Your article was recently accepted for publication and you want to make sure your research has the widest reach and impact. One way to make sure this happens is retaining your author rights.
Traditional publishing agreements sign your copyright away to the publisher, lessening your impact as an author. When you don’t hold your copyright, you might not be allowed to give copies to your class or distribute it among colleagues. And depending on what you sign, you aren’t allowed to put your article on your webpage or in an online depository, further limiting your exposure.
So how do you make sure you retain your copyright? Publishing agreements are negotiable. Know your rights and consider using the SPARC author addendum* to modify your agreement. The SPARC author addendum is a free and legal resource that helps you easily modify your publishing agreement.
*The Author Addendum is a free resource developed by SPARC in partnership with Creative Commons and Science Commons, established non-profit organizations that offer a range of copyright options for many different creative endeavors.
At MU Libraries, we’re committed to making access to research more sustainable, affordable and open. And we need your help!
In traditional publishing models, scholars surrender their copyright to commercial publishers in order to disseminate their research findings in scholarly journals. Publishers then sell or rent that same content back to the institution through journal subscriptions—at ever increasing prices. This unsustainable practice costs institutions millions of dollars every year and creates barriers to access for many. Open access publishing encourages scholars to retain their rights and make their work freely available online, increasing the availability and impact of research.
What You Can Do:
Retain Your Rights: No matter where you publish, the single most important thing you can do to make scholarly publishing more sustainable and equitable is Retain Your Rights. It’s your copyright – don’t just sign it away! Contracts are often negotiable. And read those agreements: you may have more rights to share your research than you realize.
Know Your Options: Choose the right venue for your research and know your open access options. If you’re an editor or manuscript reviewer, ask about the journal’s OA options.
Share Your Work: Deposit your research in MOspace, MU’s Digital Institutional Repository. Submitting your work to MOspace is easy. Just log in with your SSO and complete the Creative Commons license.
This week is Open Access Week! Open Access Week, a global event now entering its fourteenth year, is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of open access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make open access a new norm in scholarship and research.
This week we are highlighting the completely online and open access journal RRNMF Neuromuscular Journal,founded by Dr. Richard Barohn, Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs at the University of Missouri.
Dr. Richard Barohn
Launched back in 2020, RRNMF Neuromuscular Journal is a collaboration with the University of Kansas Libraries that provides researchers in neuromuscular medicine an avenue to publish with no author fees and ownership of their copyright. And there are no subscription fees for readers and libraries. It’s true open access. “We wanted to create a completely new type of publication that we have total control of and for which there was NO CHARGE to readers, libraries, or those submitting papers,” says Dr. Barohn in his inaugural editorial.
In traditional publishing models, researchers surrender their copyright to commercial publishers in order to disseminate their research findings in scholarly journals. Publishers then sell or rent that same content back to the institution through journal subscriptions—at ever increasing prices. An open access journal like RRNMF Neuromuscular Journal keeps research free and open.
Not only was it important to Dr. Barohn that authors retain their copyright, but that young researchers had the opportunity to publish without being taken advantage of by predatory journals. Dr. Barohn stated in his editor’s letter that he “did not want this to be a predatory open access journal that charged excessive fees to publish and preyed on susceptible young investigators who were under pressure to publish at any cost.”
Two University of Missouri medical students also serve as managing editors of RRNMF Neuromuscular: Jihane Oufattole and Breanna Tuheli. Dr. Barohn’s mission is to provide more opportunities for young researchers, specifically women and those from diverse backgrounds, to gain job skills as editors.
Thank you Dr. Barohn for your work in the realm of open access. You’ve shown us what can be accomplished when researchers and libraries work together to make publishing fair and sustainable. If you are interested in learning how to keep your research open, visit our Open Access Guide.
Ellis Library will experience a water outage on Sunday, October 24, as part of the Hitt Street steam tunnel project. The building will open at 4:00 pm that day instead of noon to accommodate the outage. Ellis Library will be open on Monday as usual, but we will be under a boil advisory that day. Water during the boil advisory can be used for restrooms and washing hands, but is not to be used for drinking. Water fountains (including bottle fillers) will be available after the boil advisory is lifted on Tuesday morning, October 26 (probably after 9:00 am). The Bookmark Café menu will also be limited during the boil advisory.
You may find that the water on Tuesday has a slight cloudy or brown appearance. This is due to sediments in the pipeline, but the water is safe to drink.
Read the OA policies of journals or publishers for which you edit or review.
Check out the attention received by your department in MOSpace, thanks to Open Access. Click on your school/department, scroll to the bottom, and click on “show statistical information.”
The MU Libraries are currently engaged in space planning projects in Ellis Library and the specialized libraries. Our goal is to support the needs of the campus community in the years ahead. To aid in our planning, the Libraries are seeking input from MU students, faculty and staff. Survey participants will be asked to respond to questions regarding how they want to use the library and the relative importance of specific space improvement goals.
The survey will take around five minutes to complete. You will also have the option to leave additional comments. Thank you so much for your time and input.
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!”
Looking for open access resources? Don’t know how to start your research? Need help navigating the libraries or learning how to use a new technology? Check out our webinar recordings, available on our MU Libraries YouTube channel.
The MU Libraries are pleased to announce that contactless pickup lockers are now available at two locations on campus.
Users can choose Ellis Locker or Lottes Locker as their pickup location when requesting MU Libraries materials. Once the item is ready, users will receive an access code to pick up their items.
Patrons who select the pickup locker location will receive an email saying they have three days to pick up their library materials. At this time, only regular library items will be included in the pickup lockers; no equipment, reserve materials or ILL materials.
The Ellis Library locker is located inside the vestibule of the west entrance, which is near Speaker’s Circle. The Lottes Health Sciences Library locker is located in the Medical Science Building, just across the courtyard from the Medical Annex.
