Scholarly Communication

The Copyright Law of the United States provide authors with the exclusive rights to do and authorize the following:

1. to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;
2. to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
3. to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
4. in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;
5. in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and
6. in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

17 U.S.C. § 106

The SHERPA/RoMEO website allows you to search for the journal or publisher you are interested in and see their copyright and self-archiving policies.

Publisher policies and agreements are usually linked from the author information or article submission section of a journal’s website.

If you cannot find the policy for the journal or publisher in the SHERPA database, you can contact the publisher and negotiate with them over which rights you would like to retain.

“Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices.” 

Predatory journals do not care about advancing scholarship in a given field, they are concerned with their own self-interest, which is usually financial in nature. 

Predatory journals often have the following characteristics:

• False or misleading information.  For example, "A predatory journal’s website or e-mails often present contradictory statements, fake impact factors, incorrect addresses, misrepresentations of the editorial board, false claims of indexing or membership of associations and misleading claims about the rigour of peer review."

• Deviation from best editorial and publication practices. For example "Examples of substandard practice include not having a retraction policy, requesting a transfer of copyright when publishing an open-access article and not specifying a Creative Commons licence in an open-access journal. These characteristics can be difficult to know before submitting, although such information is easily obtained from legitimate journals. An unprofessional-looking web page — with spelling or grammar mistakes or irrelevant text — should also raise red flags."  

• Lack of transparency. For example, "Predatory publishers often fail to provide their contact information or details about article processing charges. Editors and members of their editorial boards are often unverifiable."

• Aggressive, indiscriminate solicitation. For example, "predatory journals often use aggressive solicitation such as repeated e-mails. These might be excessively flattering in tone, or might mention researchers’ past publications while noting that related submissions are urgently needed for a forthcoming issue. A clear warning sign is that the invitee’s expertise is outside the journal’s scope."

Grudniewicz, A., et. al. (2019). Predatory journals: No definition, no defense. Nature, 576, 210-212. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03759-y