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PART 2: COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSIONS
Copyright and permissions are important legal issues in
the publishing world, but they are also a source of
confusion (and frustration) for authors, editors, and
committees. This section of the guide presents an
explanation of ASCE’s requirements regarding
copyright and permissions and offers guidance in
meeting those requirements.
COPYRIGHT BASICS
Copyright is an aspect of intellectual property law. It
protects original works of authorship fixed in a tangible
medium of expression—including print media, the
Internet, CDs, DVDs, videotape, and so on. Copyright
law covers published and unpublished works,
regardless of the presence of a claim to copyright.
Copyright vs. Permissions:
What’s the Difference?
In a nutshell, copyright establishes the
ownership of intellectual property. To
publish, ASCE must own the copyright for
a book, paper, or journal article (except
for instances of Open Access).
Permissions come into play when the
ownership of a piece of intellectual
property (such as a drawing or
photograph) does not transfer to ASCE.
For these items, the owner must give
ASCE written permission to make use of
the intellectual property.
Copyright ownership begins with the creation of new
work, such as the text of a book, journal article, proceedings paper, newspaper article, Web page, slide
presentation, or Ph.D. dissertation. It applies to the expression of ideas but not to the ideas themselves.
It also applies to the creation of figures or tables that present data but not to the data itself. In the
United States, authors own the copyright to materials they create (unless they created the material as a
work-for-hire or while employed by the U.S. Government or the governments of the United Kingdom,
Canada, or Australia).
Copyright gives the owner a collection of rights that include reproducing and distributing copies of the
work and licensing others to translate or reuse the work. Book publishers require authors to transfer
copyright ownership so that the publisher’s right to reproduce, distribute, and license the work is clear
and unquestionable. Publishers can then distribute a work as widely as possible while protecting the
author’s work against infringement.
ASCE REQUIREMENTS
Before ASCE publishes any materials—journal articles, technical notes, proceedings papers, books, and
CDs, to name a few possibilities—the copyright ownership of the materials must be clear and, except in
a few special cases, transferred to ASCE. (See the section on Open Access and Sponsored Access.)
This transfer is done through the ASCE Authorship Originality and Copyright Transfer Agreement, called
the CTA for short. It makes no difference whether the work will be published in print, on the Internet, or
in any other electronic medium, such as a CD or digital e-book.
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WHO SIGNS THE COPYRIGHT TRANSFER FORM?
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Manuals of Practice: committee chair or corresponding editor
Technical Reports: committee chair or corresponding editor
Proceedings papers: corresponding author of each paper
Book chapters with identified authors: lead author of each chapter
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The form has space to note several exceptions to ASCE’s copyright policy. Here’s how to handle them:
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If all the authors are employed by the U.S. Government, then any one of the authors should sign
the form in the special section for U.S. Government employees.
If some of the authors are employed by the U.S. Government and some are not, then any one of
the authors who does not work for the U.S. Government should sign the form.
If all the authors are officers of the Crown Government, then any one of the authors should sign
the form in the special section for Crown Government copyright.
If some of the authors are officers of the Crown Government and some are not, then any one of
the authors who does not work in an official capacity for the Crown Government should sign the
form.
If the work was done as a work-for-hire, then a representative of the company or organization
that contracted for the work should sign the form.
If the authors were working under a U.S. Government contract, they should consult their contractor agreement. This exception does not apply to works created with U.S. Government
grants.
WHAT AUTHORS CAN DO WITH THEIR OWN MATERIAL
Individual authors of ASCE journal articles, proceedings papers, or book chapters are permitted to reuse
their own content for other ASCE or non-ASCE publications, with these restrictions:
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The article, paper, or chapter may not be republished in its entirety anywhere else.
The article, paper, or chapter may not constitute more than 25% of a new publication.
Material may be included in an online course pack only if the site is password-protected.
Up to 100 photocopies may be made; for more than 100 copies, contact ASCE Permissions at
permissions@asce.org.
Online posting of an article, paper, chapter, or book is subject to the following conditions:
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Published materials: Authors may post a PDF of the ASCE-published version of their work on
their employers' password-protected Intranet. Please add the statement: "This material may be
downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the American
Society of Civil Engineers. This material may be found at [URL/link to the abstract in the ASCE
Library or Civil Engineering Database].”
Draft manuscripts: Authors may post the final drafts of their work on open, unrestricted
Internet sites or deposit it in an institutional repository when the draft contains a URL/link to the
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bibliographic record of the published version in the ASCE Library or Civil Engineering Database.
"Final draft" means the version submitted to ASCE after peer review and prior to copyediting or
other ASCE production activities. Authors may not post the copyedited manuscript, page proofs,
or a PDF of the published version on an open, unrestricted Internet site.
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If the article, paper, or chapter has been prepared by an employee within the scope of employment, the
employer shall enjoy the same rights as the authors.
If the content was prepared under a U.S. Government contract, the federal government shall have the
rights under the copyright law to the extent required by the contract.
OPEN ACCESS AND SPONSORED ACCESS
At this time, ASCE does not offer any Open Access options for complete books.
For a fee, authors of journal articles may request that their work be Open Access. See Open Access
Options and Rights for more information.
For journal articles and proceedings papers that have already been published online, ASCE offers
Sponsored Access. Under Sponsored Access, any party may request that ASCE lift restrictions on access
to an online article or paper. Under this arrangement, sponsors may link to the open article or paper but
may not post the PDF or full-text HTML on an external site. See Open Access Options and Rights for
details about the fees for this service or send a request to permissions@asce.org.
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