Institutional Repository Copyright Tips

Managing Copyright on Book Chapters

It is just as important but much more difficult to obtain copyright permission for books and book chapters than for Journal Articles, because publishers are much more protective of their revenue stream. If the work is still in print, the big commercial publishers will not even permit the author’s manuscript version to be deposited to an IR and society, CRCs and small publishers tend to be protective of the intellectual property aspects. However, it’s not impossible to obtain permission for deposit so don’t assume that it’s not worth the effort.

A few other points:

• If the book is not in print it’s easier to get permission so ask always for older works

• Sometimes the depositor continues to own the copyright- but not often – in which case deposit is allowed

• Encyclopedia entries are regarded as book chapters

Managing Copyright on Conference Papers

Conference paper copyright works on the same principle as journal copyright but conference organisers are often unaware of copyright issues. Conferences are not listed in SHERPA with a couple of exceptions, such as Lecture Notes in Computer Science, and IEEE.

It is further complicated by the fact that contacts are often unreliable or non-existent.

It is reasonably safe to proceed on the principle that authors retain copyright unless they have signed or otherwise re-allocated it to someone else. That is, the author holds copyright unless a specific release is signed, usually at the point at which the paper is accepted for the conference. Following this principle, deposit the author’s version of papers unless there is specific evidence that they can’t.

An appropriate workflow is:

• Check for a conference website using a search engine

• Look for “authors’ instructions” or similar

• Look for a statement about who retains the copyright. If stated, this will be:

  • the author (in which case you can proceed to deposit)

  • the conference organizer or institution (you will need to seek permission) or

  • that the papers are to be commercially published (which almost always means you can’t deposit)

• If you don’t find any mention of the above, then deposit the author’s version.

Finding the right person to email to ask permission is often difficult: conference organizers may not know or care, the office-bearers of a society change or change email address or institution, the people who organize the program or the papers may not be the same as who you ask permission of or there might be no response to your request.

Reproduction of papers onto a CD that is handed out to delegates as part of registration is not regarded as publication. The exception to this is it has an ISBN and is able to be purchased in a normal commercial transaction in which case it is regarded as published and must be treated with extreme caution.

Commercial re-publication in a series can be likened to a journal or book publication. Springer allows Institutional Repositories to use the author’s version in Lecture Notes in Computer Science series, but most others don’t.

More information is available in the OAKLaw paper A Guide to Developing Open Access Through Your Digital Repository