InternationalPsychoanalysis.net assumes the role of publisher only in the sense that via the web site works by various individuals are distributed and/or made public. InternationalPyschoanalysis.net does not pay any authors nor does it seek to obtain the copyright on individual works by authors who choose to submit said works for display.
Some journals demand to own what they publish, but such a demand cannot be assumed, must be agreed upon between the parties, and should be in writing. Until recently, academic authors were more often driven by a publish-or-perish imperative than by money. Believing that there was little they could do with the piece once published in a journal or magazine, they seldom asserted their rights and publishers assumed full advantage. Today, with the internet and other resources at the disposal of individuals, the stakes have changed and it is in the best interests of the writers to know more about their options.
InternationalPsychoanalysis.net believes that it is an author’s responsibility to be aware of his/her own status with regards to the ownership of rights to their works. To assist authors in determining the status of their rights, we offer the following guidelines with the caveat that we are not proffering legal advice, merely passing along information that is available from a variety of public resources.
- Exclusive rights enumerated in the Copyright Act are the rights to (1) reproduce the work, (2) prepare derivative works, (3) distribute the work, (4) perform the work publicly, (5) display the work publicly (including by means of digital audio transmission)
- If an author submits a work for ‘publication’ on InternationalPsychoanalysis.net that has previously been published, the contract between the author and that publisher should spell out the rights granted. If the author does not have a written agreement, or if the terms of submission are not published in the publication in question (i.e. publicly made known), the presumption is that the author has granted only non-exclusive Serial Rights, usually limited by time and region (First North-American, for example). Because the right to publish that one time only is non-exclusive, the author is then free to grant other non-exclusive publication rights, be they secondary, reprint, derivative, or others. [Derivative works include "abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted."]
- A work made for hire is a work in which the author does not own the copyright. In order for the work of a freelancer (independent contractor) be considered a “work made for hire” there must be a written agreement between publisher and author explicitly stating it to be so. If an author did not agree in writing to provide a work for hire, then that author has not given up his/her copyright. Click here to view official definitions of derivative, work-for-hire and other terms.
- The notice of copyright that appears on newspapers, magazines and journals applies to the publication as a whole, a collective work, not the individual pieces therein. [Copyright law definition: "A “collective work” is a work, such as a periodical issue, anthology, or encyclopedia, in which a number of contributions, constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole."] Click here to view the Basics as posted by the Copyright Office
If an author wishes to post a previously published work, or one that has been publicly presented elsewhere, they must provide the full citation(s), preferably using American Psychological Association format. They must also provide the name and contact information for the editor. InternationalPsychoanalysis.net will then contact that editor as a matter of courtesy to advise them that the author is granting secondary or other non-exclusive rights and that the piece will be posted with an informational reference noting the prior publication at the end of the work. While this contact with the editor should not be construed as a request for permission, it will give the original publisher the opportunity to notify us if they believe the author to be mistaken about the rights granted or retained. If an author does not provide this information, InternationalPsychoanalysis.net (including its editor-in-chief, webmaster, and Internet host) will assume that the work has never before been published or presented in public and will be held harmless if this is not the case.
