Understanding Your Author Rights: Overview

As the author of a work, you have the rights to:

• reproduce the work (e.g. photocopying)
• create derivative works (e.g. translations)
• distribute the work (e.g. by license, sale, or other means)
• display or perform the work publicly
• grant the exercise of any of these rights to other people or organizations (e.g. a publisher

BEFORE signing a publisher's agreement, ask yourself:

• Do I want to be able to send my colleagues copies of my article?
• Do I want to post a copy of my article on Canvas?
• Do I want to include a copy of my article in my CV online?
• Do I want to place my article in an institutional repository (e.g. eScholarship@Morgan)?
• Do I want to publish my article in translation?
• Do I want to distribute copies of my article as part of a conference presentation?
• Do I want to assign it as a reading to my students?

This guide includes many resources to help you know what to do when signing a publisher's agreement based on these questions.