Unisa Library
Institutional Repositories: Copyright
Content:
Background
Definitions
Parties involved in the IR copyright process
Types of scientific output usually found in IR’s
Types of copyright publications in IR’s
Types of publishers concerned with IR’s
Types of restrictions that may apply on publications
Recommendations
Bibliography and web sites
Addendum A: Unisa Theses and Copyright
Addendum B: Example letter: Copyright permission on behalf of author
Addendum Example letter: Authors own request for copyright permission
Addendum D: Addendum D: Example of a copyright workflow permission document
for one authors publications
1. Background
Copyright investigation will need to be done for every publication uploaded into the
IR.
The library’s role is to
 support the investigation into the copyright ownership of each already published
article,
 to help with the creation of a new publishing agreement between authors and
publishers
 ongoing intellectual property rights management
 Re-negotiation of current and new online journal agreements to support the
submission of articles written by Unisa staff in to the IR.
 Providing advice on copyright and intellectual property right issues in consultation
with the Unisa Legal Services Office
2. Definitions
Author-payment model
The author pays a submission fee to the journal which allows for the article to
be openly accessible.
Commercial publisher
Copyright
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Copyright is concerned with the rights of exploitation of a publication, that is
the re-use, replication and re-publication of a work. The copyright of a
publication generally rests with the author of the work, unless the rights has
been transferred to a commercial publication via a Copyright Transfer
Agreement signed between the author and the publisher.
Copyright Transfer Agreement
An agreement usually signed between a commercial publishers and the
author outlining the rights that the author has to re-use his or her work after its
publication. In most cases, the publisher may allow for some archiving in
repository systems, although specific preconditions regarding the version of
the work may be set, i.e. pre-print or final version/ post-print. However, some
restrictions are placed eg. you may only use the pdf version, embargo
periods.
Create Commons Licence
Allow for the making of scientific information available for the international
community, without the usual copyright restrictions, provided that the
copyright has not already been transferred to a publisher. Used as a basis for
the Deposit Licence for the repository.
http://creativecommons.org/
Educational use
E-Print
An electronic version of a research paper, either pre- or post-print, which has
been created for the purpose of enhancing other researchers access to the
research paper. (Sherpa project document)
Institutional Repository
“a university-based institutional repository is a set of services that a university
offers to the members of its community for the management and
dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community
members. It is most essentially an organizational commitment to the
stewardship of these digital materials, including long-term preservation where
appropriate as well as organization and access or distribution…”
Clifford Lynch, 2003
Open access
Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition:
“free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read,
download, copy, distribute and/or print, with the possibility to search to the full
texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data software, or
use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial legal, or technical
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barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet
iteself” http://www.soros.org/openacces/read.shtml/
Own / personal web site
Post-prints
The final version of a publication, similar to the publication that appeared in
the printed journal.
Pre-prints
A publication before it has been peer-reviewed. Example: ePrints.org
(http://www.eprints.org/) Sometimes not the final copy of a publication.
Publishing agreement
A publishing agreement is a document which formally sets out the rights and
responsibilities of both the publisher and the original copyright owner of the
work. The agreement should be in a written format, two copies should be
signed and the author should keep a copy for himself for further reference.
3. Parties involved in the IR copyright process
For each of the following groups key issues and criteria should be considered before
the implementation of the IR (those in bold are the main stakeholders):
Author – creator of the work – need to determine what rights was signed over to
publisher;
Institution – owner of the IR who wants to make the work available, work was
created by employee of the institution
Funder – some works are produced with finance from a funder – may hold rights
Publisher – publisher of the work, author has signed over rights to the publisher
Users - wants to use the work, institution should determine the rights and restrictions
Library - needs to manage the copyright and access to the works
General public – would like to use works for free
4. Types of scientific output usually found in IR’s
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Articles and papers published in journals
Theses
Books and book chapters
Conference papers
Conference posters
Pre-prints and post-prints of papers published in journals
Audio-visual materials
Journals of the institution
Patents
Datasets
Software
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Video recordings, events celebrated, etc.
Types of copyright publications in IR’s
Non-published works:
 Masters theses
 Doctoral theses
Determine copyright holder (Unisa in all cases?)
Author must express his or her consent in some way that theses may be included in
an open access IR and to grant authorization to communicate publicly his or her
work.
Determine of any confidentially was placed on the theses – metadata should
enforce..
Published works:
 Journal articles
 Conference papers – text and slides
 Contributions to monographs
 Unpublished reports
Most of the journals published by commercial publishers allow their authors to
publish an article through their personal web site or the institution web page. It is now
established practice from mainstream publishers to only require the author to include
the web address of the original publication. Eg Elsevier.
Although some publishers do not support self-archive formally, they may consider a
request to self-archive with a formal written permission being required.
Publications published under an Open Access licence
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Open access journals, sometimes free
Journals with a generous open access policy
Types of publishers concerned with IR’s
Publishers
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Large commercial publishers
Learned societies
University presses
Contacts inside publishers – details usually found on the “Author Instruction Page”:
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Editor of the journal
Persons specifically appointed to deal with authors in general
Persons specifically appointed to deal with author’s copyright
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Types of restrictions that may apply on publications:
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No restrictions:
Domain restricted for one year:
Domain restricted for two years
Withheld for one year:
Withheld for two years
Permanently withheld:
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Recommendations
1. Compile policy on what to include in the IR – material produced for
educational use?
2. Determine which Unisa authors to include in IR:
teaching and research staff, admin, management, masters and doctoral
students, student’s projects and investigations, internal special studies,
external authors that publish in publications of the institution, teachers that
support their subjects with the implementation of learning objects.
3. Compile a submission policy and environment for author’s self-archiving.
4. Create a Unisa IR Deposit Licence for academics to sign when they submit
their work in the IR
5. Create a Permission Request Form / Clarification of Permission to use for
those publications to that not provide for IR or self-archive rights upfront, or
rights are unclear.
6. Ensure that metadata include intellectual property right management
information, eg version control, quality control, application of restrictions and
usage rights.
7. Determine if Unisa copyright transfer of theses should be amended to include
an IR? Notice in postgraduate booklet? Confidential or secret theses?
8. Compile a Intellectual Property Right Policy for Unisa
9. Compile a Unisa Policy on the Ownership of Educational Materials.
10. Create a web portal with all relevant documents, policies, faq’s, etc. Example:
University of Pretoria web page.
11. Investigate SHERPA to include or update South African journal titles.
12. Create templates for authors who would like to contact publishers themselves
to ask for permission for the IR ( see White Rose Consortium) See addendum
B and C for example letters.
13. See examples of Institutional Statement on Copyright. (Loughborough as
example)
14. Create an FAQ on copyright and submission issues
15. identify staff to help with foreign language journals
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Bibliography and web sites
Alfa Network Babel Library. 2007. Guidelines for the creation of institutional
repositories at universities and higher education organizations. Columbus: Europe
Aid Co-Operations Office: Babel Library. 30p. http://
IR Copyright web sites
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/dis/disresearch.poc/pages/advtoolkitpublishers.html
http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/rights.shtml
Creative Commons
http://creativecommons.org/
Australian National University.
http://sts.anu.edu.au/demetrius/index.php
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Addendum A: Unisa Theses and Copyright
From Unisa Calendar, Part 1: General Information and Rules:
PG15 Dissertation
Unless otherwise decided by Senate, a student who wishes his/her dissertation or part(s) of
the dissertation to be treated as confidential/secret must submit a fully substantiated
application, supported by the institution concerned, when the title of the projected
dissertation is initially submitted for approval. If it is approved that a dissertation be
kept confidential/secret, the procedure to be followed will be determined by Senate.
PG18 Cession of copyright and publication of a dissertation
The copyright subsisting in a dissertation submitted to the University in fulfilment or part
fulfilment of a master’s degree shall vest in the University, irrespective of whether such a
dissertation is accepted or not.
Consequently –
(a) a cession of the copyright is required. On the registration form, the attention of
students is drawn to the fact that by signing the form they cede to the University of
South Africa the entire copyright, including the electronic rights, subsisting in
any dissertation they may complete for the degree concerned at the University
unless, in exceptional circumstances, they apply for exemption from the
cession of copyright. Such an application must be fully substantiated.
If a student’s dissertation is not accepted, he/she may, subject to the provisions of Rule
PG16(1)
(b) (b), apply to have the copyright ceded back to him/her by the University;
no dissertation or any adaptation thereof, shall be published, in print or electronic format,
without the permission of the University. Such permission may be granted subject to:
I. the applicant effecting such changes as may be recommended by the
supervisor, examiners or others; and such other conditions as the University
may from time to time deem fit;
II. some reference, in the published work, to the fact that it was submitted to the
University of South Africa in the form of a dissertation;
III. three copies of the published work being handed in at the University;
IV. in the case of electronic publishing, an appropriate link being made to the Unisa
website.
(c) A student who wishes to publish a journal article based on research leading to or flowing
directly from a dissertation shall obtain prior permission from his/her supervisor. Such
permission is granted subject to:
I. the supervisor being involved in finalising the text of the article for publication;
II. acknowledgement in the article that it is based on research for a dissertation at
University of South Africa;
III. a copy of the published article being sent to the supervisor.
Exemption from the operation of Rule PG18 will be granted in exceptional
circumstances only.
Question: Has any Unisa students requested a theses to be confidential or secret.
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Addendum D: Example of a copyright workflow permission document for one authors publications
Use Institutional Repository Workflow Plan for Copyright Investigation (see attached)
Checked SHERPA for Copyright information
Check Ulrich’s for publisher’s web site and information listed under Advertising, Rights, Demographics
Find journal web site with copyright permission information and contact details
Journal title
Rivisita di Letterature Moderne e
Comparate, 1988
Copyright status
Sherpa
Journal web site
No
http://www.pacinimedicina.it
Italian Quarterly, 1989
No
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~italian/
Unisa Latin American Report,
1989
No
http://www.unisa.ac.za/press
Studi d’Italianistica nell’Africa
Australe. 1990
No
http://www.wits.ac.za/api/bottom.htm
South African Journal of Library
and Information Science, 1990
No
http://www.liasa.org.za/publications/sajlis.php
Investigate copyright status
In Italian only
Listed on Ulrichs – no copyright
information
Copyright permission letter to
publisher / editor
Listed on Ulichs, no copyright
information
No copyright information on web
Copyright permission letter to
publisher / editor
Listed in Ulrichs – no copyright
information
No copyright permission
information on web site
Copyright permission letter to
publisher / editor
No listing in Ulrichs
Copyright permission letter to
publisher / editor
Listed in Ulrichs – web site
incorrect, no copyright information
LIASA journal
No copyright permission on web
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Journal of Literary Studies, 1996
No
http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=journal&issn=02564718
Diogene, 1996
Yes
http://www.unesco.org/cipsh/eng/diogene.htm
Stilet, 1997
No
None
American journal of Italian
studies, 1997
No
Desoto Press, USA
http://gale.ecnext.com/coms2/profile-3yj1-DeSoto-Press.html
Jura Soyfer: international
Zeitschrift fur
Kulturwissenschaften,1998
No
http://www.soyfer.at
Copyright permission letter to
publisher / editor
Unisa Press journal, now with
Taylor & Francis
Listed in Ulrichs
See Taylor & Francis Open
Access Policy
Permission needs to be optained
Not listed in Ulrichs
Published by the International
Council for Philosophy and
Humanistic Studies with the
support of Unesco
5 languages
Copyright permission letter to
publisher / editor
diogene@unesco.org
Not listed in Ulrichs
No copyright information
Copyright permission letter to
publisher / editor
Available in SA-EPublications as
aggregator – no copyright
permission
Listed in Ulrichs
No complete web site
Copyright permission letter to
publisher / editor
Listed in Ulrichs
Web site in German
Copyright permission letter to
publisher / editor to Juta Soyfer
Gesellschaft
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Mousaion, 2001
No
http://www.unisa.ac.za/press
Trans: Internet-Zeitschrift fur
Kulturwissenschaften, 2001
No
http://www.inst.at/trans
International fiction review, 2003
No
http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/IFR/index/html
Scrutiny 2, 2003
No
http://www.unisa.ac.za/press
http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=journal&issn=18125441
Tydskrif vir
geesteswetenskappe, 2005
http://www.akademie.co.za/tydskrif_vir_geesteswetenskappe.htm
Listed in Ulrichs
No copyright permission
Copyright permission letter to
publisher / editor
Listed in Ulrichs
Journal free on the web
May include full text with correct
reference.
Inform publisher
Listed in Ulrichs
No copyright information on the
web
Copyright permission letter to
publisher / editor
Not listed in Ulrichs
Now with Taylor & Francis
Copyright permission letter to
publisher / editor
Copyright belongs to publisher –
Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns
Copyright permission letter to
Akademie
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