Copyright for Scholars and Creators

Creation of a work of scholarship or creativity simultaneously makes the author a copyright holder. In general, authors/creators at UD own the rights to their works of scholarship and creativity unless those rights have been given in writing to another party or if the work was produced under a grant that required some other distribution rights. Unless you have transferred the copyright to another person or organization, you remain the copyright holder and may elect to distribute your work through eCommons.

In the course of formally publishing journal articles and other works of scholarship and creativity, most publishers/producers require authors/creators to sign a copyright agreement or assignment of copyright. This agreement typically will spell out author rights for self-archiving. If an author did not retain a copy of this agreement, they may find information with the JISC Open Policy Finder, a searchable database of the policies of thousands of journals worldwide.

If a policy is not listed in the JISC Open Policy Finder or on the publisher’s website, authors or library staff can contact a publisher directly to determine an author’s rights to place a version of their work in eCommons. Email for assistance.