It seems that copyright ownership could be an important obstacle to archiving
postprints. I have proposed at Lancaster that academic staff employment
contracts be modified to make it clear that the university asserts its rights
as employer to copyright in staff research publications, but only to the extent
of reserving the right to authorise non-commercial publication on the internet,
e.g. in an eprints archive. This would circumvent a possible restriction
resulting from any copyright assignment the author signs. The idea has been met
favourably here, both by the AUT (professional association) and management, but
both have referred it for discussion at national level.
I think the university should be willing to forego any claim to income from
research publications, but should retain the right to authorise non-commercial
publication. The decision on when to publish, which version, etc, should be
left to the author(s), within a policy such as that suggested here for
Southampton, which would greatly facilitate acceptance of eprints archiving as
a standard practice.
cheers
Sol
********************************
Prof. Sol Picciotto
Head,
Lancaster University Law School
Lancaster University
LANCASTER LA1 4YN,
U.K.
direct phone (44)(0)1524-592464
fax (44)(0)1524-525212
s.picciotto_at_lancaster.ac.uk
**********************************
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stevan Harnad [SMTP:harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 12:49 PM
> To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
> Subject: Draft Policy for Self-Archiving University Research Output
>
> Comments are invited on the following draft for a university policy on
> the self-archiving of research output:
>
> http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~lac/archpol.html
>
> It is being formulated both for use at Southampton
> University, and as a possible model for wider adoption,
> particularly in connection with a recommended restructuring
> http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2373.html
> of UK's Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
> http://www.rareview.ac.uk/
> and its emulation in other countries
> http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2356.html
>
> Stevan Harnad
Received on Wed Jan 08 2003 - 13:57:41 GMT