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The Vault - JIBC's Institutional Repository: Copyright FAQs

Copyright FAQs

Do I sign over my copyright when I deposit my works in The Vault?

No, the copyright status of your work remains the same. You merely grant The Vault a license that allows your work to be made available on The Vault and Arca and to preserve your work by migrating it into newer formats as technology changes


What if I am not the sole author? 

You will need to obtain the consent of all coauthors prior to depositing in the Vault..


What if my work contains third party material?

Some use of third party material is permissible under the Fair Dealing provision of the Copyright Act.  If your use is not covered under Fair Dealing, you will need to seek permission from the creator/rights holder if you want to include any third party copyrighted material such as extracts from books, journals or other publications, or illustrations such as images, maps, photographs, tables, etc.  Note: the rights holder may be the author of a work, a publisher, an illustrator etc. 


What is a SPARC Canadian Author's Addendum to Publication Agreement?

The SPARC Canadian Author Addendum enables authors to try and secure a more balanced agreement by retaining select rights, such as the rights to reproduce, reuse, and publicly present the articles they publish for non-commercial purposes.


How do I know if my funding agency requires or encourages depositing into an IR?

SHERPA/JULIET  provides summaries of funding agencies' grant conditions on self-archiving of research publications and data.


Will I be violating my copyright agreements with my publisher if I contribute previously published material to The Vault?

This will depend on the publication agreement you signed with your publisher. Please check your Copyright Transfer Agreement.

You can also check the SHERPA/RoMEO website  for publishers' copyright and self-archiving policies to find permissions normally given to the author as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement.  Many publishers allow some version of a previously published article to be deposited in an open access repository as long as you follow their conditions.

You can also check your own publisher’s website. When in doubt it is best to contact the publisher directly for permission to contribute your article to The Vault.


What version of an article can I deposit in The Vault?  

This depends on your publisher. Publishers often permit authors to self-archive the final pre-publication version of their works, but this is not a universal practice. You can also check the SHERPA/RoMEO website for publishers' copyright and self-archiving policies.

Of course, if you own copyright of your work, you can post whatever version you prefer though it is important to remember that some publishers do consider depositing to a digital repository to be "prior publication".


What is a preprint or author manuscript?

Most publishers allow some version of the author's manuscript to be submitted to an institutional repository, with some of the more generous publishers allowing the publisher's version to be deposited. There are different versions of an author's manuscript:

Preprint: The "pre" in preprint means pre-refereeing (i.e., unrefereed) research papers, almost all of them prepared for submission to refereed journals (or refereed conference proceedings) for refereeing.


What is a Postprint?

The "post" in postprint means post-refereeing (i.e., refereed, revised, accepted final drafts of) research papers, all of them appearing in or soon to appear in refereed journals (or refereed conference proceedings). Note that the author's final draft (author's final version) will have the same content as the publisher's final version, but the author's final version has far fewer restrictions on it than the publisher's version of record. For example, the author's final version could be deposited in The Vault, but the publisher version could not be deposited.

Definition:
A post-print is a document that has been through the peer review process and incorporated reviewers comments. It is the final version of the paper before it is sent off to the journal for publication. It may be missing a final copy edit (if the journal still does that) and won't be formatted to look like the journal. It still looks like the double spaced .doc file. Sometimes, the term "pre-print" is used interchangeably with "post-print," but when it comes to permissions issues, it is important to clarify which version of a manuscript is being discussed.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/information-culture/understanding-your-rights-pre-prints-post-prints-and-publisher-versions/


What do I do if I can't find my publisher in SHERPA/RoMEO?

If you have published in journals that do not have clear guidelines on author rights for publishing pre-prints, postprints, publisher PDFs, ask the publisher/editor what you can publish in The Vault. 


How do I find where to send my request for permission letter?

Check the website of the publisher.  They will often have a link at the bottom of the website entitled:  "Terms of Use" or "Contact Us" or "Authors and Permissions" and will give an address of where to send the request. Often it is easier to get permission from the publisher when the author contacts the editor they worked with during the publication process. 


Where can I find current information and guidelines on Copyright? 

Check out the Library’s Copyright guide.