Rights and licences

Creative Commons

Creative commons is the most widespread licence form when it comes to making content freely available. The great advantage of creative commons (cc) is that the licence form can be combined from four elements and thus it is up to the user to determine what is allowed and what is not allowed with one's own publication. The CC-BY licence is recommended (among others by the SNSF). Further information can be found in the links below.

Publishing publications with a CC licence

Have you clarified the copyrights of all components of the work? Are all third-party contributions marked as such and correctly cited? Do all authors agree with the chosen licence?
These questions need to be clarified before you can publish with a creative commons licence.

Use of the work

Personal copyrights protect intellectual property. They are indispensable and non-transferable. The rights to use a work can be transferred to third parties, but this must be regulated by contract. There are two types of transfer of use:

• Exclusive right to use a work = third parties (e.g. publishers) are granted the exclusive right to use the work. The authors waive their own rights of use.
• Authorisation to use a work = permits the use of a work subject to temporal and spatial restrictions.

Publishers often claim the exclusive right to use the work. In doing so, authors are not allowed to pass on their own articles or books or share them with their scientific community. With an additional clause in the publishing contract authors can retain part of their own rights, for example in order to comply with Open Access requirements.

Support

• Contract-Addendum of SPARC
• Info page on OA legal issues
• Papago
  The Papago tool was developed by the Universities of Fribourg and Lausanne and helps members of Swiss universities find out more about their rights and obligations in regard to OA publications. 
• Open Access Check Tool (OACT)
  Made by the EPFL, the tool supports the Swiss academic community in deciding where and how to publish their articles.

Rights and duties of UAS members

Article 18 of the employment regulations of the University of Applied Sciences Graubünden states that employees grant the university the rights to use their products. This provision refers to all

• Compulsory works (example: teaching slides created as part of the teaching activity)
• Occasional works (arise within the framework of employment)
• Voluntary works (arise in connection with employment)

This does not apply to recreational works that have no relation to the work. If you want to publish your work, you must obtain permission from the university.

Responsibilities for the recovery of rights of use

• Prorectorate for Teaching / Theses
• Administrative Rectorate for Central Services Works
• Research management for scientific staff

The final decision-making authority lies with the university management.

Legal advice

Are you unsure whether you are allowed to second-publish one of your publications? Would you like to (partially) retain your Author's rights for your next publication? Or would you like to publish Open Access? The Competence Center of digital Law (CCdigitallaw) offers an extensive knowledge base and maintains the DMLawTool, which offers possible solutions to legal problems. Students and members of Swiss universities receive advice free of charge for small and simple cases.

If you have any questions, please contact the library.