Scholar’s Addendum

Science Commons, a project of (U.S.) Creative Commons, now has a simple “wizard” to enable scholars to print out an addendum for attachment to a publisher’s copyright agreement reserving for the scholar various rights, depending on what boxes are ticked in the wizard. I’ve done a sample and reproduce the text below. (A properly formatted PDF version is available.)

ADDENDUM TO PUBLICATION AGREEMENT

1. THIS ADDENDUM hereby modifies and supplements the attached Publication Agreement concerning the following Article:

Open Access in Legal Publishing
(manuscript title)
The Journal of HIghly Expensive Information
(journal name)

2. The parties to the Publication Agreement as modified and supplemented by this Addendum are:

Simon R. Fodden (corresponding author)
Big Fat Publisher (Publisher)

3. This Addendum and the Publication Agreement, taken together, allocate all rights under copyright with respect to all versions of the Article.

The parties agree that wherever there is any conflict between this Addendum and the Publication Agreement, the provisions of this Addendum are paramount and the Publication Agreement shall be construed accordingly.

4. Notwithstanding any terms in the Publication Agreement to the contrary, AUTHOR and PUBLISHER agree as follows:

4.1. Professional Activities. Author retains the non-exclusive right to create derivative works from the Article and to reproduce, to distribute, to publicly perform, and to publicly display the Article in connection with Author’s teaching, conference presentations, lectures, other scholarly works, and professional activities.

4.2. Distribution. Author has the non-exclusive right to distribute copies of any version of the Article, including but not limited to the published version, by means of any web server from which members of the general public can download copies without charge, provided that Author cites the journal in which the Article has been published as the source of first publication, when applicable.

“Published version” means the version of the Article distributed by Publisher to subscribers or readers of the Journal.

4.3. Acknowledgment of Prior License Grants. Where applicable, Publisher acknowledges that Author’s assignment of copyright or Author’s grant of exclusive rights in the Publication Agreement is subject to Author’s prior grant of a non-exclusive copyright license to Author’s employing institution and/or to a funding entity that financially supported the research reflected in the Article as part of an
agreement between Author or Author’s employing institution and such funding entity, such as an agency of the United States government.

5. For record keeping purposes, Author requests that Publisher sign a copy of this Addendum and return it to Author. However, if Publisher publishes the Article in the journal or in any other form without signing a copy of this Addendum, such publication manifests Publisher’s assent to the terms of this Addendum.

[Signatures, dates etc.]

This is the sort of thing that would be helpful to find on the Canadian Creative Commons site, especially for legal scholars. (Marcus Bornfreund take note, please.)