Refereed Research Author Copyright and Library Rights Management

From: Hofman, Linda <Hofman_at_SURF.NL>
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 18:14:11 +0000

    [Moderator's Note: The posting below may be of some interest to
    researchers who seek open access to maximize the usage and impact of
    their give-away peer-reviewed research output, but readers should
    be careful not to conflate these concerns with academic library
    digital rights management concerns in general, which may also
    involve non-giveaway, royalty-bearing work, such as books, textbooks,
    etc. The cause of open-access is not furthered by treating this all
    as if it were different aspects of the same problem: It is not. SH]

The (copy)right degree of sharing

Copyright and universities; after years of discussion still a hot
item. How can faculty achieve maximum access to scholarly information? How
can universities raise awareness and educate their academics? How to
process 'rights management' between the main stakeholders: authors,
publishers and universities? To answer these questions, the Dutch
SURF Foundation is launching a new website 'Copyright Management for
Scholarship' (www.surf.nl/copyright).

Copyright Management for scholarship is concerned with with copyright in
higher education, university policy on copyright, and arrangements between
universities, authors and publishers. The 'three-party' perspective makes
this website unique of its kind!

Furthermore, to achieve maximum access to scholarship, strengthen academic
freedom and enhance the quality of academic work, SURF is organising a
working conference on 'Copyright and Universities' in December 2002 in
Zwolle, the Netherlands. International experts are invited to discuss
a set of principles and issues for institutional copyright policies and
agreements with publishers.

Both the set of core principles and the draft documents form an important
part of the newly launched website. Also, the site has links to copyright
policies, publishing agreements and good practices subdivided by country.

The changed environment in scientific "business" forced universities to
rethink their attitude towards their policies on intellectual property
rights in general and copyright in particular. Universities realised that
only with the co-operation of the other stakeholders could optimal access
to scholarly information be achieved. Therefore the Dutch SURF Foundation
formed an international Steering Committee with representatives of the
different stakeholders to prepare the upcoming December 2002 conference.
During this conference SURF and the Steering Committee would like to secure
support for the principles from as many participants as possible. They hope
that many participants will sign the "Zwolle Principles" either in their
individual capacities or as representatives of their companies and
organisations and that the result will be appropriate management of
copyright-protected works created at universities throughout the world.

SURF

SURF is the information and communications technology (ICT) collaboration
organisation for higher education and research in the Netherlands. The
universities and hogescholen (universities of professional education)
collaborate in SURF regarding ICT developments in the areas of ICT and
Research, Education and Organisation, and regarding the network
infrastructure of SURFnet and the software licences of SURFdiensten.

For further information please contact:

SURF Foundation
Mrs C.G.E. van Hattem, Communications Manager
Leidseveer 35
Postbus 2290
3500 GG Utrecht
The Netherlands
T +31 (0)30 234 66 00
F +31 (0)30 233 29 60
W www.surf.nl
E vanhattem_at_surf.nl
Received on Wed Nov 20 2002 - 18:14:11 GMT