Skip to Main Content

Copyright Management - Author Rights: Author Addendum

Why attach an Author Addendum?

When you sign a publisher agreement you transfer your copyright to the publisher.


This may limit or take away your ability to use your work in future endeavors, use your work in the classroom, and reproduce or distribute your work, except with publisher permission or when acting under fair use.


Before signing away all of your rights ask yourself:

  • Do I want to post my work on a class or personal website?
  • Do I want to deposit my work in an institutional repository or disciplinary archive?
  • Do I want to use my work in the classroom?
  • Do I want to distribute my work to students or colleagues?
  • Do I want to create future works (derivative works) based upon my current work?


If you answered yes to any of these questions you may consider attaching an author addendum to your publisher's copyright transfer agreement.



You can view a summary of the permissions given in specific publisher or journal copyright transfer agreements by searching the SHERPA/RoMEO Publisher Copyright Policies and Self-Archiving website.



If the copyright transfer agreement does not include terms that are acceptable (for example, the agreement does not allow self-archiving) you can attach an addendum to the agreement.



The Scholars Copyright Addendum engine creates four different versions to choose from (depending on your needs), including the SPARC addendum.