From the OAK Law Project: by Kylie Pappalardo (with the assistance of
Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Professor Anne Fitzgerald, Scott Kiel-
Chisholm, Jenny Georgiades and Anthony Austin):
Understanding Open Access in the Academic Environment: A Guide for
Authors aims to provide practical guidance for academic authors
interested in making their work more openly accessible to readers and
other researchers. The guide provides authors with an overview of the
concept of and rationale for open access to research outputs and how
they may be involved in its implementation and with what effect. In
doing so it considers the central role of copyright law and publishing
agreements in structuring an open access framework as well as the
increasing involvement of funders and academic institutions. The guide
also explains different methods available to authors for making their
outputs openly accessible, such as publishing in an open access
journal or depositing work into an open access repository.
Importantly, the guide addresses how open access goals can affect an
author’s relationship with their commercial publisher and provides
guidance on how to negotiate a proper allocation of copyright
interests between an author and publisher. A Copyright Toolkit is
provided to further assist authors in managing their copyright.