Retaining Your Copyright

Your Copyright and Dal

Who owns the copyright in the works I create at Dalhousie?

The University has special arrangements with faculty relating to copyright ownership and use which are set out in Article 23 of the DFA collective agreement. Under this article, faculty, with certain exceptions, will generally own the copyright in works they create through teaching and research. For specific details consult the DFA collective agreement.

What are Economic Rights?

Economic rights are held by the owner of the copyright and include the right to produce, reproduce, present, communicate, publish, or authorize works depending on the type of work and to benefit financially from the work.

Economic rights can be licensed (temporarily) or assigned (permanently) to another entity.

What are Moral Rights?

Different from economic rights, the creator of a copyrighted work is entitled to moral rights, which include the right of paternity (to claim authorship, remain anonymous or adopt a pseudonym); the right of integrity (to prevent distortion, modification or mutilation of your work); and the right of association (to control activities associated with your work). 

Even if a creator has assigned his or her copyrights in a work to another entity, the creator would continue to maintain the moral rights to the work. Moral rights can be waived or bequeathed but cannot be assigned.

Your Copyright and Publishing

There is a growing movement amongst academic staff to make a more concerted effort when submitting materials to publishing houses for publication, to retain all or most of their copyright in the material.

Why is that important?

By retaining all or more of your rights as an author you facilitate scholarly communication, autonomy,  integrity and academic freedom and research, and education opportunities and activities.

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has produced an information bulletin on the importance and benefits to retaining copyright to your published materials.

How Do I Retain Rights?

Canadian Author Addendum to Publication Agreement

A key resource for retaining copyright is the Canadian Author Addendum to Publication Agreement, created by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL), based on the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) Author Addendum.

CARL also offers a guide on author rights and use of the Author Addendum, providing insight into the broader context of copyright and ownership of scholarly works, at every stage of the publication lifecycle.

Navigating Publishing Agreements

The University of Alberta Libraries has created the short video below, discussing academic publishing agreements and copyright.

Scholarly Communication and Dalhousie Libraries

Dalhousie Libraries support the scholarly communication of scholars and students at the University by providing access to resources through the Libraries website and catalogue and by offering a growing range of services such as an institutional repository (DalSpace), online journal systems, and faculty research profiles available in DalSpace.

For complete information on these initiatives please visit the Scholarly Communication webpage.