Copyright
You have to own the copyright to publications to make them freely available in LUCRIS. Below you will find copyright-related examples for some different types of publications.
The purpose of the copyright law is to balance the author’s need for protection versus the user’s need for access. The law combines reasonable exceptions and limitations for the “common good”. Among other things, this means that it´s ok to make a copy for private use, or reference and quote a published work.
If the author transfers the economic rights, for example to a publisher, the author no longer decides on how their work is used. The publisher can remove the legal limitations through a licensing agreement.
CC licensing
It is common for OA journals to use CC licenses to clarify how to reuse published articles. The various types of CC licenses have different conditions, but common to all licenses is the requirement of recognition. The person using the licensed work must always give a correct acknowledgment to the author. A CC license does not mean that the author waives the non-profit right to the work or the right to be cited.
The most common license for research publications, CC BY, is also the most open. It allows others to use, distribute, modify and build on a work, even for commercial purposes, as long as they give proper recognition.
Get assistance choosing a license on the Creative Commons website
Research publications
The author owns the copyright and can make publications freely available unless a special agreement prohibiting this has been signed.
The author has commonly signed an agreement with the publisher in which they have partially or wholly signed over their rights. Most major publishers still allow articles to be made freely accessible as long as certain conditions have been met. If you have any questions regarding the publisher who has published your articles, you can look up their policy in or contact us.
Contact the publisher/editor and ask for permission. The following is a suggestion for a letter:
Dear [name],
I am writing to ask for permission to self-archive a copy of my article [article title], published in [publication name, volume, issue, pages]. The copy will be made freely accessible in LUCRIS (www.lucris.lu.se), the research information system at Lund University.
Best regards,
[name]
Doctoral theses
The author owns the copyright and the work can be made freely accessible.
Contact the publisher/editor and ask for permission.
The author owns the copyright to the summarising introduction which can be made freely accessible. Access to other included publications will be determined by the agreements entered into with the respective publishers.
LU has general agreements with the following publishers: IEEE, Elsevier, Cambridge University Press and Portland Press.
Before publishing your work in a journal
If you are in a situation where you can choose between several equivalent journals to which your manuscript can be sent, make sure to find out their policy on free accessibility and self-archiving. Then choose a journal that allows self-archiving. SHERPA/RoMEO is a database that compiles publishers’ policies on self-archiving.
When your manuscript has been accepted for publication in a journal, you will need to sign an agreement (sometimes already in conjunction with electronic submission). Read the agreement carefully and make sure, at the very least, that you retain the right to self-archive your accepted manuscript in the University’s institutional repository as well as the right to use the article in any future doctoral thesis and when lecturing. Remember, an increasing number of research funders require free accessibility of research results.
If the publishing agreement is not satisfactory, you can use the SPARC Author Addendum.
Before publishing a book
If you publish a book, or contribute with a chapter to a book that is published outside Lund University, you can ask the publisher to approve self-archiving at an agreed date after the book has been published (for example one year). This type of publication requires a separate request for each piece of work.
Contact
Questions about copyright? Contact us:
publicera [at] lub [dot] lu [dot] se
In some cases, Lund University’s legal division can also be of assistance.