Tools for the management of copyright issues

The Addenda to publishing contracts are requests for a review of the contractual scheme proposed by the author to the publisher for the retention of specific rights (e.g. re-use for educational purposes, archiving in institutional repositories). An effective example of author’s addenda are:

• SPARC - Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition: English version (local pdf file); Italian version (translation by University of Padua)
• Horizon 2020 recommends this model of publishing agreement for the authors participating in actions financed by EU publishing in non-OA journals

The other available tool are the Creative Commons Licenses, copyright licenses based on the “some rights reserved” principle. Publishing with a CC license, the author grants to the publishers and the readers some rights for the re-use of the scientific and educational material, e.g. public reproduction of the document or creation of derivative works. The six public Creative Commons Licenses are (from Wikipedia):

• Attribution alone
• Attribution + ShareAlike
• Attribution + Noncommercial
• Attribution + Noncommercial + ShareAlike
• Attribution + NoDerivatives
• Attribution + Noncommercial + NoDerivatives

It is important to know that publishers may deny the publication of a product already disseminated via CC licenses. Therefore, it is highly recommended to check the publishing policies well in advance.

To know more about copyright policies

• Sherpa-Romeo - to have information about the version of the work suitable for self-archiving and the related embargo period 
• Censimento UniTO - to have information not findable on SHERPA-RoMEO concerning publisher's policies in Italy and abroad  

To know more about funders' policies

• Sherpa/FACT - to check if journals' policies are compliant with funders' requirements 
• Sherpa/JULIET - to verify which funders support Open Access 

To find Open Acces books, journals and archives

• DOAJ – list of Open Access journals  
• DOAB – list of Open Access books
• OpenDOAR – list of Open Access academic archives
• The Open Access Button - Open Access versions of scientific publications
• The Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies (ROARMAP) - information on Open Access policies subscribed by Universities, Research Institutions and funders