Forum addresses author rights

SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) has introduced a new discussion forum on the topic of author rights. Providing a private and moderated venue for academic librarians to explore copyright and related issues in teaching and research, the forum looks at questions arising from the development of digital repositories and recent public access mandates.

The SPARC Author Rights Forum has been established to support educational outreach to authors on issues related to retaining their copy rights. Topics include ensuring copyright compliance with public access policies, including the new National Institutes of Health mandate and rights of faculty under copyright and contract law. It also looks at the availability and use of author addenda; working with publishers to secure agreements to retain needed rights; and experiences in developing institutional copyright policies and educational programs.