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“Open Access journal publishing has created a number of entirely new copyright models. These copyright models stand in contrast to the model used by traditional academic journals in which the copyright is effectively transferred from the author to the journal publisher, with only minor variations in practice. The emergence of new models is providing a wide range of choices for authors wishing to publish their work, and it is important to have some sense from academic authors as to the advantages and disadvantages of these new models.

“Our survey asked academic authors to express their views on the usefulness of present-day copyright policies for scholarly communication. In general terms, the survey shows that authors publishing in Open Access journals appear to be no longer satisfied with assigning copyrights to publishers. One of the key elements is authors’ interest in being read and cited, and thus in maximising the free availability of their output. A creator’s right to let his or her work to be used in order to advance science and culture is seen as very important, and the survey therefore emphasises that the views of authors should be taken into account when determining copyright models.

“The purpose of this article is to stimulate libraries and academic institutions to take the authors’ views into account and to represent the authors’ interests along with their own in the aforementioned copyright debate in the scholarly communication system.

Esther Hoorn and Maurits van der Graaf. Copyright Issues in Open Access Research Journals: The Authors’ Perspective. D-Lib Magazine. February 2006.

See also:

Julie Cohen. The Place of the User in Copyright Law. Fordham Law Review (via Social Science Research Network). 2005.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.