Check SHERPA/RoMEO for a breakdown of most publication agreements (copyright transfer agreements) prior to submitting your work.
A publication agreemetn is negotiable! You can retain the right to make your work openly available through an institutional repository or personal website by attaching this addendum (PDF).
Most OA journals do not require you to transfer copyright to the publisher. Instead, they request a permission to publish your work and the rights reside with you.
The ARL Scholarly Communication Toolkit is a great place to start.
As the author of a work, you hold the copyright to that work, unless you transfer it to another entity. Most traditional journals require authors to transfer their copyright, by signing a copyright transfer agreement, to the publisher as a condition of publication. At this point, the author ceases to own copyright on the work that he or she created. This means that authors may surrender their rights to share their work openly on personal websites, etc.
The copyrights for Clemson University authors are affected by Clemson's Intellectual Property(IP) policy. See more information about this in the CURF webpage. Authors do have options available to them to ensure that they retain sufficient rights to make some version of their work openly available online. Learn more about Author's rights (PDF)
Journals usually offer authors Creative Commons different license options which will allow them to retain their rights and define the use of their scholarly work under certain rules. Choosing a CC license while submitting your article will make it easier for the others to re-use and distribute and build on it.
Click on each type to learn more these licenses. CC-BY , CC-BY-SA , CC BY-NC , CC BY-NC-SA , CC BY-ND.
Source: Creative Commons. About CC licenses. In Share your work. Accessed 8/22/2025. Creative Commons. https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/