Author Rights

This guide is intended to inform McGill University researchers topics of author rights and publication agreements.

This guide includes:

• Key terms in publication agreements
• Resources for locating publication agreements
• Resources for negotiating your rights as an author

What do I need to know?

• When you publish you enter into an agreement with the journal publisher.
• The conditions of the agreement will vary and it's important to understand what rights you retain and which you transfer
  • e.g. In some cases you transfer your copyright to the publisher, in which case you have to obtain permission for future uses of your own article. 

Why should I care?

• Funding agencies often require authors maintain certain rights in order to comply with their policies.
  • For example, one way to comply with the Tri-Agency Policy on Open Access Publications is to deposit the accepted manuscript of the article in a repository within 12 months of publication. Some publishers will permit authors to do this, others will not. 
• You may want to use your article in various ways:
  • e.g., post it to a personal website
  • share it on social media
  • re-use graphs in future publications etc.
    • You may or may not maintain these rights depending on the agreement you sign. 

This guide is intended for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.