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Retaining Your Author Rights

By Taira Meadowcroft   Posted in Resources and Services
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Don’t Sign Away Your Rights!

Traditional publishers’ agreements often transfer copyright from the author to the publisher, giving them the right to reproduce and redistribute your work.

The most important thing you can do is read your copyright transfer agreement. Don’t like what it says? You can amend the agreements to retain the rights you need to make copies of your work and to share it with others.

Examine your publishers’ agreements

What is the publisher requiring of you? Those agreements that require you to transfer all your rights limit what you can do with your own work—that is, you are no longer the copyright holder.

If your publisher agreement reads something like: “the undersigned authors transfer ownership of copyright, including the right to publish and distribute the work by any means, method, or process whether now known or to be development in the future, to the Publisher,” consider amending the agreement.

Agreements that let you retain control of your work often have phrases like: “I grant the journal a non-exclusive license to publish my work”; “I understand that no rights are transferred to the Journal”; or “I understand that a Creative Commons license will be applied to my work.”

Modify your agreements when needed

Publishing agreements are negotiable. Know your rights and consider using the SPARC author addendum to modify your agreement.

Deposit your work in MOspace

If you’ve retained the right to post to an online archive, submit your work to the MOspace Institutional Repository. An institutional repository, like MOspace, is one of the best ways to disseminate and preserve your work.  As an open access tool, MOspace ensures that current and future generations of scholars benefit by finding your work.

More information on retaining your rights.

home Ellis Library, Resources and Services Peer Navigator Corner: Who are the Peer Navigators?

Peer Navigator Corner: Who are the Peer Navigators?

By Kimberly Moeller   Posted in Ellis Library Resources and Services
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Written by: Sophie Lanzone

At Ellis Library, there is a group of Mizzou students who are available to help with navigating the building itself, or any other technological or reference question you may have. The peer navigator system is designed so that students have an accessible environment to ask questions, and feel comfortable asking another student. We can be found at the reference desk on the first floor, near the stairs to the café.

To go into more detail on what the program offers, your peer navigators strive to have open communication with everyone as well as a friendly, welcoming attitude. Our prime responsibilities for services are to provide excellent customer service to any users of the library, to do as much as we can to help assist with your questions, to be sensitive to each user’s knowledge and skill level, and to direct you to the resources and library staff that will be most beneficial. We can help with a variety of different types of questions ranging from how to print and get set up with each printer, how to reserve a study room and where to find that study room, how to look up books and articles information on the digital media lab and writing tutors, where you can rent chargers, markers cameras, etc., where bathrooms are throughout the library, where different quiet spaces or classrooms are and more! We have weekly training courses that keep us up to date with new information and refresh the ways we can help answer your questions. We can also connect you with the best person or resource to answer your question. For example, we can tell you all about Special Collections with their collection of rare materials, the University Archives with private papers and manuscripts related to the history of the University, subject specific librarians to help with your research, and even the public library with great resources like free tutoring, audiobooks, and resume or interview help.

If you have any questions at all, don’t be afraid to come ask a peer navigator. You can find us in Ellis Library Sunday-Thursday starting at 10:00 am through 10:00 pm. There are no right or wrong questions, so please feel comfortable enough to come talk to us. Our goal is to get everyone more familiar with what the Libraries have to offer and how to utilize them throughout your time here at Mizzou!

home Ellis Library, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Protect Yourself and Your Research from Predatory Journal Publishers

Protect Yourself and Your Research from Predatory Journal Publishers

By Taira Meadowcroft   Posted in Ellis Library J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Resources and Services
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Predatory publishing doesn’t just take advantage of authors by misrepresenting review, editorial, and fee structures. It also hinders access to the work itself, hurting the overall enterprise of research. The epidemic of predatory journals reached serious enough heights in 2016 that the Federal Trade Commission charged OMICS, one such publisher of hundreds of predatory journals, for its deceptive practices.

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” says Janice Dysart, Science Librarian and creator of the Where to Publish Your Research guide. “Be wary of these email solicitations from publishers trying to get you to submit articles to their journals.” She recommends using the Think Check Submit checklist to determine whether a publisher is legitimate.

Anyone can fall victim to predatory journal publishers. Jung Ha-Brookshire, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, College of Human Environmental Sciences, and Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Textile and Apparel Management, relates her experience after a graduate student recommended a journal a few years ago. She says, “I didn’t think twice about it. We submitted our paper and got accepted without any revisions. Then they were asking us to send money somewhere in Pakistan.” She still didn’t realize what was happening because she hadn’t even heard of “predatory journals.”

That all changed about a year later when she learned of a list of predatory journals from her colleagues. “We found out that our journal was on that list,” she says. They tried to withdraw their work from the publication but couldn’t. Because the journal wasn’t legitimate, the article could only be found via the specific URL and not by searching, so they pulled the publication information from their CVs. Jung says, “We had to take that manuscript as a loss because we couldn’t even take that paper to other publishers since, technically, it is already published.”

After that experience, Jung now checks with her subject librarian, Noël Kopriva, every time she encounters a journal she hasn’t heard of, “no matter how good the website looks.” Jung advises, “Be careful with choosing the right journals. Do not get fooled by address, location, a beautiful website, and a wonderful set of editorial board names. Check with your librarian first when in doubt!”

For more information on how to spot predatory journal publishers, see our Where to Publish Your Research guide or contact your subject librarian

Originally published in 2018 by Jen Gravley, Research and Instruction Librarian