Copyright to own scientific work

Work is protected by copyright if:

1. The work is a scientific, literary or artistic work. Examples: A book, a ph.d-thesis, an article or an illustration. Official administrative documents are not protected by copyright.
2. The work needs to be an original, creative work. It must be the result of the originator’s own creative contribution. You cannot copy somebody else’s work and claim it as your own.
3. The work must be expressed, for example through writing, an illustration or a figure. Copyright protects the expression, not the idea.

The originator of the work owns the rights to his/her work from the moment it is created. It is not necessary with any kind of registration or mark for a work to be protected.

There are two types of copyright:

• Moral rights: The right to be attributed as the author/creator, and to ensure that the work is reproduced in a manner that does not offend the author/creator.
• Economic rights: The right to produce copies and to make the work available. This includes the right to:
  • Reproduction of the work: For example to make paper copies and the right to digital archiving.
  • Distribution of the work: For example by sale, loan or rental of the work.
  • Public display and performance of the work: For example a lecture or a musical performance, to send an article by e-mail, or to make an article or book available on the Internet.
  • Transformation of the work: For example translation of a book.

The author as a rule owns both economic and moral rights to their work, but can sign away economic rights when for example publishing or through employment agreements.

According to copyright law co-authorship should be based on contribution to the expression of the work. This could for example be achieved by all authors contributing to the writing of a text.

There are different types of co-authorship:

• Joint work: Rights are owned together. For example an article.
• Collective work: The editor owns the collective work and the individual authors own their own parts. For example an anthology.
• Second hand work: The original creator owns the rights to the original work, but the creator of the adapted work owns the rights to this version. For example a translated book.

Within scientific publishing the ethical rules for co-authorship are often different from those stated in copyright law. Within many disciplines the Vancouver-rules (p. 2) are the basis for co-authorship. According to these rules all authors should have contributed sustainably to:

1. conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data,
2. drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content,
3. final approval of the version to be published

All criteria (a, b and c) must be fulfilled.

When publishing authors transfer copyright to the publisher, the author keeps the right to be attributed as the author (moral rights).

If the author has transferred rights, she/he must ask the publisher permission to reuse their own material. In most publishing contracts the author keeps some rights to reuse their own work, for example the right to self-archive a version of an article in an open repository or the right to us the article in a printed version of the author’s ph.d-thesis.

Information about which rights the author keeps can be found in the publishing contract or on the publisher’s webpage, often under the sections Author guidelines, Permissions or Copyright.  

Some publishers offer a license agreement instead of transferring copyright. The author keeps copyright but in an exclusive licence agreement so many rights are transferred that there is no real difference. A non-exclusive agreement will usually mean that the author keeps more rights.

When publishing Open Access it is common to use a license that allows the author to keep copyright, while users get extended rights to copy, share, build upon and make available the work. Usually a Creative Commons license is used. This is a set of standard licenses that gives the users different degrees of reusing rights.

Transferring copyright to books

When publishing a book the author usually transfers rights to the publisher. The author has the right to royalties as long as the book is in print. The author might be able to get copyright back from the publisher if the book is no longer in print. This will be specifies in the contract, or it can be possible to get rights back by sending a request to the publisher.

When an author transfers copyright to a publisher the publication must be cleared for copyright restrictions before it can be reused, also by the author herself. Usually the contract or the publisher’s website contains information about what rights are kept by the author. If such information is not available the publisher must be contacted to ask for permission.

Articles in a ph.d-thesis

In an article based ph.d-thesis the individual articles must be cleared for copyright before they can be reused in the thesis. Most publishers will allow making available articles in a printed version of a thesis. However, if such permission is not stated in the contract or on the publisher’s website permission must be granted from the publisher.

When making available an electronic version of a thesis in the University of Bergen’s online institutional repository, Bergen Open Research Archive (BORA), the articles need to be cleared for copyright first. Usually the publisher will be more restrictive towards making articles available in an electronic version of a thesis than in the printed one.

Read more about making ph.d-theses available in BORA.

Research publications in an open archive

When making available publications in an open archive, like Bergen Open Research Archive (BORA), it is necessary to know what policy the publisher has towards self-archiving. The policy will contain information about which versions of an article are available, if there is an embargo period, and other conditions. Information about the publisher’s policy will usually be found in the publishing contract, on the publisher website, or in the Sherpa/RoMEO-database (for articles).

Some journals have an embargo period on one or more versions of an article. The embargo period will usually be 6, 12 or 24 months. Articles with an embargo can be registered in BORA, but will be made available online when the embargo period is over.

When it comes to making available published books and book chapters it will usually be necessary to contact the publisher to ask for permission to reuse the work. If the book no longer is for sale it might be possible to get copyright transferred back to the author again.

If copyright has not been transferred to a publisher the author has copyright to the material. This could for example be to a master thesis, the whole or parts of a ph.d.-thesis, and to material such as research reports, working papers and conference contributions. This type of material can be made available in an open archive by the author without asking for permission.

If you cannot find information about the publisher’s guidelines for how to self-archive online you can send an e-mail to the publisher and ask for permission.

Standard letter for asking for permission.

Read more about making research publications available in BORA.

When making article available in an open archive or other platforms the author must relate to the publisher’s conditions when it comes to what versions of an article that can be made available. This also applies to articles that are uploaded to research network sites like ResearchGate, Mendeley and Academia.

Draft/submitted version/preprint: This is the version of the article before peer-review. The author owns copyright as long as a contract is not signed with a publisher. Most publishers will allow the preprint version of an article to be made available in an institutional repository. However, some journals are more restrictive, and will not allow the preprint to be made available before it has been published.

Author version/accepted version/post print: This is the version of article that is accepted for publication and peer-reviewed, but not the final formatted version that is published. The author will sometimes own copyright to this version. Many journals will allow this version to be made available in an open archive. It will vary how much of a difference there is between this version and the final published version. The difference will often lay in final formatting, logo, page numbers, references, final proof reading, and that the Word file is converted to a PDF.

An accepted version is not the same as a "page proof." You provide the publisher with the version that is accepted. The publisher then provides you with a page proof for review just prior to publication.

The journal published version: This is the version of the article that is published in a journal. This is the final version proof read by the publisher. This version is recognized by the journal’s logo, final formatting and finished references. The publisher will usually own the copyright to this version of the article. Many journals are restrictive towards making this version available in an open archive, while others again will demand that it is only the final published version that can be made available online.

If the article has an open license it can be made available in the published version.

Information about the publisher’s policy for article versions will usually be found in the publishing contract, on the publisher website, or in the Sherpa/RoMEO-database.

Why be concerned about keeping copyright to your own material?

• The wish to be able to reuse own material
• The wish that others should have access to reuse the material

How to keep copyright to your own work when publishing?

When publishing Open Access with an open license (from Creative Commons) the author can keep copyright and at the same time give extended rights to reuse the work. However, be aware that not all publishers offer an open license or lets the author keep copyright when publishing Open Access.

When reusing other’s material it is necessary to ask the person that has made the work for permission. This could for be the case when reusing pictures, illustrations, graphs, and whole or parts of presentations. When publishing, copyright might be transferred to a publisher and it is then necessary to contact the publisher to get permission to reuse.

Exceptions

There are several exceptions to copyright. Here are some of the main ones when it comes to reuse of work for research purposes:

Private use: It is allowed to copy work for private use. Private use includes one’s own use, use by one’s family and friends, and use within a group where the members have a personal connection to each other.

The right to cite: Extracts of the material can be used according to the right to cite. It is always allowed to cite from a published work as long as it is in agreement with common practice and only in the extent that the purpose demands.

Public domain: Work that has fallen into the public domain is no longer protected by copyright and therefore can be used without asking for permission. In most countries work falls into the public domain 70 years after the last creator’s year of death. For work that is not considered intellectual work protected by copyright (for example photographic pictures) other rules apply. The creator has the right to be named as such even if the work is in the public domain.

Open license: If the material is published with an open license (from Creative Commons) it can be reused after the conditions that are stated by the license, for example non-commercial use or share alike.

Collective license agreements: In Norway, and in some other countries, there exist rights organizations that handle collective agreements on behalf of many right holders, for example Kopinor (text), Tono (music) and Bono (artistic works). Collective agreements between universities and university colleges and Kopinor give students and employees extended rights to use published written work for research and educational purposes.

Creative Commons (CC) is an international nonprofit organization that provides standardized licenses for sharing and reusing creative and academic works.

Creative Commons licenses are not an alternative to copyright, but they give the copyright holder the opportunity to allow additional use and re-use of the material. All Creative Commons licenses require that the copyright holder is attributed as the creator of the work.

Creative Commons licenses are made up of four conditions which can be combined to form six different licenses. The four conditions are:

1. Attribution (BY): The creator must be credited when using a licensed work. This requirement applies to all the six licenses.
2. ShareAlike (SA): If the original work is adapted or built upon it must be licensed under identical terms.
3. NonCommercial (NC): The original work or any adaptions must not be used for commercial purposes.
4. NoDerivatives (ND): The original work can only be shared unchanged and in whole.

In combination the four conditions form six different licenses:

1. CC BY: This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.
2. CC BY-SA: This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.
3. CC BY-NC: This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. 
4. CC BY-NC-SA: This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms. 
5. CC BY-ND: This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. 
6. CC BY-NC-ND: This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. 

Creative Commons and open access

Creative Commons licenses offer an internationally established legal structure that is aligned with the aims of Open Access to make research available for everyone.

CC BY is the most frequently used license when publishing open access. CC BY is the most permissive Creative Commons license, allowing sharing, commercial reuse, and modification as long as the creator is attributed, and it is indicated if changes are made to the original work.

CC BY is the default license in many open access journals. There are also several funders that requires that publications are made available under a CC BY license.

Researchers at UiB may freely choose which Creative Commons license they use when publishing open access or making publications openly available in repositories. However, some publications may be subject to license requirements from funders or published in journals that only offer a specific license. When choosing a Creative Commons license carefully consider what reuse of your work you want to allow and what reuse you want to prevent. Be aware that although more restrictive licenses may prevent unwanted use, they may also prevent use that you deem legitimate.

Read more about Creative Commons