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Understanding the language in a publishing contract
- “transfer” or “assign” copyright – this means you’re giving your copyright to the publisher
- “licence” – in some contracts you keep copyright but provide the publisher with a licence, which is actually all they need to publish the work, the terms of which will include things like the points that follow;
- “exclusive” vs “non-exclusive” – you only ever want to grant a non-exclusive licence so that you retain the right to put your work where you want to;
- “irrevocable” means the terms will apply for all eternity;
- “self-archiving,” “archival deposit” or similar – some contracts now specifically allow you to deposit a version in an institutional repository (usually this version is either the submitted version or the accepted version post-peer review, not the final ‘version of record’ that appears in the journal);
- “open access” – the specific terms will vary but most commonly you will retain the copyright and the open access licence that is applied allows anyone, including the publisher, to copy the work under certain terms.
Richard White, ‘Who owns copyright in your work?’, LinkedIn, 7 February 2021.
For more information please see our page Understanding publishing agreements for academic authors
Or download the guide and the checklist:
Understanding publishing agreements PDF
Understanding publishing agreements editable DOC
Author Rights Checklist editable DOC
Glossary
This glossary explains key terms used in discussions of open access and rights retention. It is intended as a quick reference for researchers, professional staff, and others working with scholarly publishing and research policy.
Accepted manuscript The version of a scholarly work that has been revised after peer review and accepted for publication, but before the publisher’s formatting and typesetting.
Article processing charge (APC) A fee charged by some publishers to make a work open access, usually immediately on publication.
Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) The author-created version of a work that includes changes from peer review and has been accepted for publication. This is often the version deposited in a repository.
Author’s original manuscript The version of a work before peer review. It is earlier than the AAM and usually does not include reviewer revisions.
Australian Research Council (ARC) One of Australia’s main public research funders. Its open access policy is relevant to rights retention because it requires funded research outputs to be made publicly available.
Copyright The bundle of legal rights that controls how a work may be reproduced, shared, adapted, or communicated.
Corresponding author The author who manages communication with the journal during submission and publication. In many publishing agreements, eligibility for open access publishing support depends on the corresponding author being affiliated with a participating institution.
Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL) The body that represents university libraries across Australia and New Zealand. CAUL negotiates Read and Publish agreements and has also supported work on rights retention and intellectual property in scholarly publishing.
Creative Commons licence A standardised public licence that allows others to reuse a work under specified conditions.
Diamond open access Diamond open access (sometimes called platinum open access) is when the final published version is made freely available on the publisher’s website, usually immediately on publication, and no APCs are charged to authors. In diamond open access models, publishing costs are covered by other sources such as institutions, consortia, societies, or public funding.
Embargo A delay period before a manuscript or published version can be made openly accessible.
Funder mandate A requirement set by a research funder about how and when outputs arising from funded research must be made openly available.
Gold open access Gold open access is when the final published version (Version of Record) is made freely available on the publisher’s website, usually immediately on publication. This is most commonly funded through an article processing charge (APC) paid by or on behalf of the author, or through an institutional Read and Publish agreement
Green open access Open access provided through a repository rather than through the publisher’s site. The deposited version is often the AAM.
Hybrid journal A hybrid journal is a subscription journal in which individual articles can be made open access on the publisher’s website, usually immediately on publication. This option is typically funded through an APC or through an institutional Read and Publish agreement, while other articles in the same journal remain behind a paywall.
Institutional intellectual property policy A university policy that sets out who owns intellectual property created by staff or students, including scholarly works in some cases.
Institutional repository A digital platform used by a university or research organisation to collect, preserve, and share scholarly outputs.
Licence to publish An agreement under which an author gives a publisher permission to publish and distribute a work, sometimes exclusively.
Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) An Australian Government medical research funding program. MRFF-funded papers are covered alongside NHMRC-funded outputs under the NHMRC and MRFF Open Science Policy.
Metadata Descriptive information about a research output, such as title, authors, abstract, keywords, publication date, funder details, and identifiers.
Metadata deposit requirement A requirement to make descriptive information about a research output publicly available in a repository, even if the full text is not yet open.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) A New Zealand government ministry that acts as a major public funder of research and innovation. MBIE-supported projects are an important part of the New Zealand research landscape, and MBIE policy includes requirements for research outputs it funds to be made openly available, typically within a specified timeframe (for example, within 12 months of publication).
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) One of Australia’s major public research funders. Its policy settings are relevant to rights retention because they require funded research papers to be made openly available imemediately on publication.
Open access Research outputs that are made freely available online for others to read, and often to reuse under specified licence terms.
Open licence A licence that permits reuse of a work under stated conditions, often through a Creative Commons framework.
Open science policy A policy framework that promotes broader access to research outputs and, in some contexts, other research materials.
Participating institution A university or research organisation that has opted into a specific agreement, policy arrangement, or publishing deal.
Postprint A term often used to describe the version of a manuscript after peer review and acceptance but before publisher layout. It is commonly treated as equivalent to the AAM.
Preprint A version of a scholarly work made publicly available before formal peer review or publication.
Publicly funded research Research supported by government or public funding bodies.
Publisher agreement The contract or licence that sets the terms under which a work is published.
Read and Publish agreement A publisher agreement that combines payment for subscription reading access with payment for open access publishing in a redefined list of journals by affiliated authors.
Repository deposit The act of uploading a scholarly work, or its metadata, to an institutional or subject repository.
Rights retention The practice of keeping enough rights in a scholarly work to allow it to be shared openly, usually through repository deposit or licensing of the accepted manuscript.
Rights retention policy An institutional or funder policy designed to preserve enough rights for research outputs to be made openly available.
Rights retention statement A standard statement included with a manuscript submission to notify the publisher that the author or institution retains certain rights in the work.
Self-archiving The act of making a version of a scholarly work available in a repository or other open platform.
Submission version The version of the manuscript first sent to a journal for review, before peer review revisions.
Version of Record (VoR) The final published version of a work, including the publisher’s formatting, copyediting, and typesetting.
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