Copyright Issues

Eprints for LIS does not want to infringe copyrights. We encourage giving open access where possible.

Authors's Copyright

All work on the E-LIS server remains the property of the author. When you submit a preprint to an e-prints server, you retain copyright. Texts that an author has himself written are his own intellectual property. Unless noted otherwise, the creators or authors retain copyright and other proprietary rights. Submitting authors will be responsible for ensuring the documents they archive do not have any restrictions on their electronic distribution. The author holds the copyright for the pre-refereed preprints, so they can be self-archived without seeking anyone else's permission. For the refereed postprint, the author can try to modify the copyright transfer agreement to allow self-archiving, or, failing that, can append or link a corrigenda file to the already self-archived preprint.

See more information on:
Know your rights! of Project Romeo (Rights MEtadata for Open archiving), one page handout encouraging authors to retain their rights and self-archive.
Publisher copyright policies and self-archiving, use this site to find a summary of permissions that are normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement.
Draft Research Self-Archiving Policy of University of Southampton.

The right to self-archive

The right to self-archive the refereed postprint is a legal matter because the copyright transfer agreement pertains to that text. But the pre-refereed preprint is self-archived at a time when no copyright transfer agreement exists and so the author holds exclusive and full copyright. In general, when you publish in a journal you transfer copyright to the publisher. Most journals permit self-archiving, but it depends on the publisher's copyright policy. Authors can also deposit the postprint inside the archive with restricted access. Authors may request that the publisher give back certain rights, e.g. the right to deposit the postprint in an open access archive, or to put it on your own homepage. Some publishers have stated that they grant these rights as a standard procedure. Copyright law gives the creator of copyrighted work exclusive rights, which may be both segmented and transferred to others. Managing copyright wisely can significantly enhance the values of the educational system.

See more information on:
How can I self-archive AND get my paper published? of Project Romeo (Rights MEtadata for Open archiving), a table that helps you to see how you may both self-archive and get your paper published, without breaking publishers' Copyright Transfer Agreements.
Managing Your Copyright by Scott Bennett, University Librarian, Yale University, for a useful description of the value and options for managing copyright ownership.

What is Metadata Policy?

Third parties may collect metadata from the archive via mechanics that create end-user services to support the discovery and presentation of the archive's content. The general policy is to allow harvesting of metadata. Harvesting full content is not permitted.

Readers and reproduction right

The documents posted on E-LIS archive are protected by copyright, retained by the authors, or by other ownerships. Authors or Publishers control translation and reproduction rights to these works. However, users of the works are granted permission for individual, educational research, and non-commercial reproduction under national, foreign, and international laws on Copyright.

The works included in E-LIS are the property of their authors and are used by permission. Since the rules for use of published electronic documents are still somewhat undefined, we insist that users apply the same principles of fair use to the works in this electronic archive that they would to a published, printed archive. These works may be read online, downloaded for personal use, or the URL of a document (from this server) can be included in another electronic document. The text itself may not be published commercially (in print or electronic form), edited, or otherwise altered without the permission of the author. As with printed materials, care should be taken when excerpting or referencing text to ensure that the views, opinions, and arguments of the author accurately reflect those contained in the original work.

Discussions

There is a vivid international discussion on copyright issues in connection with the open access movement, se e.g. Eprints FAQ, Managing Your Copyrights, Intellectual property rights, and the CNI-COPYRIGHT discussion list.