Skip to Main Content

Copyright Information

An overview of issues common with copyright and the use of library information resources. Nothing in this guide is to be construed as legal advice.

Copyright Ownership and Registration

Copyright under the law immediately protects all "original work of authorship" that is "fixed in a tangible medium of expression." In this context, "original" means a minimal amount of creativity was used in its creation and "fixed in a tangible medium of expression" means that it is stable enough to be perceived or reproduced.

Works which fall under copyright law are automatically protected at the moment of creation without the need of further action. If you wish to challenge a copyright infringement in a court of law, however, it is often necessary to register your your work with the U.S. Copyright Office.

Copyright Owner Rights

Under U.S. copyright law, owners of copyrighted works (such as authors) have the right to:

  • Reproduce their copyrighted work
  • Prepare derivative works based on their copyrighted work
  • Distribute physical or digital copies of their copyrighted work
  • Perform all or some aspects of their copyrighted work (ex. a play)
  • Display the copyrighted work publicly
  • Transmit the work publicly (ex. an audio recording)

For information relating to your rights, how to register your copyright, and how to transfer your copyrights to another person, visit the links below

Open Access in Support of Copyright Ownership

Traditional publishing and academic journals often require authors to transfer and cede their copyright over original work, At that point of transfer, the author ceases to hold the rights of the copyright owner stated above.

Open access journals are an alternative to traditional publishing and remove all impediments to information for all levels of researchers. They also typically allow authors to retain their copyright in some form. Common features of open access initiatives include no expectation of payment for contributing scholars, free and full availability via the Internet for users to journals, and copyright constraint only in the retaining of integrity, acknowledgement, and citation to the work's author.

The Directory of Open Access Journals is a well known aggregator of free journals. It will only accept works that are peer-reviewed, have editorial quality, have a scholarly nature, and are serial in format.

For more information, please visit the Dykes Library Open Access guide linked below.

Funding Open Access Publication

All current KUMC faculty, staff, and students who have permissions to use library resources have access to the following waivers and discounts when publishing Open Access articles with the publishers below. These open access funding initiatives are made possible through joint agreements between KU Lawrence and KU Medical Center.

  • Cambridge University Press: KUMC corresponding authors whose manuscripts are accepted for publication during the 2025 agreement term will have their APCs waived in over 350 journals covered by the agreement. 
    • To take advantage of the fee waiver, please indicate your University of Kansas Medical Center affiliation on the article submission form, then opt-in to publish open access. 
    • More information is available at the Cambridge/KUMC agreement site.
  • Company of Biologists: KUMC corresponding authors whose manuscripts are accepted for publication during the 2023-2025 agreement term will have their APCs waived in the fully open access journals Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open and in the hybrid journals Development, Journal of Cell Science, and Journal of Experimental Biology. 
    • Accepted articles will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license.
    • Affiliation with KUMC is determined by the corresponding author’s email used at the point of submission.
    • There is no cap on the number of articles that may be published under this agreement.
  • Elsevier: KUMC corresponding authors whose manuscripts are accepted for publication during the 2023-2025 agreement term are eligible for: 
    • 10% discount on APCs for an unlimited number of articles published in eligible fully open access Elsevier journals. 
      • Multiple discounts may not be applied. If you receive another discount through a membership, the larger discount will be applied. 
    • Waived APCs for approximately 265 articles per year published in eligible hybrid Elsevier journals (see searchable list).
    • Cell Press, Lancet, and some society journals are excluded from this agreement. 
    • Accepted articles will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license.
    • More information is available at Elsevier's KU site. 
    • Check out our blog post discussing how the first 18 months of the agreement have gone. 

 

  • Institute of Physics (IOP): KUMC corresponding authors whose manuscripts are accepted for publication during the 2025-2026 agreement term will have their APCs waived in eligible journals. 
    • To determine journal eligibility, visit the Journal Finder site, click Select Institution, and type University of Kansas Medical Center. Eligible journals will display a 100% discounted APC and a note about KUMC's agreement. Screenshot of IOP journal eligible under KUMC's open access agreement.
    • Visit IOP's site for steps to submit an article.
  • MDPI: 10% discount on APCs via the MDPI Institutional Open Access Program for any manuscript where at least one author is affiliated with either KU Lawrence or KU Medical Center. Participation in this program is free to KU Libraries & Dykes Library.
  • PLOS - KUMC corresponding authors whose manuscripts are accepted for publication during the 2025-2026 agreement term will have their APCs waived in any PLOS journal.​​​​​
    • To take advantage of the fee waiver, please indicate your University of Kansas affiliation on the PLOS article submission form.
    • There is no cap on the number of articles that may be published under this agreement.
  • Sage: KUMC corresponding authors whose manuscripts are accepted for publication during the 2024-2026 agreement term are eligible for a 20% discount on APCs in fully open access Sage journals. More information, including a list of eligible titles, is available at the Sage/KU agreement site.

If you have questions, please email us at rsm@kumc.edu.