Open Access and your publishing contract

If possible, favour open access journals for your publication.

If you publish in "conventional" journals, you reserve the non-exclusive right of use for your contribution in the publishing contract to be concluded for the purpose of making your research results available to the public free of charge. If the publisher insists that a waiting period of between 2 and 12 months from the date of publication of your article must be observed for the simple right of use reserved by you,

We recommend that you generally add a corresponding section to author contracts with "conventional" publishers:

Delete the word "exclusive" or similar wording in the publishing contract and add the following text:

"The author is free to make the work publicly available free of charge as a PDF file on the Internet via his homepage, an institutional server or a suitable specialised repository at the time of publication as a print version."

or alternatively:

"I hereby declare that I do not wish to assign the exclusive copyright to (name of publisher) but reserve the right to publish the article in full on an open access platform". Date, signature

In addition, Science Commons provides the Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine to automatically generate a contract addendum.

You can assure the publisher that the secondary publication on the document server will be provided with the full title details of the primary publication and a link to the publisher.

Most publishers agree to or accept such a secondary publication. They usually have other distribution channels and a different customer base. However, an important argument for negotiating with the publisher is also the effect that the existence of the online version is also an advertisement for the print version, provided it is not too expensive.

If the publisher rejects the supplement, a second publication is usually still possible, but in accordance with the terms of the respective contract.

Most publishers have published guidelines in which they regulate whether and how authors may offer their works online as secondary publications and what waiting period must have elapsed.

The SHERPA project provides guidance on the regulations of the individual publishers or journals with the SHERPA/RoMEO list. The statements in the list serve as a guide, but are not legally binding. The individual contract between the author and publisher is decisive.

The regulations for electronic secondary publication differentiate between preprints (before the review) and postprints (after the review). Postprint often also refers to the so-called "final draft" (publisher's galley proof).

According to § 38 Paragraph 1 Sentence 2 of the Copyright Act (in the currently valid version), the author may reproduce and distribute the work elsewhere after one year has passed since publication, unless otherwise agreed.