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 stef...@zool.su.se 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.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/science.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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. List-Post: goal@eprints.org List-Post: goal@eprints.org Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 14:52:47 -0700 (MST) From: Paul Ginsparg 505-667-7353 <ginsp...@qfwfq.lanl.gov> Subject: Evolving APS Copyright Policy (American Physical Society) 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 har...@cogsci.soton.ac.uk Professor of Cognitive Science har...@princeton.edu Department of Electronics and phone: +44 23-80 592-582 Computer Science fax: +44 23-80 592-865 University of Southampton http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/ Highfield, Southampton http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/ SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM