Rights and Licenses
Open access publishing often raises legal questions, for example regarding the re-usability of content and the use of open licenses. This page provides you with an overview of the most important conditions.
Publishing contracts, rights of use and licenses
When concluding a publishing contract, please check the clauses on copyrights and licenses as well as provisions relating to the re-usability and further use of the publication.
Right of use
While the copyright always remains with the author, the rights of use to a work can be transferred to a publisher, for example. A distinction is made here between simple and exclusive rights of use.
The transfer of a simple right of use to the publisher is usually completely sufficient and is often expressly recommended. In contrast to the exclusive right of use, other uses by others are also permitted (see also Section 31 of the German Copyright Act (UrhG)).
Licenses
In the context of open science, open access is not only understood to mean free access to publications, but also the free reuse of the works. Open access publications are therefore provided with so-called open content licenses; the Creative Commons licenses (CC licenses) are particularly common here. The CC licenses work with a modular model so that different levels are possible. The following components are used:
- BY: Attribution
- SA: Sharing under the same conditions
- NC: non-commercial
- ND: no derivative works
The use of the CC BY and CC BY-SA variants is recommended, as these offer the greatest reusability. As part of the "Open Access means CC BY" initiative, the DEAL consortium has compiled several reasons for the use of CC BY and also addresses the problems with the NC component.
Further information on Creative Commons licenses can be found at CC Germany and on the Creative Commons website. On the latter, you can also download CC logos and other materials and generate CC license texts for your publication. Till Kreutzer's publication "Open Content - A practical guide to the use of Creative Commons licenses" provides a comprehensive overview of CC licenses.
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Brinken, H., Hauss, J. & Rücknagel, J. (2021). open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/53409.CC BY 3.0 EN
Brinken, H., Hauss, J. & Rücknagel, J. (2021). open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/53430. CC BY 3.0 EN
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Publishers' open access policies
Many publishers offer the option of publishing your work as a postprint at the same time. The postprint is the text version that has already gone through the review process but has not yet been provided with the final publisher's layout.
The Open Policy Finder (formerly Sherpa Romeo) provides assistance and details regarding legal requirements. There you can search by publisher or journal title, for which the respective license agreement is then listed. Authors are often granted the right by the publisher to make the author's version of their article freely accessible on an institutional repository.
The document server of the University of Göttingen GRO.publications offers you a suitable platform for this so-called "self-archiving" or "Green Road" of Open Access publishing. The "Green Road" is parallel publication or self-archiving, which can take place on private websites, institute websites or on document servers.
The right to secondary publication
The secondary publication right (Section 38 (4) of the German Copyright Act (UrhG)) has been in force in Germany since the beginning of 2014. Under certain conditions, it allows authors to make the manuscripts of their scientific articles published in specialist journals freely accessible on the internet one year after the first publication. The right can be exercised by the authors themselves. However, they can also commission an institution, e. g. a library, to make the manuscript freely available online. According to the current understanding, the regulation applies to articles that have been published since the law came into force, regardless of which rights were transferred to the publisher with the publication contract.
Scope of application
The regulation applies to
- scientific articles by authors at universities, at least half of whose work was financed by public project funding (e. g. DFG, BMFTR, EU projects, state-funded scholarships).
- Scientific articles written by employees of publicly funded, non-university research institutions (e. g. WGL, HGF, MPG).
The legislator has excluded scientific articles that were financed with basic funds from a university from the use of secondary publication rights. Authors working at universities must therefore check whether the research project was funded with public project funds.
(Text modified from information sheet "The right to secondary publication", Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, Design by Thomas Severin)
Advice and services of the SUB Göttingen
If you would like to secondary publish your publications via GRO.publications, the publication management system of the University of Göttingen, you can find further information here.
Do you have any further questions? You are welcome to contact us by e-mail.
Further information
- Information sheet "The right to secondary publication" (published by Aktionsbündnis Urheberrecht für Bildung und Wissenschaft e. V.)
- FAQ of the priority initiative "Digital Information" of the Alliance of German Science Organizations
- Model agreement for the purpose of a secondary publication (PDF 72 KB) according to § 38 para. 4 UrhG
Further information
Information platform open-access.network
Information platform on all aspects of open access: forms of open access, legal aspects, positions from politics and research funding etc.
Information platform iRights.info
Information platform covering legal aspects of the digital world: education and open educational resources, Creative Commons and licenses, citation and plagiaris etc.
Ombuds Office for Good Research Practice at the University of Göttingen
As an independent, cross-institutional body, it provides information on good scientific practice, the University of Göttingen's ombudsman system, and the University of Göttingen's standards and guidelines.
FAQ - Rights and licenses
Copyright law was reformed on January 1, 2008. In this way, German publishers have succeeded in obtaining additional rights for older publications by law that could not be granted at the time the contract was concluded. This applies in particular to the online availability of publications from 1966 to 1994. In principle, this is a worthy cause, because publishers will only invest in online offerings if they do not have to contact each author individually to request the transfer of rights. However, the wording of the law assumes the transfer of exclusive rights of use to your publications, meaning that you, as the author, would no longer be allowed to publish your publications on the internet or grant rights to third parties such as your own university. The discussion about the interpretation of this legal provision is currently ongoing, partly due to constitutional concerns about this transfer model.
In December 2007, the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB Göttingen) sent a letter to researchers informing them about the amendment to copyright law and requesting that they transfer their simple right of use to Georg August University Göttingen. Numerous researchers at the university responded to this request. The transfer of rights of use remains valid indefinitely and is held in trust by SUB Göttingen.
If you, as a researcher, already transferred such a right of use between 2007 and 2008 or would like to transfer it now, you will find the relevant details in the following sections. Due to the different legal situations, a distinction must be made between:
- Transfer of rights as of January 1, 2009:
Since January 1, 2009, publishers based in Germany have had the right to make publications from before 1995 available online without having to exercise these rights. As an author, in case of doubt, you can only ask the publisher whether you may also make your publications available online yourself or whether you may grant this right to third parties. Due to constitutional concerns and the unclear legal situation for publishers, the discussion about the exclusivity of rights is not yet concluded. We will provide information about any new developments here in due course. - Transfer of rights between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2008:
Under the new provisions in Sections 31a and 137l of the German Copyright Act (UrhG), publishers automatically receive the rights to exploit publications online, which previously belonged to the authors.
Until December 31, 2008, you still had the opportunity to document that you wished to exercise the rights to the electronic version of your publication yourself by granting rights to third parties such as the University of Göttingen and sending a letter to your publisher.
We recommended proceeding as follows: Transfer simple rights of use to third parties such as the University of Göttingen. Here is an example letter:- [Subject]: Transfer of simple rights of use
[Text]: - “I hereby transfer to Georg August University Göttingen a simple right of use for my specialist publications published between January 1, 1966, and December 31, 1994, which I list in the appendix, for online availability on the document and publication server operated by the Lower Saxony State and University Library Göttingen.”
- Inform your publisher that you do not consent to the automatic transfer of rights. However, we recommend that you offer publishers simple usage rights along with your objection to the automatic transfer of rights. This will allow you to make your publications available on the internet yourself in the future, while publishers will also be free to create digital services.
A sample letter can be found here: - [Subject]: Objection to the transfer of online usage rights pursuant to Section 137l of the Copyright Act
[Text]: “I hereby object to the transfer of exclusive usage rights for the online provision of my publications for which I have concluded a publishing agreement with you until December 31, 1994 (§ 31a UrhG-E 2006 ”Agreements on unknown types of use" and § 137l UrhG-E 2006 “Transitional provisions for new types of use”). I have granted Georg August University of Göttingen a simple right of use for online provision. If you are also interested in distributing my publications online or offering them via other services (e. g., Google Booksearch), please let me know and I will be happy to transfer a simple right of use to you as well."
- [Subject]: Transfer of simple rights of use
- Rechteübertragung vor dem 31.12.2007:
Sie hatten der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen bis zum 31.12.2007 formlos die einfachen Nutzungsrechte für die Onlinebereitstellung Ihrer älteren Publikationen übertragen. Diese werden durch die Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen treuhänderisch verwahrt, bis Sie als Autor*in bestimmte Publikationen auf den Publikations- und Dokumentenserver (GOEDOC) der Universität Göttingen veröffentlichen möchten. Wenn Sie in Zukunft weitere Nutzungsrechte an Ihren Publikationen einräumen möchten, sollten Sie bei Ihren Verlagen Widerspruch erheben, um die automatische Entstehung von ausschließlichen Nutzungsrechten zur Online-Publikation zu verhindern. Sie müssen Ihren Verlag jedoch nicht darüber informieren, dass Sie bereits fristgerecht Rechte an Dritte übertragen hatten. - Transfer of rights before December 31, 2007:
By December 31, 2007, you had informally transferred the simple rights of use for the online provision of your older publications to Georg August University of Göttingen. These are held in trust by the Lower Saxony State and University Library Göttingen until you, as the author, wish to publish certain publications on the publication and document server (GOEDOC) of the University of Göttingen. If you wish to grant further rights of use for your publications in the future, you should lodge an objection with your publishers in order to prevent the automatic creation of exclusive rights of use for online publication. However, you do not need to inform your publisher that you have already transferred rights to third parties within the specified period.
If you own the rights to the electronic provision of your works, scanning publications from 1966 to 1994 and making them available via an institutional repository is generally not a problem. In individual cases, a publisher may acquire its own copyright through editorial processing (e. g., newly set tables, edited images, or proofreading) (KG Berlin judgment of November 29, 1996, Ref. 5 U 317/96). The publisher's layout alone does not enjoy copyright protection. In case of doubt, you should consult with the publisher or provide your author's version (i. e., the last version submitted to the publisher).
If you grant or have already granted the University of Göttingen online usage rights for the provision of your publications from 1966 to 1994, the Göttingen State and University Library will gradually make them available on the internet as part of its open access program. The Göttingen State and University Library offers technical support and services for scanning and digitization.
The publication of open access publications - also in accordance with the Berlin Declaration - is compatible with an existing collection agreement with VG Wort. Fundamental legal conflicts are practically non-existent and can be ruled out with legal certainty. Furthermore, VG Wort has stated that it sees no problems with the simultaneous management of usage rights granted exclusively to it and freely accessible and reusable scientific text publications, and does not rule out participation in the reporting and distribution process.
More detailed information can be found in the VG Wort guide or in the extended version from iRights.info.
In a cumulative dissertation, articles published in specialist journals are compiled into a doctoral thesis. This may raise legal questions regarding subsequent use.
Further information on this can be found here.