COAPI Copyright Working Group community call on the effective use of SPARC Author Addendum 

Developed by SPARC in partnership with Creative Commons and Science Commons, Author Addendum is a legal instrument that modifies the publisher’s agreement and allows you to keep key rights to published articles. Many institutions, including ones with Open Access (OA) Policy, encourage authors to use the SPARC Author Addendum to advocate for themselves in their relationship with their publisher, and to revolutionize the scholarly communication system potentially.

However, in reality, both libraries and authors are facing some challenges in promoting the Author Addendum and the use of it. Some authors don’t want to do an extra step as they feel the author rights granted back to them in the publishing agreement are sufficient. Some tried the addendum but didn’t succeed in the attempt. So they stop using it as it’s not an effective tool for them. Some just don’t want to bother.  Some find it impossible to attach the Author Addendum to the publishing agreement within the publishing workflow system that publisher is using. For some authors at institutions with an OA policy, they think the addendum is duplicating the effort as the OA policy already grants the university the rights (automatically). 

The COAPI Copyright Working Group would like to organize a community call to discuss the practices in encouraging the use of the Author Addendum. Our goal is to examine the current practices across institutions, to identify the best practice, and to develop tools and/or language recommendations that would help clear confusions and improve the practice. 

During the community call, topics could include but are not limited to:

Practices:

• What is your practice in recommending the use of the Author Addendum?
• What is your observation or experience of the use of the Author Addendum by your authors at your institution? How effective do you think it is based on your observation or experience?
• What will be the effective way to promote the Author Addendum? 

Author Addendum and OA Policy:

• Do you think the Author Addendum is duplicating the effort of OA policy? 
• What is your understanding of the term “Acknowledgment of Prior License Grants” in the addendum? If a publisher doesn’t sign off the Author Addendum or authors simply just don’t attach it to the publishing agreement when publishing, where do you think the institutional OA Policy stands (the prior license would still survive)?
• What is your practice in recommending the use of the Author Addendum if your institution already has  an OA policy? What language do you use (on your website)?