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Authors of papers published in Rockefeller University Press journals - The Journal of Cell Biology, The Journal of Experimental Medicine and The Journal of General Physiology - will now retain copyright to their published work, according to a recent editorial published in the Journal of Cell Biology. Authors can now reuse their own work in any way, as long as they attribute it to the original publication. Third parties can use the published materials under a Creative Commons license, six months after publication.

Preying on authors' desire to publish, and thus their willingness to sign virtually any form placed in front of them, scientific publishers have reportedly required authors to sign over the copyright to their work before publication. Since July 2000, the Rockefeller University Press has allowed authors to freely distribute their published work by posting the final, formatted PDF version on their own websites immediately after publication.

With the growing demand for public access to published data, the Press recently started depositing all of its content in PubMed Central. In a further step to enhance the utility of scientific content, it has now decided to return copyright to authors. In return, however, authors will be required to make their work available for reuse by the public. Instead of relinquishing copyright, the authors will now provide the Press with a license to publish their work. This license places no restrictions on how authors can reuse their own work, it only require them to attribute the work to its original publication. Six months after publication, third parties can use the published material under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

The Creative Commons License will apply retroactively to all work published by The Rockefeller University Press before November 1, 2007. Authors who previously assigned their copyright to the Press are now granted the right to use their own work in any way they like, as long as they acknowledge the original publication.