Open Access at Washington University

• Anticipate the ways you wish to reuse and disseminate your work
• Choose a publisher that allows authors to retain certain rights or is willing to negotiate
• Review the publisher’s copyright agreement form before signing to confirm that the anticipated uses and rights are noted on the form
• Attach an addendum if necessary, in order to retain rights
• Keep a record of all signed documents
• When required, comply with publisher restrictions on re-use

For purposes of WashU's Open Access Resolution, authors should:

Amend copyright agreements to retain the right to use his or her own work and to deposit such work in a University digital repository or another depository, which is freely accessible to the general public.

Or seek publishers for his or her works committed to free and unfettered access (often referred to as open access publishers) whenever consistent with his or her professional goals, such as in publications using Creative Commons licenses.

In addition, authors may want to retain rights to do the following:

•     Make copies of the work for educational use, including class notes, study guides or electronic reserves
•     Use part of the work as a basis for a future publication
•     Send copies of the work to colleagues
•     Present the work at conference or meeting and give copies of the work to attendees
•     Post on a laboratory or institutional web site on a restricted network or publicly available network

In some cases it may be necessary to negotiate with a publisher in order to retain rights that are not expressly noted by the publisher on the journal website or the publisher copyright agreement form. One way for authors to negotiate is to discuss their needs with the publisher or Editor-in-Chief. In most cases, the publisher or Editor-in-Chief will support the author’s rationale in favor of retaining of certain rights. Once an agreement is reached authors are encouraged to confirm what was agreed upon by doing one of the following:

•     Ask the publisher if you can attach an addendum to the publisher’s copyright agreement form in order to retain the rights as desired.
•     Ask the publisher to send a new copyright agreement form.
•     Insert the rights you wish to retain in the publisher copyright form. Some publisher copyright agreement forms include a space for authors to insert rights they wish to retain.

Any changes made directly on the form agreement must include the initials of the author and the initials of an authorized representative of the publisher, which are placed immediately adjacent to the handwritten or typewritten change. Any changes made and initialed by the author will have no legal effect without the approval of the publisher.

Important: Keep a record of your publishing agreements!

These tools may be useful for your negotiations with your publisher.