Clause 04

This creator-friendly clause is aimed at everyone, but especially academic authors.

Green thumbs-up

This clause’s language is generous to authors; it is creator-friendly.

CLAUSE TEXT:

The copyright in the Article shall remain with you, and nothing in this Agreement shall be construed as an assignment of copyright ownership to the [journal publisher]. Except as otherwise provided in this Agreement, all rights in the Article under the Copyright Act of 1976 belong to you.

EXPLANATION:

This is a contract for publication of an article in a scholarly journal (law review). The author retains the copyright in the work; the publisher receives only those rights spelled out in the agreement. Anything not specifically granted stays with the author. The actual extent of author-friendliness will depend on what rights the author specifically grants.