Taylor & Francis' Position on Copyright and Author Rights
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Copyright Transfer FAQs (answers to common copyright questions)
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Ethics & Integrity (our guidelines on the ethics of journal publishing)
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Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest
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General Permissions Requests (for requests to reuse our journal content)
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Copyright Permission Form (PDF) (for requests to include copyright material in your own work)
Introduction
For over two hundred years, Taylor & Francis has sought to achieve the widest dissemination of new research knowledge via our scholarly journals. We continue to support the widest possible access to the scientific, scholarly and medical literature through innovative and creative publishing policy and practice, founded on the highest standards of peer review.
Taylor & Francis, and the scholarly and professional associations with whom we work, is committed to good stewardship of the scholarly record, and to managing authors’ Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) as these are associated with their article. Such articles are normally the primary written report of the results of a scientific research project. Such research may be supported by funding from Government or commercial sources. It may be conducted by a single research group from a single institution, or may be the outcome of collaborative working between institutions on a global scale. Such research in its written form, has been submitted for consideration to a Taylor & Francis journal, and is then subject to that journal's rigorous peer review. If acceptable after revision in the light of referees’ comments, then that research is published in its final and definitive form, for the first time, by Taylor & Francis in a Taylor & Francis journal, or in a journal published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of a scholarly or professional association.
This is the version of scholarly record, and in its online form will be fully reference-linked. Taylor & Francis has added value to this version – editing to a style consistent with linking conventions, converting to a suitable digital form, putting in the digital reference links and meta-tags for feeds to abstracting and indexing services, registering the digital object identifier (DOI), and monitoring electronic usage.
In all our activities, we are working for the benefit of authors to ensure maximum access to, and use of, their articles, and to ensure that authors may gain from the goodwill associated with publishing in a Taylor & Francis journal. Yet we are also seeking to enhance the reputation and prestige of the journal, its editors and editorial board, its peer review processes, and the added value brought by the journal and its publisher.
Definition of terms
‘First publication’ is taken to mean ‘first’ publication in a recognised Taylor & Francis journal (in electronic and paper editions) of an original article that has been through a rigorous and equitable ‘peer review’ process, as opposed to any subsequent publication in a secondary medium.
‘Exclusive publishing right’ is taken to mean the exclusive right (with the exception of an agreed version of an article that an Author may place on a website or in an open archive repository) to reproduce and communicate to the public the whole or any part of an article, and to publish the same throughout the world in any format and in all languages for the full term of copyright. This includes without limitation the right to publish an article in printed form, electronic form, other data storage media, transmission over the Internet and other communication networks and in any other electronic form, and to authorise others to do the same.
Assign copyright, or license publication right?
We prefer authors to assign copyright to Taylor & Francis or the journal proprietor (such as a learned society on whose behalf we publish), but accept that authors may prefer to give Taylor & Francis an exclusive licence to publish. Copyright assignment has the advantage of elimination of ambiguity, for example in negotiating subsidiary licences (for instance with database aggregators) or in dealing on an author’s behalf with plagiarism, abuse of moral rights, protecting intellectual property or copyright infringement.
It is important however that we are at least granted exclusive rights because of the needs of the scholarly community for certainty in the scientific record. There is a requirement for a clear and unambiguous record of the scholarly or scientific process, with validated authentication of the final version of an article which has been edited, peer-reviewed and accepted in a journal which confers a recognized, legitimate status on an article. For these reasons we need these rights to assure the scholarly community that they are reading the genuine, final version.
STM Position Paper: Publishers seek copyright transfers (or transfers or licenses of exclusive rights) to ensure proper administration & enforcement of author rights
Taylor & Francis’ duties as a publisher
We agree:
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to defend your Article against plagiarism and copyright infringement, and to that end, Taylor & Francis shall take all reasonable steps to act against unauthorised replication of an article in part or in whole;
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to receive and to administer permissions and deal with licensing issues relating to an article;
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to maintain the integrity of an article such that it becomes ‘the sworn statement of science’, that is a definitive, citeable, permanent and secure record of an article, accessible in perpetuity;
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to ensure that the published version of an article carries an appropriate level of metadata tagging to facilitate discovery and logging by search engines;
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to ensure the safe archiving of an article and as required to ensure that a copy is deposited in any national archive deriving from the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003.
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to supply definitive information on how to cite your article in both print and online formats.
The rights that you retain as author
In assigning Taylor & Francis or the journal proprietor copyright, or granting an exclusive licence to publish, you retain:
The following exclusions require you to obtain written permission from Taylor & Francis:
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inclusion of an article in a course pack for onward sale by a third party e.g. the library of an author’s institution;
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distribution in print or electronic form by any third party such as a website, listserv, content aggregator, or conference organiser, with the exceptions specified above;
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distribution in print or electronic form to the commercial benefit of an author, an author’s institution or employer, or a third party.
Retrospective coverage
We are happy to extend all these provisions to the many thousands of authors who have signed copyright assignments and licences to publish in the past with Taylor & Francis or one of its constituent imprints, without the need to seek amendment to the previous agreements.
Note
If an Author is a UK Crown servant and an article is made in that capacity, an article must be submitted for clearance by the permanent Head of the Department concerned. If an author is a US Government employee and an article is made in that capacity, assignment applies only to the extent allowable by US law. In either case it is the responsibility of an author to make the necessary enquiries and arrangements.
