The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has released 'PubMed Central Deposit and Author Rights: Agreements between 12 Publishers and the Authors Subject to the NIH Public Access Policy,' by Ben Grillot, legal intern for ARL. The report is currently available for free download from the ARL website at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/grillot-pubmed.pdf.
To help authors make informed choices about their rights, Grillot compared how the agreements of 12 publishers permit authors to meet the requirements of the recently revised National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy and share their works while they are under embargo. The NIH Public Access Policy requires authors of NIH-funded research to deposit their works in PubMed Central and make them publicly available within 12 months of publication.
Grillot focuses his analysis on how the agreements differ in terms and procedures of deposit of the work, the length of any embargo period, and the rights of the author to use and share the work during the embargo period. Summary tables clearly show the similarities and differences across agreements. He also analyses the implications of these agreements.
Grillot concludes that the significant variability in publisher agreements requires authors with NIH funding to closely examine publisher agreements and the rights granted and retained when deciding where to publish their research. This analysis is expected to help authors determine what to look for in an agreement and what questions to ask before signing.
