How to get ‘Open Access’ into your publishing contract

Negotiating a publishing contract can be difficult at the best of times. However, now that grant funding bodies such as the NHMRC are making it a requirement that resulting research publications be made publically available on open access, the negotiations around the publishing contract becomes even more important.

To make the potential negotiation process a little simpler the University of Sydney Library, in consultation with the Office of General Counsel, have developed an Addendum Generator which creates the addendum for you.

All you need to do is to complete the four fields on the form and the ‘generator’ will create the text. Then sign the form and add it to the original contract.

Essentially the addendum allows

You to:

  • use, reproduce, distribute, create derivatives of the  work  in electronic, digital or print form in connection with your teaching, conference presentations, lectures, other scholarly works, and for all your academic and professional activities.
  • authorise others to make, the final published version of the work available in digital form over the Internet,

Your institution to:

  • provide an electronic version of the work to be made publicly available in an  open access repository for any scholarly purpose only.
  • authorise the NHMRC, the ARC or any other public research funding body to make a copy of the peer-reviewed manuscript of the work available for public access no later than 12 months after the official date of publication.

Next time you come to sign a publisher contract think about what you are signing and remember to not sign your rights away.

Contact:
Sten Christensen, Repository Coordinator, Sydney eScholarship
T 02 9351 7407
E sten.christensen@sydney.edu.au

Make your PhD thesis available on Open Access. The sky won’t fall on your head!

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Sten Christensen, Sydney eScholarship, University of Sydney Library


“If I make my thesis available on open access I won’t be able to publish it.”
Wrong, you will still be able to publish it.

There are many misconceptions in relation to making your thesis available on open access, this is the main one and it’s incorrect. Any reputable publisher will take the thesis as a raw manuscript and will edit it so that it is palatable to a wider audience. As such there should be a marked difference between the thesis and the published work; therefore there should be no issue, see Thesis into book. Advice to the desperate (more…)