Publishing support

Copyright for authors

Copyright is a form of legal protection for authors of original academic and creative works. U.S. law grants copyright holders a bundle of exclusive rights, including rights to reproduce, distribute, and display works. Since 1978, copyright is automatically granted to the creator of a work at the moment of creation without any need to register. 

For work created at Tufts, the Tufts Intellectual Property policy states:

  • for faculty: "...ownership of copyrightable intellectual property shall remain with the faculty member"
  • for students: "Students generally own the copyright to academic work they produce. Academic work can include class papers, theses, dissertations, artistic and musical works, and other creative works produced by University students."

Therefore, if you're a Tufts author, you likely hold copyright to your work unless it was transferred to someone else (like a journal publisher).

If you'd like to use someone else's copyrighted work (images, figures, text, video, etc.) in your own work, you may need to seek permission.

Retaining your rights as an author

Before signing an author’s agreement with a publisher, check to make sure that you retain all the rights you need to use your work in the future. For non-open access agreements you will likely be required to sign over copyright, but many agreements will still allow you to retain non-exclusive rights to share & reuse your work. Some things to look for include: 

  • Can you post a copy in Tufts Digital Library, on a preprint server, or on your website?
  • Can you use your article in teaching or conference presentations, or share it with colleagues?
  • Can you reuse content published in the article? Graduate students should check for thesis reuse in particular. 

To see some examples of publishers’ terms that require you to sign over copyright but do allow you to retain some non-exclusive rights, see Taylor & Francis, ACM, or University of Chicago Press. 

If the agreement doesn’t allow you to retain the rights that you need to use your work in the future, you may be able to negotiate with the publisher. Identify the terms that are necessary for you, and reach out to your editor.

AI & authorship

Your use of AI in published work

Each publisher and journal will have different guidelines about what types of AI use is permitted, and how to disclosure its use. Legislation related to AI-created content continues to evolve, but the current understanding is that AI-created content is not copyrightable.

Resources:

Publishers' use of your work in AI

Going forward, author's agreements may also have language allowing the publisher to license your work to vendors to use as training data for large language models (LLMs), or publishers may contact you asking you to sign an addendum related to generative AI licensing for content that you've already published. If you're asked to sign an agreement that includes language around AI, some things to consider include:

  • Does the agreement specify how your work will be used by AI?
  • Will your work be attributed?
  • Will you receive royalties for the use of your work?

Publishers may also use generative AI in the editorial or production processes, though many of the large publishers currently do not allows its use in these ways.

Open access to published scholarship

Are you interested in sharing your published work more openly? Many publishers allow authors to deposit a version of their article into institutional repositories like the Tufts Digital Library.

If you’ve already signed an author’s agreement for your article, check your copy of the agreement, or look up your publisher in the Open Policy Finder to see what they allow.

If you haven’t signed an author’s agreement yet, see the Retaining your rights as an author section for strategies to ensure you retain rights to share your work openly.

Look for 4 pieces of information:

Which version?

  • Most allow sharing a preprint (your original article, prior to submitting to a journal)
  • Most allow sharing the accepted version (your final Word doc version after peer review, just prior to publishing)
  • Few allow sharing the publisher’s final pdf version

Where?

  • Most allow depositing in an institutional repository (like Tufts Digital Library) or a subject-based repository (like arXiv)
  • Many allow posting to department, lab, or personal websites
  • Some have specific rules prohibiting sharing on sites like ResearchGate or Academia.edu

When?

  • Some agreements have embargo periods before the article can be made free to read, typically between 12-24 months.
  • Deposit now and our digital library software will manage the embargo

Other conditions?

  • Often you must include a statement on the first page of the document that provides a full citation and link to the publisher’s version

Deposit in the Tufts Digital Library

Once you’ve determined your publisher’s policies, use our deposit form to contribute the article to the Tufts Digital Library, or read more about the process.

Resources 

To learn more about a publisher’s policies before you decide to submit an article to them:

Library services to support the publishing process