On Tue, 16 Nov 1999, Marvin Margoshes wrote:
sh> It is an awakening to what is actually at stake here for research and
sh> researchers, and how fundamentally different the copyright function is
sh> for the fee/royalty-based literature, for which it was intended, as
sh> opposed to the give-away literature that is at issue here: the refereed
sh> journal literature.
mm> You base your argument on a distinction; does copyright law make that
mm> distinction? Not to my knowledge, but I'm willing to learn.
I base it on a distinction that has only become relevant in the
PostGutenberg era of online self-archiving of give-away work by its own
authors.
Older Copyright agreements are not explicit about Web self-archiving by
the author, hence are moot. Those newer agreements drafted to include
passages explicitly forbidding Web self-archiving should only be signed
after striking out those passages (which lately include attempts to
make incoherent distinctions between permitted archiving on a "personal
server" and forbidden archiving on a "public server" -- absurd because
all "personal servers" on the Web are public! These distinctions are
based on paper publishing categories that simply have no counterpart on
the Web; hence the mootness of the older agreements).
Here are some excerpts from CogPrints' Copyright FAQ for authors:
<http://cogprints.soton.ac.uk/help/copyright.html>
[CogPrints] CogPrints: Copyright Frequently Asked Questions
CogPrints is an author's archive; as such, it has the same relation to an
author's work as the author's home institution does, when that work is
archived on the home server (as all CogPrints authors are strongly advised
to do, in addition to archiving it in CogPrints).
It is accordingly the author who must adopt a policy about copyright. We can
only offer some generic advice:
1. A distinction should be made between the unrefereed preprint and the
refereed, edited, published reprint. No copyright agreement has any
bearing on the unrefereed preprint, which can be publicly archived
online before the refereeing even takes place.
Hence the rest of the points below pertain only to the refereed,
edited, published reprint. Preprints can be archived without reference
to any copyright agreement or publisher.
(Note, however, that a minority of journals have indicated that they
will not referee papers that have been publicly archived online. It is
not clear whether any attempt has been made to enforce such a policy --
or indeed whether it would be possible to enforce it at all -- as so
many authors are archiving their papers publicly on their home servers.
See http://www.chronicle.com/colloquy/98/copyright/11.htm)
2. If you have not signed a copyright transfer statement that cedes your
right to publicly archive your own paper online for free, it is not
clear that there is any problem, but if you wish to confirm this, you
should inform your publisher that you wish to do so, and request
confirmation that there is no legal obstacle. Some journals (such as
all those published by the American Physical Society) explicitly permit
public online archiving of the final published draft by the author;
others attempt to specifically forbid it in their copyright agreements.
Note that any copyright agreement pertains only to the final, refereed,
edited draft that appeared or will appear in print. It does not and
cannot cover pre-refereeing preprints or indeed any penultimate draft
that preceded the final one. (The nature and size of the requisite
difference between the two is to all intents and purposes arbitrary.)
3. If you have signed a copyright transfer agreement ceding your right to
publicly archive your own paper online for free, you should contact
your publisher indicating that you wish to do so; matters are evolving
rapidly in this area and publishers may well be coming around to more
justifiable and enforceable policies.
4. You should not sign any more such agreements. They are completely
unjustified, and energetic steps are being taken to put an end to them
as soon as possible. See the current copyright discussions and
proposals in Science, Nature, American Scientist, and Chronicle of
Higher Education, respectively:
o http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/science.html
o http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/nature.html
o http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/september-forum.html
o http://www.chronicle.com/free/v45/i04/04a02901.htm
Stefano Ghirlanda of Stockholms Universitet offers the following advice.
If you would like to ask a journal to modify their copyright policy so that
you and possibly others can post your articles on the web, you might find
the following suggestions helpful.
Take the initiative
Some journals will accept a copyright agreement different from their
standard one if asked to, but will not offer a liberal agreement from
the beginning. We know of several journals that will leave
non-commerical distribution of a paper unrestricted if the author asks
for it.
Thus, when you get the copyright-transfer form from a journal, just
send back a different, already signed one with a science-friendly
policy. You can model your requests after the American Physical
Society's (APS) policy, which can be found at:
ftp://aps.org/pub/jrnls/copy_trnsfr.asc
A possible sample text is:
I hereby transfer to [publisher or journal] all rights to sell or
lease the text (paper and online) of [paper-title]. I retain only
the right to distribute it for free for scholarly/scientific or
educational purposes, in particular, the right to self-archive it
publicly online on the Web.
More precise wording (legally speaking) can be found in the APS policy
above. It should be clear that only non-commerical distribution will be
unrestricted, and that the publisher would retain all commerical
rights.
In case of a "no"
If your agreement is declined by the journal, it may prove effective to
express concern that a too restrictive copyright policy may hinder the
free circulation of scientific ideas. Say also that people's
willingness to submit to this or that journal may in the future be
influenced by their copyright policies.
Some journals are owned by scientific associations, but the copyright
is often managed by a commercial publisher. Try to go through the
association first, especially if you are or have been a member.
Rejoice
You can consider your time well spent even when the publisher fails to
accept your conditions. It is important that the journals know what an
author considers an important precondition for submission.
Stefano Ghirlanda Stockholms Universitet [log in to unmask]
Campaign for the Freedom of Distribution of Scientific Work:
http://rerumnatura.zool.su.se
Bachrach S. et al. (1998) Intellectual Property: Who Should Own Scientific
Papers? Science 281 (5382): 1459-1460. September 4 1998.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/281/5382/1459
http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/science.html
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Below is the American Physical Society's Copyright form. As you will see, it
does not rule out public archiving of the unrefereed preprint or the
refereed reprint.
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 14:52:47 -0700 (MST)
From: Paul Ginsparg 505-667-7353 <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: aps copyright
THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY
Under U.S. copyright law, the transfer of copyright from the author(s)
should be explicitly stated to enable the publisher to disseminate the work
to the fullest extent. The following transfer agreement must be signed and
returned to the APS Editorial Office, 1 Research Road, Box 9000, Ridge, NY
11961-9000 before the manuscript can be published. Send requests for further
information to the Administrative Editor at the above address.
TRANSFER OF COPYRIGHT AGREEMENT
Copyright to the unpublished and original article and subsequent, if necessary,
errata, including copyright to the abstract forming part thereof, entitled
______________________________________________________________________________
submitted by the following author(s) (names of all authors)___________________
______________________________________________________________________________
is hereby transferred to The American Physical Society (APS) for the full
term thereof throughout the world, subject to the following rights that
the author(s) may freely exercise and to acceptance of the article for
publication in a journal of APS. APS shall have the right to register
copyright to the article and the accompanying abstract in its name as
claimant, whether separately or as part of the journal issue or other medium
in which such work is included.
The author(s) shall have the following rights:
(1) All proprietary rights other than copyright, such as patent rights.
(2) The right, after publication by APS, to refuse permission to third parties
to republish an article or a translation thereof. Those seeking reprint
permission must seek the author(s)' permission directly, in addition to
obtaining APS' permission. However, it is not necessary to obtain
permission from APS [only from the author(s)] to quote excerpts from an
article or to reprint figures or tables therefrom, as long as no more than
25 figures and/or tables from the totality of APS journals are to be
reprinted in a single publication.
(3) The right, after publication by APS, to use all or part of the article and
abstract, without revision or modification, in personal compilations or
other publications of the author's own works, including the author's
personal web home page, and to make copies of all or part of such materials
for the author's use for lecture or classroom purposes, provided that the
first page of such use or copy prominently displays the bibliographic data
and the following copyright notice: ``Copyright 19XX by The American
Physical Society.''
(4) The right to post and update the article on e-print servers as long as
files prepared and/or formatted by APS or its vendors are not used for that
purpose, and as long as access to the server does not depend on payment of
access, subscription, or membership fees. Any such posting made or updated
after acceptance of the article for publication shall include a copyright
notice as in (3).
(5) If the article has been prepared by an employee within the scope of his or
her employment, the employer shall have the right to make copies of the
work for his own internal use. If the article was prepared under a U.S.
Government contract, the government shall have the rights under the
copyright to the extent required by the contract.
The author(s) agree that all copies of the whole article or abstract made
under any of the above rights shall include notice of the APS copyright.
By signing this agreement, the author(s) warrant that this manuscript has not
been published elsewhere, and is not being considered for publication
elsewhere. If each author's signature does not appear below, the signing
author(s) represent that they sign this agreement as authorized agents for
and on behalf of all the authors, and that this agreement and authorization
is made on behalf of all the authors.
______________________________________________________________________________
Author's Signature Date
______________________________________________________________________________
Name (print)
If the manuscript has been prepared as a Work Made For Hire, the transfer
should be signed by both the employee (above) and the employer (below):
_____________________________________________________________________________
Name of Employer (print)
_____________________________________________________________________________
Employer's Signature Name (print) Title Date
A work prepared by a U.S. Government officer or employee* as part of his or
her official duties is not eligible for U.S. copyright. If at least one of
the authors is not in this category, that author should sign above. If all
the authors are in this category, one of the authors should sign below, and
indicate his or her affiliation.
____________________________________________________________________________
Author's Signature Institution (e.g., NRL, NIST) Date
* Employees of national laboratories, e.g., BNL, are not U.S. Government
employees.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Stevan Harnad [log in to unmask]
Professor of Cognitive Science [log in to unmask]
Department of Electronics and phone: +44 23-80 592-582
Computer Science fax: +44 23-80 592-865
University of Southampton http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/
Highfield, Southampton http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/
SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM
NOTE: A complete archive of this ongoing discussion of "Freeing the
Refereed Journal Literature Through Online Self-Archiving" is available
at the American Scientist September Forum (98 & 99):
http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/september98-forum.html
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