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Scholarly Communication: Can I use and share my work after I publish it?

The Scholarly Communications committee provides Bucknell’s faculty scholars with customized information, education, and guidance as well as the technical resources and support services needed throughout all steps of the scholarly communications process.

A.

This depends on the rights you have retained in your agreement with the publisher.

If you provided them a license to reproduce and distribute your work:

Then you continue to be the primary owner of your copyright (or one of the primary owners, if you worked with  coauthors) and can reproduce, distribute, display, perform, create derivatives, etc. This is most common with Diamond OA journals and common among Gold and Hybrid OA publishing.

If you signed a copyright transfer agreement:

Then the publisher is likely the copyright holder, and what you can do with your work is limited.

You may be able to :

  • Share the work or portions of it within your Moodle course.
  • Link to the published work, but access may be limited.
  • Self-archive the accepted manuscript (or book chapter) in line with the journals standard policies.

If you used an author addendum and if it is accepted by the publisher, you keep a greater range of your rights. 

Most addendums give the author(s) the right to 

  • Continue to use their publications in their academic work (teaching, research, service, etc.)
  • Allow for the author to deposit their work in a non-profit institutional or subject repository and any funder-designated places.
    • Depending on the agreement, this OA deposit may take place immediately, after 6 months, or after 12 months.