Rights and licences in scholarly publishing

Find more information on intellectual property rights and your rights to your own work.

Nord University has adopted a rights retention policy that applies to scholarly journal articles published 01.09.2023 onwards. This policy ensures that researchers at Nord University always can make at least the accepted version accessible immediately (upon publication in the journal, i.e. without an embargo period) in the institutional repository, Nord Open Research Archive.

Transferring rights to publisher

In traditional publishing (i.e. in subscription-based journal), it is common that authors transfer rights to publishers. Authors retain the right to be named and referenced in a way that does not insult them (moral rights). Authors who have assigned their rights to a publisher, must ask permission from the publisher to reuse their own material. Yet under most publishing agreements, the authors retain some rights for reuse, e.g. the right to self-archive a version of an article in an open repository, or the right to use the article in a printed version of an author’s PhD thesis. Information on what rights the author retains, is found in the publishing agreement or on the publisher’s website, often under headlines such as Authors guidelines, Permissions or Copyright.

In Open Access publishing, generally, an open licence is applied where the authors retain rights to their work, while users get permission to read, download, copy, distribute, search in, or link to the text. The most frequently used licences are the Creative Commons licences - a standardised set of open licences allowing different types of reuse. Please note that researchers' rights might be overruled by additional licencing agreements ("Licence to Publish"), especially in combination with restrictive licences (see also at the bottom of the page).

Transferring book rights

When publishing a book, authors usually assign their rights to the publisher. Authors have the right to royalties as long as the book is published and, for Norwegian books, compensation from Kopinor (an organization of publishers’ and authors’ associations) as long as copies from the book are being used in compendia.

Authors may get their rights back if the publication of the book is discontinued. This is either indicated in the contract, or it may be possible to apply for later.

Copyright clearance

Once authors assign their rights to the publisher, copyright clearance is needed in order for the publication to be used. This applies also when the authors want to reuse their own publication, e.g. post a publication to scholarly collaboration network such as ResearchGate, Academia or Mendeley. Often the contract or the website of the publisher contains information on what rights authors retain. If no such information exists, anyone who wants to use the publication must seek permission from the publisher. Many journals’ guidelines on archiving of different versions of articles in open repositories may be found in the Sherpa Romeo database.

Authors themselves are responsible for copyright clearance of any material they want to use in publications, presentations etc.; this includes their own publications when used in the printed PhD thesis. When scholarly publications and PhD theses are uploaded to Cristin for digital publication in Nord University’s institutional repository, Nord Open Research Archive, the University Library is responsible for copyright clearance. Read more on copyright clearance of scholarly publications and PhD theses.

If the authors have not assigned their copyright to a publisher or employer, authors will own all rights to their publications. This also applies to master’s theses, doctoral theses, reports, conference contributions etc. Works published under an open (Creative Commons) licence may usually be shared; there may be limits on derivatives and commercial use. Please note that posting an article on ResearchGate is defined as commercial use.

Retain the rights to your own work

When you publish OA under an open licence, you as an author retain rights to your own work and give others permission to use it. Hence, you retain the right to reuse/distribute your own work without asking the publisher for permission. By choosing an open license, you grant users extended rights for your material on certain conditions. You can also use open licences when publishing materials like photos, illustrations and teaching materials.

Creative Commons

The aim of Open Access publishing is to make scholarly publications openly accessible to everyone. Licences define what users are allowed to do with a work. Creative Commons licences are used because they provide an internationally established legal structure. Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright, but are a set of licences copyright holders may use to allow certain types of use and reuse. All licences require the naming of the creator when using a licensed work.

Creative Commons has a good overview of the individual licence on their website. The University Library has also created a short video that gives an overview about the different licences (video in Norwegian; for captions in English, choose "Captions" and "English" in the uppermost corner on the left-hand side). Please note that authors usually retain copyright when they publish Open Access. If the publisher still requires that copyright is transferred and authors accept this, some of the licence rules will not apply. The same applies if authors sign an exclusive licencing agreement that includes assignment of rights to the publisher.

Creative Commons BY

Advantages of choosing a CC BY licence when publishing Open Access:

• The licence ensures that the publication remains open to the greatest possible extent for the common good of users and society at large
• The licence places few restrictions on adaptation and ensure an extensive dissemination of research
• The licence has become a ‘standard’ licence in Open Access publishing, and large Open Access publishers like Public Library of Science (PLOS) and BioMed Central use this licence. Large research funders like the Wellcome Trust, EU and the Research Council of Norway also require the use of this licence

Even though Nord University recommends the use of a CC BY licence, researchers are free to choose another, more restrictive Creative Commons licence (as long as their funder doesn't request a specific licence). Please note that although more restrictive licences may prevent unwanted use, they may also limit what copyright holders perceive to be legitimate use.

Please note: When you have chosen a restrictive licence (e.g. CC BY-NC-ND), some publishers require copyright holders to sign an exclusive licensing agreement. Even though the researchers retain copyright, they might lose the rights to share derivated works of their own material, or use their own material commercially (this includes sharing on commercial servers like ResearchGate). We therefore recommend authors to carefully read through any licensing agreement before signing it; if you think you assign too many rights to the publisher by signing the agreement, you may want to choose another (more open) licence.