October 2006,1 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has included author-rights language for a number of years in its standard license. However, despite these individual efforts, there is at present no broadly accepted community standard for securing author rights within a library content license. The idea of developing model language for author rights in library content licenses emerged at a meeting on policy development for open-access repositories hosted by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in January 2009.2 Participants at that meeting posited that developing standardized language to address the right of re-use and deposit within such agreements would facilitate the broad-based implementation of emerging policies and best practices for making scholarly content available to a wide audience. This idea was elaborated in an article by Ellen Duranceau and Ivy Anderson in ARL’s Research Library Issues, no. 263 (April 2009).3 To further this effort, an ad hoc working group4 was self- organized in late 2009 to explore the feasibility of drafting standard language for author rights that could be included in library content licenses. The working group is now publishing the following draft recommended license clause for public comment and discussion. Readers are encouraged to share this RLI 269 12 Model Language for Author Rights in Library Content Licenses ( C O N T I N U E D ) APRIL 2010 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC Author Rights Model License Language (Version 0.8, April 2010) Authors’ Rights to Use Their Own Work. Notwithstanding any terms or conditions to the contrary in any author agreement between Authors and Licensor, Authors affiliated with Licensee whose work (“Content”) is accepted for publication within the Licensed Materials shall retain the non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free right to use their Content for scholarly and educational purposes, including self-archiving or depositing the Content in institutional, subject-based, national or other open repositories or archives (including the author’s own web pages or departmental servers), and to comply with all grant or institutional requirements associated with the Content. For the avoidance of doubt, it is the intent of the parties to this agreement that Authors are third party beneficiaries of this provision of the Agreement. Definitions Content: Any version (including the published version) of any work by an author affiliated with Licensee that is published in the Licensed Materials. Scholarly and educational purposes: Purposes encompassing teaching, research, and institutional needs, including but not limited to the right to (a) use, reproduce, distribute, perform, and display the Content in connection with teaching, conference presentations, and lectures (b) make full use of the Content in future research and publications (c) republish, update or revise the Content in whole or in part for later publication (d) meet requirements and conditions of research grants or publishing subventions provided by government agencies or non-profit foundations, and (e) grant to the Author’s employing institution some or all of the foregoing rights, as well as permission to use the Content in connection with administrative activities such as accreditation, mandated reports to state or federal governments, and similar purposes. In all cases, the Author and/or the Author’s employing institution will be expected to provide proper citation to the published version. Repositories or archives: Open-access digital repository services such as those provided by the Author’s employing institution, an academic consortium, a discipline-based entity, or a governmental funding agency.
Previous Page Next Page