Perhaps I can set the record straight. ALPSP has not (at least in the past 3 years) surveyed journals' copyright policies, although in 1998/9, the Association did carry out a study of journal authors (not publishers) who had recently contributed to a mixture of commercial and non-commercial journals. We asked, among other things, what they thought about copyright retention. 38.1% felt that copyright should be transferred to the society or publisher, but full redistribution rights retained by the author. 38% felt that copyright should be retained by the author, but full publishing rights granted to the society or other publisher. 23.4% felt that copyright should be retained by the author, and only limited publishing rights granted to the society/publisher. 4.8% felt copyright should be retained by the author's employer and full publishing rights granted to the society/publisher; 2.8% were for copyright retention by employer, limited rights to society/publisher. 2.3% were for copyright retention by funding body, full publishing rights to society/publisher and 1.2% for copyright retention by funding body, limited rights to society/publisher. Interestingly, an overwhelming 79.5% of respondents did not find that reaching agreement with publishers about copyright created any obstacle whatever to their publishing objectives. There is information about the study, links to presentations and articles about it and an order form for the complete report, at http://www.alpsp.org/pub1.htm
As a result, however, of the indication that more than 60% of authors (more, in fact, in the Humanities than in the Sciences) felt the author should retain copyright, ALPSP has since developed and published a model 'grant of licence' document which publishers might use to enable authors to retain copyright, while granting to the publisher all the rights it needs. This document can be found at http://www.alpsp.org/grantli.pdf, and an editorial about it at http://www.alpsp.org/cpyauth.pdf. Sally Sally Morris, Secretary-General Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers South House, The Street, Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3UU, UK Phone: 01903 871686 Fax: 01903 871457 E-mail: [email protected] ALPSP Website http://www.alpsp.org Learned Publishing is now online, free of charge, at www.learned-publishing.org ----- Original Message ----- From: "Guillermo Julio Padron Gonzalez" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: 31 May 2001 20:59 Subject: Re: PostGutenberg Copyrights and Wrongs for Give-Away Research > Fytton Rowland wrote: > > A recent survey by the (UK) Association of Learned and Professional Society > > Publishers showed that a majority (about 70%, from memory) of the journals > > surveyed did not insist on outright transfer of copyright; they mostly > > asked for it, but would not refuse to publish a paper if the author > > insisted on granting only a right of first publication. > > Could you provide us with the reference of the original paper? > Thanks, > > Guillermo > > Dr Guillermo J Padron > Executive Editor > Elfos Scientiae > P.O. Box 6072 > Havana 6, Cuba > Telephones: (53-7) 33-1917 / 21-8008 > Fax (53-7) 33-1917 / 21-8070 > E-mail: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > URL: http://www.elfosscientiae.com.cu
