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Copyright & Author's Rights
Intellectual property is any form of knowledge or expression created with one’s intellect.
Copyright protects original artistic, literary, musical, or dramatic works, written materials and software, by preventing anyone from copying, publishing or broadcasting a work without the copyright owner’s permission.
Copyright exists as soon as the work is created and is often signaled by marking the work © (author’s name, year). Note: copyright does not protect ideas, but rather the expression of ideas.
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Copyright & Your Works
Before your article or book has been accepted by a journal or book publisher you own the copyright.
Copyright can be Transferred to a Third Party by the Author
In broad terms, for traditional monograph and scholarly article publishing models, the publisher will require the author to either grant or license the copyright to them on a temporary or perpetual basis in return for publication of the works and generation of subsequent revenues.
Two models transfer of copyright agreements are:
- Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA)
- Licence to Publish
This agreement may grant the publisher copyright to your work and might affect subsequent permitted uses and re-uses of your work.
You should ensure that the rights you need, both now and in the future to your works are retained.
Retain the Copyrights You Need
Once your final manuscript has been accepted for publication, the publisher will ask you to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) or a Licence to Publish.
This may grant the publisher copyright to your work and might affect how and when you can make your manuscript Open Access and subsequent permitted re-uses of your work.
Retain the Rights You Need
Scrutinize the publisher agreement before signing it and negotiate to retain the rights you need, including: the right to:
- Place the work on a course web site
- Copy it for students or colleagues
- Reuse portions in subsequent works
- Deposit the work in to QSpace or subject repository for your discipline
- Note: the Tri-Agency Policy on Open Access to Publications requires grant recipients to make their journal publications freely available online within 12 months of publication. See: Meeting Tri-Agency Open Access Policy Requirements.
- The majority of publishers either allow or are willing to negotiate into your CTA the right to freely deposit their final, peer reviewed accepted author manuscript to QSpace.
An author who has transferred copyright without retaining these rights must ask permission unless the use is one of the statutory exemptions in copyright law. See Copyright & Fair Dealing for more information.
How to Easily Retain your Copy Rights
Most publishers are willing to discuss copyright agreements with authors to enable them to meet the terms of funders' open access policies and to retain other rights.
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, in partnership with Creative Commons, has produced a Canadian Author Addendum. This is a free, legal instrument that modifies the publisher’s agreement and allows you to keep key rights to your articles.
To retain valuable copyrights using the addendum:
- Complete the short addendum at: SPARC Canadian Author's Addendum to Publication Agreement
- Print and sign a copy of the addendum
- Note in an email to your publisher the reasons why your have included an addendum to their standard agreement (specify any funders' requirements on timely open access deposit, as appropriate)
- Forward this, along with a copy of the agreement to your publisher.
Future Uses of your Work - Creative Commons Licenses
Creative Commons Licenses enable you, the author, to specific the conditions of re-use of your works by others while, at the same time ensuring that you are credited for your work. They provide built-in copyright and last for the same duration as the copyright in the work.
Creative Commons licences are used by all kinds of content creators including authors of academic books or journal articles, photographers, musicians, artists etc. Many monograph publishers do not yet offer a creative commons option for authors.
There are 6 licenses to choose from and all require attribution, signified by the ‘BY’ in each license name.
Creative Commons: Important Questions Answered!
Source: Creative Commons Wiki: licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
About Creative Commons
- What is Creative Commons and what do you do?
- What are Creative Commons licenses?
- How do CC licenses operate?
- Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?
Deciding to Apply a Creative Commons License
Important things to think about before you apply a Creative Commons license:
Considerations for licensors (authors / creators)
- Irrevocability
- Type of material
- Nature and adequacy of rights
- Type of license
- Additional provisions
- Special preferences
Considerations for licensees (end-users)
- Understand the license
- Scope of the license
- Know your obligations
- Consider licensor preferences
- How should I decide which license to choose?
- What if I change my mind about using a CC license?
- What happens if I offer my materials under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?
- What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?
- When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?
Adding a Creative Commons License to your Material
How do I Apply a Creative Commons License to my material?
How do I add a Creative Commons License to my document, slides etc?
It is important to add your preferred Creative Commons (CC) license to your document. This will mean that anyone viewing your thesis document via a Google search will clearly see the license terms you have assigned and permitted uses.
a) Manually:
- Insert a copy of the appropriate CC icon from: https://creativecommons.org/about/downloads
- Add some text, e.g.: “This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License”
- Insert a hyperlink from your licensing text to the appropriate license.
b) Using the Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office (Word / Excel / PowerPoint):
For Additional Information See:
- Creative Commons FAQ (Creative Commons Wiki)
- About Creative Commons