Publishers require authors to sign or click through an author's agreement before publishing an article. This contract spells out what rights you retain as an author and what rights the publisher reserves from your work.
Look for:
- Do you keep copyright to your work? If an author agreement grants all rights to the publisher, you will have to ask permission to use your own work.
- Can you share copies of an articles with colleagues or use it in teaching?
- Can you post a copy to the RWU Digital Commons?
- Can you reuse content published in the article?
What happens to my copyrights for my own published work?