Author Rights under NIH Public Access Policy

In the 30 September issue of ARL Monthly Report Ben Grillot discusses the different interpretations and practices of 12 publishers regarding “Author Rights” of the new National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy. His analysis will be useful for authors when considering publishers’ agreements and what amendments, if any, they should seek to the agreements. Grillot concludes

The significant variability in publisher agreements requires authors with NIH funding to closely examine their agreements and the rights granted and retained when deciding where to publish their research. When faced with ambiguous agreements or in order to achieve consistency in retained rights, authors should consider the use of author addenda to provide clarity and retain the rights necessary to use the work as they see fit.