Re: "University as author?"

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 Terry Carroll <carroll[_at_]tjc.com> wrote:  

> On Tue, 16 Aug 2005, Agenbroad, James (Civ,ARL/CISD) wrote:
>
> > I'd wager good money that he assigned (gave up) his copyrights for free
> > to the journal that he published in.
>
> Well, only if he owned it to begin with, right?
>
> Is this the standard practice, by the way? I've run one law journal, and
> our practice was to get a right of first publication, with right to
> sublicense for reprints and Lexis/Westlaw. The author retained his
> copyright.

	The variety of contracts seems to be infinite. 
	Most learned journal contracts that I have seen 
	transfer copyright to the publisher who then 
	gives back rights to reuse under a variety of 
	circumstances. Some contracts ask for production 
	subsidies, called "subventions" or "page charges,"
	which are usually supported by grants. Authors 
	may also bear the cost of permissions and 
	extraordinary production costs.

	Professional journals are a bit closer to 
	consumer and trade media where the author is 
	likely to give rights and retain copyrights.

	This forum usually ignores what the learned 
	author receives. I think it is essential to 
	understand this thread. 

	In exchange for transfer of copyright, the 
	author receives value: the implied benefits of 
	"publication." In higher education and science, 
	this signals the formal recognition of knowledge 
	that meets learned norms and deserves permanent 
	recognition. It also obliges the publisher to 
	invest cash, time and expertise in peer review, 
	presentation, production, and active dissemination 
	to the appropriate esoteric readership. The 
	investment is justified by the leverage of 
	copyright. Contracts for monographs and textbooks 
	may share profits in the form of royalties. 
	Authors usually receive copies of the printed 
	publication. 

	Best wishes,

Albert Henderson

Former Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY 1994-2000 Contributor HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES. AN ENCYCLOPEDIA (ABC-CLIO 2002) <70244.1532[_at_]compuserve.com> Received on Thu Aug 18 2005 - 01:25:01 GMT