Copyright

Before publishing a new article

When a manuscript has been accepted for publication in a journal, or in connection with electronic submission, the researcher usually receives a publication agreement to be signed. It is important to read the agreement carefully to check what applies. Remember to save the submitted version of the manuscript, as many publishers do not allow parallel publishing with "authors' version" from the publisher's PDF file.

 

Previously published material

If you as a researcher have previously published material, it may be stated in the agreement from the publisher that you have limited or waived your rights. It can then be nice to know that most journals, after all, allow articles to be freely available in exchange for certain conditions being met. For example, you can find parallel publishing policies in the Sherpa Romeo database.

Request permission to parallel publish 

For books and some articles, the researcher is required to contact the publisher and ask for permission. Usually only a simple letter is required. Bring:

• The title of the work
• Where the work was first published (publication name, volume, number, page number)
• Where the copy will be available

Creative Commons licenses

By publishing Open Access, you as a researcher retain the copyright to the publication, which means that you have the right to distribute the material freely on the internet. Creative Commons (CC) is a tool that authors can use when they want to distribute their material on the Internet, and consists of six different licenses that describe how the material may be used. Many Open Access journals give the publication a CC license upon publication, but it is also possible to choose a CC license for other material that is published freely on the Internet.