits of publishing with a journal or book publisher while retaining certain rights.

Steps to consider

Start by increasing your awareness of your rights as an author under Canadian copyright law such as by reviewing the following sections of this Copyright Guide: Overview and Authors' rights
Know what rights you want to keep. Examples include the right to freely share your work with students, to translate or adapt it into a different format, and to allow a version of it to be openly accessible.
Read the fine print of the author agreement. Is it a complete assignment of copyright? Take a very close look and underline any line that states what you license, grant or assign to the publisher, which directly impacts what you are permitted to do with various versions of your work upon publication. Here are samples of publishing agreements in which relevant wording for author rights has been underlined.
- Sample Sage Publishing Agreement
- Sample Taylor and Francis Publishing Agreement
- Sample Springer Copyright Transfer Agreement
- Sample Elsevier Publishing Agreement
- Sample Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Agreement
  
  Sample publishing agreements from Author Rights: Your Rights, and Keeping Them by the University of Waterloo.
The fourth step involves negotiation for a revised agreement in writing.

The Rights Retention Strategies developed as part of PlanS supports authors in retaining their rights in advance of the accepted manuscript through the backing of participating granting agencies and institutions. Resources from PlanS include a user guide, a pre-submission letter template, and a cover letter template.

The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) has developed a Canadian Author Addendum (available in English and French) to help authors secure the rights after their manuscript has been accepted for publication. Including the SPARC Canadian Author Addendum in a publication agreement assists authors in securing a more balanced agreement by retaining select rights, such as the rights to reproduce, reuse, and publicly present the articles they publish for non-commercial purposes.

SPARC's Resources on Author Rights
Canadian Author Addendum (available in English and French)

Some academics are openly talking about their negotiation experiences; for example see: More lessons on negotiating a contributor's contract and Negotiating academic publishing contracts.

Predatory publishing

Publishing with a predatory publisher can damage an academic's reputation with potential repercussions for tenure and promotion. Signing up for a predatory conference can cost time and money with no benefit to your academic CV. Before conferencing and publishing, make sure that you adequately inform yourself about the conference or journal.

Predatory journal publishers

Predatory publishers (also referred to as 'deceptive publishers') are for-profit entities that attempt to lure academics into publishing in journals that do not follow accepted best practices for scholarly publications. Ultimately, these publishers are motivated by profit rather than the publication of high-quality research. Spotting a predatory journal or a predatory conference is becoming increasingly difficult.

Predatory publishers may possess one or more of the following tendencies:

The email

Unsolicited email invitations to publish your work
Use of the wrong academic title (i.e., Dr for PhD candidates)
Sender poses as a member of a legitimate journal's editorial board
Sender promotes themselves as offering Open Access publications supported by peer-review
Requires exorbitant fees
Communication style is flattering or intimidating, pressuring you to submit on a short deadline

The web

They may not have a website
Website may be filled with spelling errors
Quality of copyediting in published articles may be low
Not indexed in major academic research databases (Google Scholar, Ulrich's Web or Mendeley don't count)
Publication workflow has an abnormally fast turnaround (i.e., a couple of weeks)

Checklists

How to Assess a Journal: An infographic from the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) on key things to consider when assessing journal.

Think.Check.Submit: a series of checklists to identify trusted journals and publications prior to submitting your work. These checklists are tailored to help you assess if your article, chapter, or book should be submitted to a journal or publication.

Identifying Deceptive Publishers: A Checklist (University of Toronto Libraries): this checklist aims to help you avoid publishing your work in a predatory publication. If the source you are looking at meets all the criteria on the checklist, do not submit.

Open Access journals

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): a directory of legitimate and open access journals. If a publication is included in DOAJ, consider this to be a step in the right direction, but not necessarily a guarantee that the journal is a legitimate publication. If a journal claims to be in the DOAJ and is not, consider this a red flag. Keep in mind that not all legitimate publications appear in the directory.

Impact factor

Journal Citation Reports (JCR): If a journal is claiming to have an Impact Factor (IF), you can check the JCR to see if the journal is listed and its corresponding IF. This report does not include every legitimate journal—just journals with IFs. Tip: If a publication is claiming to use IFs from another resource that is not the JCR, be wary. IFs are solely produced by JCR.

Predatory conferences

Predatory conferences are often small or one-off events, typically designed solely for profit. They exploit the researcher's need to share research, network, and collaborate with peers. The details about the conference are usually vague, and the research topics are often general.

Predatory conferences may have the following characteristics:

The email invitation for a predatory conference is frequently like a predatory journal: flattering or intimidating. While some conferences may be expensive to attend, they sometimes offer low-cost options for students or society members. Legitimate academic conferences will cover costs and provide an honorarium for keynote and special guest speakers. Predatory conferences, on the other hand, invite you as a special guest to present your work without lowering the cost.

Tools

Think.Check.Attend.: a quick guide on deciding whether the conference is right for you.

Conference Evaluation Tool: created by Emme Lopez & Christine S. Gaspard to help assess if a conference is predatory or not.

Research – Publishing FAQ

Who holds the rights to my publication?

Know that the vast majority of authors' agreements will by default stipulate that the author transfers economic rights to the publisher. Depending on what the agreement says, the author may no longer be able to legally reproduce their work (in whole or in part), upload it to their personal website, or deposit it in their institutional repository. Authors can, nonetheless, negotiate with their publisher to retain certain rights (reproduction and distribution for educational purposes, open-access distribution, etc.).

How can I retain my rights in a publication?

Learn more about copyright, keeping your rights, publishing contracts, and negotiation.

Resources from PlanS, which include a user guide, pre-submission letter template, and cover letter template, are useful tools prior to submitting your research for publication. Meanwhile, signing the Canadian Author Addendum (available in English and French) template with your editor modifies your publication contract.

What is an institutional repository, a self-archiving policy, and which version of an article can I deposit in Spectrum?

Spectrum is the name of Concordia University's institutional repository. It is a space, accessible free of charge on the web, where Concordia graduate students are expected to deposit their theses, and faculty may also deposit their other research.

To deposit your research in Spectrum, find out about the self-archiving policy of any publisher with which you have published your work. Green open access, or author-driven self-archiving, is the process whereby an author submits a version of their publication in an open-access environment such as an institutional repository. Most publishers have a default self-archiving policy, which you can consult on Sherpa Romeo as well as the journal's official website. If the self-archiving policy is too restrictive, you may also consider strategies to keep your rights.

What do I need to do to comply with the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FQR) in Quebec and Canada's Tri-Agency Open Access Policy?

Access to articles resulting from research funded by the FQR and the three federal granting agencies (NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR) needs to be available free of charge. For details on the time range and licensing terms, see: Funding agencies and Open Access.

After identifying the journals that best meet your publishing goals, look over their self-archiving policy. A journal, for example, may enable the accepted manuscript version to be deposited in your institutional repository within the allotted timeframe. If your preferred journals' self-archiving policies do not align with the granting agency's Open Access policy, then consider the following:

Allocating funding in your grant application for Author Processing Charges (APC), which are sometimes charged in order to make articles open access.
Reviewing Article Processing Charges (APCs) discounts by consulting Institutional memberships and discounts for Concordia authors.
Negotiating the terms of the copyright with the publisher.
Authors' rights retention strategies can be used to support open access requirements within an acceptable timeframe. They can be used for self-archiving the accepted manuscript version in your institutional repository without an embargo period.
If the considerations above do not work, consider an alternative journal.

Is it common for the publisher to charge a fee to distribute my article in open access?

Yes, publishers often charge Article Processing Charges (APCs) for making the published version of an article open access on their platforms. Sometimes APCs are significant. It's a way for publishers to recoup some of the revenue that they lose when they publish in open access. Please note that you can allocate funding in your grant application for APCs, and Concordia offers APC discounts for Concordia researchers in select journals.

Note that if APCs seem exaggerated, be careful: the publisher may be a predatory publisher. For more information on how to identify and avoid them, see the section on predatory publishing on this website. You may also be interested to know that diamond open-access journals are fully OA journals free of charge for both authors and readers.

What is a predatory publisher and how do I avoid them?

Predatory publishers only aim to make profit at the expense of authors. They often charge exorbitant fees for the publication of articles without following a rigorous process, lack serious and integrated evaluation of articles by peers, have no reporting in the main databases of the field, have no indexing of the articles in scholarly databases, etc. Review checklists on how to spot predatory publishers. For more information on how to identify and avoid them, see the section on predatory publishing on this website. If you still feel uncertain after reviewing the checklists, contact your subject librarian.

What can I do if I have published an article with a predatory publisher?

You can ask for the article to be removed, but be aware that the publisher may charge a fee.