Dual Copyright: A Study of Current Issues and Policies of
Leading Journal Publishers
Dr. Dibyendu Paul
Associate Professor
Department of Library and Information Science,
University of Calcutta
Email: dibyendu.kly@gmail.com
Goutam Dutta
University Research Fellow,
Department of Library and Information Science,
University of Calcutta
Email: papu_gotu@yahoo.co.in
Introduction
 The movement towards reuse of scholarly contents in
various from especially public availability through
institutional repositories is a leading example.
 Traditionally, authors are required to transfer their copyright
to the journal publishers in return for publication of their
works.
 A dual copyright or alternative publishing agreement allows
the author of a work to grant to the publisher the rights
necessary to enable the publisher to publish the work while
at the same time allowing the author to retain the copyright
of the work, to reuse it for various purpose and to publish it
in alternative publicly available channels.
The Origin of this study
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Nearly 20 percent of respondents mentioned the lack of
understanding of copyright issues is one of the problems
behind the success of development of an IDR.
Nearly 80 percent of them are not aware about dual
copyright or dual licensing policy in this regard.
According to University Ranking by Academic
Performance (URAP) Research Laboratory Calcutta
University ranked 15th among all Indian Science and
Technology institutions and 8th among all Indian
universities with science and technology faculties
(http://www.urapcenter.org/2010/index. php reported on
03.12.2010).
Objectives of this study
In this direction 7 journal publishers are selected where the
maximum numbers of recent articles were published by the
Science and Technology faculty members under study.
• To understand the current scope of reuse abilities by the
authors of their scholarly articles published in those journals.
• To understand the current issues and status of the major
proprietary journal publishers’ policies regarding the
copyright transfer or license agreement.
Scope and Coverage
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Elsevier
American Chemical Society (ACS)
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
American Physical Society (APS)
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE)
• Springer
• Oxford Journals
Methodology
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To conduct this study we have consulted relevant web
documents of the above mentioned publishers.
First of all we have listed potential areas of reuse abilities of
post published scholarly contents.
Posting in website or repositories
Authors thesis and dissertation
Teaching and in house training
Presentation at conferences
Sharing with colleague
Study of Policies of the leading
journal publishers
Posting on Websites and Repositories
Two ways:
Posting of Pre-Published works
Posting of Post-Published works
Posting of Pre-Published works
Table 1: Posting of Pre-Published works on
Websites and Repositories
Sl.
Conditions
Publisher
No.
1 Allows with
condition
Elsevier, ACS, IEEE,
Springer, Oxford
Journals
2 Not allow before
acceptance of the
article
AIP, APS
• Elsevier: Unless prohibited in a
specific Elsevier journal’s Guide for
Authors.
• ACS: Written confirmation from the
appropriate ACS journal editor &
Notice at the time of posting.
• IEEE: Allow funding agencies’
publicly accessible repositories.
• Springer: Non-Commercial, Final
published version cannot be used,
Acknowledgement and a link should
be inserted.
• Oxford: Acknowledgement with
specific bibliographic information in
prescribe format.
Posting of Post-Published works
• Elsevier: Article's DOI, Non-Commercial purpose & not posting
external third-party website, If the institution mandates posting then
there must be an agreement between Elsevier and the institution.
• ACS: By mandate of the author(s)’ funding agency & NonCommercial purpose, 12 months after online publication of the
published work.
• AIP: Non-Commercial otherwise obtain permission, Author-prepared
files only may be used, copyright notice & full citation.
• IEEE: Only accepted version, not the published version is permitted.
• Springer: 12 months after official publication. Publisher's PDF version
will not be allowed to post, Acknowledgement & link.
• Oxford: 24 months after first online publication in the journal, A PDF
of the final published version may not be deposited by authors.
Reuse in authors’ thesis or
dissertation
Table 2: Conditions of Reuse in thesis or
dissertation
Sl.
Conditions
Publisher
1 Allows with no
Elsevier, APS,
No.
permission
IEEE
2 Allows with
ACS, Springer,
condition
Oxford Journals
3 No Mention
AIP
• ACS: written confirmation
(via letter or email) from the
respective ACS journal
editor(s)
is
needed,
Appropriate citation.
• Oxford:
Not
commercially
published
• Springer:
Provided
acknowledgement,
Appropriate DOI for the
article.
Reuse in Teaching or In-House
Training
Table 3: Reuse in Teaching or In-House
ACS:
Training
Sl.
Conditions
Publisher
No.
1
2
Allows with no
Elsevier, APS, IEEE,
permission
Oxford Journals
Allows with
ACS
condition
3
No Mention
AIP, Springer
• A link to the published work
must be included using the ACS
articles .
• Electronic access must be
provided via a passwordprotected website only to
students enrolled in the course
(i.e. not the general public).
• If a fee for distributed materials
is charged , prior written
permission from the ACS must
be obtained
Presentation at Conferences
Table 3: Presentation at Conferences
Sl.
Conditions
Publisher
No.
1
Allows with no
Elsevier
permission
2
Allows with
ACS, IEEE
condition
3
No Mention
AIP, APS,
Springer, Oxford
Journals
• ACS:
Requires
written
confirmation via letter or
email from the appropriate
ACS journal editor.
• IEEE: Needs the appropriate
copyright credit and reuse
notices appear prominently
with the presented material
Sharing with Colleagues
Table 4: Condition for Share with
Colleagues
Sl.
Conditions
Publisher
No.
1 Allows with
condition
2 No Mention
Elsevier, ACS, APS,
IEEE
AIP, Springer, Oxford
Journals
• Elsevier: To known research
colleagues for their personal use
but
not
for
commercial
purposes.
• ACS: via the ACS articles on
request author-directed link for
non-commercial purposes and
not through mass emailing.
Further redistribution of any
version of the work is not
allowed.
• APS & IEEE: Full citation &
copyright notice.
Conclusion
 Maximum proprietary journal publishers allow the authors
for reusing their articles (fully or partly) in general for
various purposes but they maintain different conditions.
 We need a common policy for all journal publishers in this
regard, unfortunately which is not followed currently.
 Reusing of articles in author’s thesis or dissertation, teaching
or training purpose is a very common practices. Most of the
publishers allow it with no permission. Some of them allow
it with few conditions.
 But when question arise for presenting it in conferences or
seminar or share it with colleagues, then different conditions
imposed. Some of the publishers are silent about these two
issues.
 Institutional mandate for compulsory depositing in
researchers’ IDR is well accepted to almost all journal
publishers under study.
 So to maintain a good flow of contents in the IDR every
institute should prepare their policy regarding institutional
mandate in this regard.
 Although the authors who published their research articles in
different journals, must aware about their rights for reusing.
 They should aware about copyright policy especially dual
copyright or alternative publishing agreement of the
publishers.
 There should be some common policy to reusing the
materials.