SPARC succinctly explains what author rights are: “When you decide to publish an article in a peer-reviewed journal, you own the full copyrights to that article. If you publish in an open access journal, you retain your full copyrights. However, if you choose to publish in a traditional subscription access journal, you will be required to sign a form transferring some – or all – of your copyrights to that publisher.”
An important part of the Open Access movement is the understanding that, as an author, you have rights to the work that you are creating. When an author publishes in an OA journal, they will generally retain the full rights to the article. These rights can include:
For more information, check out these additional readings and resources for authors’ rights: