Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine

The Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine will help you generate a PDF form that you can attach to a journal publisher's copyright agreement to ensure that you retain certain rights.

Description

Each addendum gives you non-exclusive rights to create derivative works from your Article and to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, and publicly display your article in connection with your teaching, conference presentations, lectures, other scholarly works, and professional activities. However, they differ with respect to how soon you can make the final published version available and whether you can authorize others to re-use your work in various ways. Below is a summary of the available options.

• Immediate Access

You retain sufficient rights to post a copy of the published version of your article (usually in PDF form) online immediately to a site that does not charge for access to the article. (This is similar in many ways to the MIT Copyright Amendment below.)

• Delayed Access

You also have the right immediately to post your final version of the article, as edited after peer review, to a site that does not charge for access to the article, but you must arrange not to make the published version of your article available to the public until six months after the date of publication.

• Access - Reuse

You retain sufficient rights to grant to the reading public a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial license or similar license that allows the public to re-use or re-post your article so long as you are given credit as the author and so long as the reader's use is non-commercial. (This is a joint offering from Science Commons and the Scholarly Publishing and Resources Coalition [SPARC] and represents a new version of the former SPARC Addendum.)

• MIT Copyright Amendment

Developed at MIT, this amendment is a tool authors can use to retain rights when assigning copyright to a publisher. It enables authors to continue using their publications in their academic work, to deposit them into a library repository, and to deposit any NIH-funded manuscripts into the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central database. More information is available from the MIT Libraries.

 Instructions:

1. Enter the information requested below, select the addendum of your choice from the menu, then click the Generate Addendum button.
2. Save the PDF addendum that is generated.
3. Print the addendum, sign and date it.
4. Sign and date the publisher's agreement. Immediately below your signature on the publisher's form, write: "Subject to attached Addendum." This is very important because you want to make clear that your signature is a sign that you accept the publisher's agreement only if the publisher accepts your Addendum          
5. Make a copy of all three documents (the publisher's form, your Addendum, and your cover letter) for your records.
6. Staple the three original documents together.
7. Mail the three original documents to the publisher.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This website provides general information and sample agreements but it does not provide individual legal advice. Creative Commons Corporation, including Science Commons ("Creative Commons"), is not a law firm and does not provide legal services, and you should not rely on us for legal advice. Using the materials on this website or communicating with us does not create an attorney-client relationship. Creative Commons provides this general legal information on an 'as-is' basis. Creative Commons makes no warranties, including, but not limited to, the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, regarding the information or materials provided on this website. Creative Commons is not a party to this addendum or any related agreement. You agree that as consideration for making these materials available to you free of charge, you shall not bring suit against Creative Commons or otherwise hold Creative Commons liable to You or any party on any legal theory for any damages whatsoever, including without limitation any general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising in connection to your use of the materials and information.