When your article is reviewed and accepted for publication, you are asked to sign a standard agreement that transfers most, or all of your rights to the publisher. This means that you are no longer the copyright holder for your work. Depending on your contract with the publisher, your attempts to share your own work with colleagues and students, in print or electronic formats, may be infringing.
You as the author have the following rights unless and until you transfer the copyright in a signed agreement:
- The exclusive rights of reproduction
- Distribution
- Public performance
- Public display
- Modification of the original work
Decisions concerning use of the work such as distribution, access, pricing, updates, and any use restrictions belong to the copyright holder. Authors who have transferred their copyright without retaining any rights may not be able to place the work on course websites, copy it for students or colleagues, deposit the work in a public online archive, or reuse portions in a subsequent work. That's why it is important to retain the rights you need. Transferring copyright doesn't have to be all or nothing. You can transfer copyright while holding back rights for yourself and others.
Most faculty are interested in maintaining the right to use and develop their own work without restriction, including using it for teaching and derivative research, receive proper attribution, and the ability to archive their work.
Publishers are mostly interested in obtaining a non-exclusive right to publish and distribute a work to receive a financial return. Publishers receive proper attribution and citation as the place of first publication and the ability to migrate the work to future formats and include it in collections.