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Publishing

Distribution by commercial publishers generates interest in your article, and that attention can lead to citations. Open Access (OA) can improve the visibility of your article and thereby its impact as measured by the number of citations. Your copyright is the key to OA. There is no need to hand over all your author rights to a publisher.

I have written an article (or a book). Who does it belong to?

Being employee of Maastricht University you hold the copyright. Since you hold the copyright, you may decide to publish in an OA journal. Exceptionally, the copyright in teaching materials like lectures or slide presentations can be claimed by your employer, i.e. Maastricht University.

Do I have to accept a standard contract?

Most commercial publishers will have a standard contract for publishing your material, but this does not mean that it is by no means possible to make amendments. You may negotiate to retain your rights when submitting your article to a subscription-based journal.
So ask your publisher to revise those terms of the standard contract which impede OA. In particular, make sure that the transfer of publications to a repository will be allowed.

 

How do I get permission to deposit a copy of my article in an OA repository?

The following license stipulates that the published version of the author’s article can be disseminated via a repository http://copyrighttoolbox.surf.nl/copyrighttoolbox/authors/licence/
By signing this Licence to publish and sending it to your publisher you grant the publisher a licence limited to copyright related acts which have an economic or commercial objective with respect to the article.

How can I promote the reuse of my articles held in repositories?

The inclusion and storage of publications in the repository does not mean that the material can be reused by third parties in the manner that would be desirable in the context of higher education. Creative Commons (CC) licences have been developed to promote proper reuse. The advantages of the CC licences are that they are also available in a version for non-lawyers and a machine-readable version.

How can I make clear to re-users what they are permitted to do?

The most liberal CC licence is the so-called Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Netherlands Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nl/deed.en
On the basis of that licence, users of a work are permitted to copy it and to distribute it, on condition that the work is attributed to its author. This comprises the obligation to quote the name of the author.

For assistance regarding these and other copyright issues do not hesitate to contact the UM copyright information point