It seems that copyright ownership could be an important obstacle to archiving postprints. I have proposed at Lancaster that academic staff employment contracts be modified to make it clear that the university asserts its rights as employer to copyright in staff research publications, but only to the extent of reserving the right to authorise non-commercial publication on the internet, e.g. in an eprints archive. This would circumvent a possible restriction resulting from any copyright assignment the author signs. The idea has been met favourably here, both by the AUT (professional association) and management, but both have referred it for discussion at national level.
I think the university should be willing to forego any claim to income from research publications, but should retain the right to authorise non-commercial publication. The decision on when to publish, which version, etc, should be left to the author(s), within a policy such as that suggested here for Southampton, which would greatly facilitate acceptance of eprints archiving as a standard practice. cheers Sol ******************************** Prof. Sol Picciotto Head, Lancaster University Law School Lancaster University LANCASTER LA1 4YN, U.K. direct phone (44)(0)1524-592464 fax (44)(0)1524-525212 [email protected] ********************************** > -----Original Message----- > From: Stevan Harnad [SMTP:[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 12:49 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Draft Policy for Self-Archiving University Research Output > > Comments are invited on the following draft for a university policy on > the self-archiving of research output: > > http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~lac/archpol.html > > It is being formulated both for use at Southampton > University, and as a possible model for wider adoption, > particularly in connection with a recommended restructuring > http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2373.html > of UK's Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) > http://www.rareview.ac.uk/ > and its emulation in other countries > http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2356.html > > Stevan Harnad
