Journal Articles Publication: Rights and Responsibilities

Publication in an academic journal is a prestigious and academic event which carries with it many rights and responsibilities. The more you cover prior to submission the better chance you will have of having your journal article published. In light of the competitive environment of journal article publications, and some of the confusion surrounding copyright and author obligations, we offer the essential key points in terms of author responsibility and copyright information.

Your responsibilities as a Journal Article Author:

• Journal article authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works and if the authors have used the work or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted
• A journal article author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior
• Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source
• Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors.
• If the work described in the journal article involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript. If the work involves the use of animal or human subjects, the author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate approval was granted
• All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed
• When an author discovers an error in the published work he or she has an obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper

Your Rights as a Journal Article Author

• the right to make copies of your journal article for your own personal use, including for your own classroom teaching
• the right to use the journal article or any part thereof in a printed compilation of your works, such as collected writings or lecture notes
• the right to post a pre-print version of the journal article on Internet websites and to retain indefinitely those versions indefinitely
• the right to post a revised personal version of the text of the final journal article on your personal or institutional website or server for scholarly purposes and to incorporate the complete citation list
• the right to present the journal article at a meeting or conference and to distribute copies of the paper or article to delegates attending
• the right to copy and distribute the journal article to research colleagues, for personal use by them
• the right to prepare other derivative works to extend the journal article into book-length form
• the right to use the journal article for intra-company training
• patent and trademark rights and rights to any process or procedure described in the journal article
• the right to include the journal article, in full or in part, in a thesis or dissertation

Although some publishers will have some alterations to these conditions this is pretty standard fare for journal article publication.