Author Rights and Publishing

Copyright, which falls under the larger umbrella of intellectual property rights, is the main type of right that you have as an author. When you create an original work, such as an article, book, play, or artistic creation, it is automatically protected by copyright in Canada.

When you are publishing, you will be required to sign a publishing contract (sometimes called an author contract) with the publisher.We encourage you to be careful not to sign away your rights to publishers, and to negotiate for terms that fit your needs as the creator of the work. The library has expertise in scholarly publishing both as purchasers of content and as open access publishers, and we are available to assist you in protecting your rights and interpreting which rights are being asked for when publishing.

Learn more about some of the ways we can help via:   

• Our Copyright for Authors page for more information about your rights
• Our negotiated publishing discounts for U of G authors who are interested in publishing in Open Access journals that charge article processing charges (APCs)
• The open access journals we host and the benefits to publishing in open access journals

Get Assistance 

Book an appointment to get help with: 

• Any of the above topics
• Negotiating publishing contracts
• Using the Atrium and Data Repositories to comply with open access and data deposit requirements and policies such as the Tri Agency Open Access for Publications Policy and the Tri Agency Research Data Management Policy
• Understanding pre-print servers like arXiv and other paper repositories like Researchgate, Academia.edu, and SciHub
• Understanding and choosing creative commons licenses when publishing

Services for faculty & instructors

We are here to help you navigate the complex and often contradictory policies of publishers, journals, pre-prints servers, and funders. We can help clarify copyright and intellectual property rights in Canada and other jurisdictions.    

We offer:  

• In-class and other instructions sessions tailored to your course or research labs 
• One-on-one consultations   
• Community workshops (open to all) on a variety of scholarly communication topics   

Resources

The following resources may be useful for choosing where to publish and how to share your work:

• Sherpa Romeo is a directory of publishers' policies around open access, archiving, pre-prints servers, and embargoes 
• The Directory of Open Access Journals 
• Creative Commons (CC) and specifically Creative Commons Licenses which provides explanations of the rights associated with each CC license

The following resources may be helpful when negotiating publishing contracts:

• Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL)’s Information for Authors page provides information on key topics in scholarly communications including the Canadian Author Addendum to Publication Agreement that can be used to modify Canadian publishers’ agreements and the Guide to Using the Canadian Author Addendum
• The Authors Alliance guide to Understanding and Negotiating Publication Contracts
• The SPARC Author Addendum, which includes both a Canadian and American author addendum to modify contracts in a way that allows you to retain more of your rights when publishing

Upcoming workshops

There are no upcoming workshops at the moment. Check back soon for more, or browse our full workshop calendar to see the other workshops we offer.