8 Cool things about the Creative Commons March 15, 2007
Posted by Kevin Smith in : Authors' Rights, Copyright in the Classroom , 2commentsEDUCAUSE, which is a non-profit organization devoted to promoting “the intelligent use of information technology” in higher education, has recently been offering a series of sort informational pamphlets call “7 things you should know about… ” The most recent item in this series is 7 things you should know about Creative Commons, and it is worth the attention of faculty seeking material that they can use in their classrooms without any of the copyright hassles that often arise.
The Creative Commons is a movement to encourage creators of all kinds of material to make their work available with only “some rights reserved” and with specific authorization for educational and other non-commercial uses already attached. Faculty who can find appropriate articles, image, video or music that is released under a Creative Commons license are way ahead in their ability to build a class without worrying about when and if the need to seek copyright permission. The two page PDF brochure linked above offers examples of teaching with Creative Commons materials, as well as more detail about what the Creative Commons is and how to find CC licensed material.
So what is the 8th cool thing about the Creative Commons? It is this article from the NY Times that describes the upcoming US tour by Brazilian songwriter and pop star Gilberto Gil, who also hapens to be the Minister of Culture for his nation. As a musican and a government official, Gil is an important advocate for the Creative Commons, which is rapidly becoming an international movement. As the article says, “One of Mr. Gil’s first actions after becoming the culture minister in 2003 was to form an alliance between Brazil and the nascent Creative Commons movement.” To anyone teaching about Latin American music and culture, that alliance should be good news indeed.
Troubling (and silly) journal policy March 13, 2007
Posted by Kevin Smith in : Authors' Rights, Scholarly Publishing , 1 comment so farMy colleague Aisha Harvey passed on an e-mail pointing out one of the most absurd and troubling requirements I have ever heard of from a publisher. Apparently, at least some journals from Haworth Press, which publishes lots of “niche” journals in library science and other social sciences, claim to require a transfer of copyright to the publisher before they will begin the peer-review process.
Many journals, of course, still require a transfer of copyright before they will publish an article, although more and more are realizing that all they really need is an exclusie right of first publication. But to require the transfer before sending a submission out for peer-review is unheard of and unnecessary. I would not have believe it was true had I not seen the language on a web page of instructions for a Haworth journal myself.
Requiring copyright transfer before review raises the interesting question of what happens when a submission is rejected for publication in the Haworth journal. One has to wonder if this departure from the normal practice of waiting till acceptance to request a transfer indicates that the peer-review process is really a sham and that material is seldom if ever rejected by the journal.
I have published a couple of times in one of Haworth’s library science journals, but I will certainly think twice before doing so again. I hope others in the library community will reconsider both publishing and server as an editor or reviewer for any journal that has this silly policy; as librarians we should both know better and set an example of good practices in scholarly publishing.
Traps for the Unwary March 7, 2007
Posted by Kevin Smith in : Authors' Rights, Scholarly Publishing , add a comment
The Authors Guild recently ran this ad — Don’t Sign that Book Contract — to warn potential authors of the traps that might lurk behind the fine print in publication agreements. The graphic of a tiny author, pen in hand, standing in the middle of a bear trap, makes their point vividly.
Scholarly authors face similar traps today; with all kinds of new methods for distributing and using scholarly work available to them, especially on the Internet, it is more important then ever to read publication agreements carefully and to negotiate to reserve appropriate rights when necessary. Just as the Authors Guild offers assistance to its members, the Scholarly Communications Office is happy to help faculty and student authors at Duke understand their copyrights and manage those rights as they navigate the publication process. Let us help you stay out of the trap!
