Copyright and Intellectual Property

Not sure what kind of modifying language to use?  Use an addendum to try to do the work for you. They are designed to be convenient and to take guess work out of modifying publishing agreements. They are intended to seek the kinds of rights that most academic authors would value.  There are several different addenda to choose from, and the Office and Scholarly Communication can discuss which one might be best for you.

One of the most widely used addenda is from SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition); “The Author Addendum is a free resource developed by SPARC in partnership with Creative Commons and Science Commons, established non-profit organizations that offer a range of copyright options for many different creative endeavors.”

Examples of other addenda include the Big Ten Academic Alliance Authors Addendum, the University of Michigan Authors Addenda, and the Science Commons--Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine--which allows users to generate your a PDF that you can attach to your publishing agreement.

 "Copyright and Intellectual Property Toolkit" by University of Pittsburg Library System licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

Author's Rights - General Resources

• SPARC Author's Rights Brochure (2006)
  • HTML Version
  • PDF Version
• Author's Rights Tout de Suite -  gives journal article authors a quick introduction to key aspects of author's rights and to fosters further exploration of this topic.
• Author's Alliance Rights Reversion Guide - explains the process by which an author of a book that has fallen out of print or that is not doing well commercially can reacquire copyright and the right to share the work more freely
  • Guide to Writing a Rights Reversion Request Letter
• Author's Alliance - FAQ on Copyright and Ownership for Authors
• Author's Alliance - Understanding and Negotiating Book Publication Contracts
• Cornell University Guide to Navigating the Publishing Process

Author's Rights - Addenda for Publisher Contracts

• SPARC Author Addendum
  • Text version
  • PDF Version
  • Online Fillable Form
• Big 10 Academic Alliance Author's Copyright Addendum 
  • Addendum
• University of Michigan Author's Addendum
• MIT Author Addenda - several versions of author addendum (for faculty subject to open access policy, NIH policy, 2013 executive order on public access, and a general addendum) - good examples upon which other schools could draft local addenda
• Author Addenda: An examination of five alternatives - 2006 article by Peter Hirtle examining five addenda that were current at that time. A good overview of considerations to make when drafting addenda for use by authors.

 "Scholarly Communication Toolkit: Author's Rights" by ACRL licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.