Re: Author copyright issue (SLEEP)

[Sandy Thatcher <sandy.thatcher@alumni.princeton.edu>]

I would say that, in general, no journal publisher that had to 
recover costs from sales (so not including OA publishers) would 
willingly accept only a nonexclusive transfer of rights because, 
without exclusive rights, the publisher would have no standing to 
sue to protect its investment in its journals.

I would add that most publishers do not want to deal with a 
stream of requests to alter their contracts, but prefer to handle 
such matters as Green OA either by incorporating a reference in 
the contract offered to the author or by posting a blanket policy 
on their web sites.

Sandy Thatcher


>Hello,
>
>The UCLA Library is working with a faculty member here who has 
>submitted an article to the journal Sleep.  We advised the 
>author to modify the author's agreement, using the SPARC 
>author's addendum, to retain copyright. The author received a 
>reply from Sleep, which rejected the change, stating "I have 
>never heard of any journal doing this.  Sleep would not publish 
>any paper it does not hold copyright to."
>
>We're curious to know if anyone on the list has negotiated with 
>Sleep in the past and what their experiences have been.  Thanks 
>for any input you can give us.
>
>Andy Stancliffe
>Digital Acquisitions Coordinator
>UCLA Library