Get Published!

Wait - don't sign away your copyright to the publisher!

Did you know? Unless addressed in the transfer agreement, you may be forbidden by the publisher to do the following:

• Post the work to your own web site or to a disciplinary online archive
• Copy the work for distribution to students
• Use the work as the basis for future articles or other works
• Give permission for the work to be used in classes
• Grant permission to faculty and students at other universities to use the material

Learn more at the Cornell Copyright Information Center

By using an addendum to the publisher's contract, an author can negotiate their rights in several key areas: 

• The extent of the author's ability to continue to use the copyrighted work even after the transfer of copyright to a publisher, including the ability of the author to make copies of the work or prepare new works based on the copyrighted work.
• The author's ability to authorize others to use the work.
• Whether and when the author's institution can make any use of the work.
• Whether and when the author's funding agency can make use of the work.
• When and under what circumstances, if any, people at other institutions can use the work.
• What legal protections are available to the author. 

Adding an addendum is simple to do:

1. Sign your publisher’s copyright transfer or publication agreement when you submit your final manuscript for publication with the following statement written above your signature: “subject to attached amendment.”
2. Attach the amendment you generate, with the information filled in and your signature on the bottom.
3. Send both to publisher

Use the Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine to create a PDF to attach to your contract.

See the SPARC Author Addendum brochure for more information