The Science Commons has released three “Author Addenda” which are amendments that authors can attach to the copyright transfer form agreements they receive from publishing companies. The purpose is to ensure that the authors retain enough rights to publish their works online.
Every Science Commons Addendum ensures the freedom to use scholarly articles in teaching, conference presentations, lectures, other scholarly works, and professional activities. They differ in the following ways:
- The OpenAccess-CreativeCommons 1.0 Addendum reserves the right for the author to post the published version (for example, as a .pdf file) immediately and to grant others a Creative Commons “Attribution NonCommercial” license to use the article.
- The OpenAccess-Publish 1.0 Addendum reserves the right for the author to post the published version immediately upon publication.
- The OpenAccess-Delay 1.0 Addendum reserves the right for the author to post the author’s final manuscript version immediately and the published version six months after publication.
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