Publishing agreements

Authorship

Aalto University is committed to the goal of the the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (TENK), according to which:

1. the principles of authorship are discussed at the planning stage of the research project
2. the authorship has been agreed upon at the latest before the manuscript is submitted for publication.

The Authorship and explanation of responsibilites related to scientific publications provides a tool to prevent disputes regarding authorship.

The Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (TENK): Agreeing on authorship. Recommendation for research publications Aalto University guidelines for agreeing on authorship

Publishing agreements

In publishing agreement it is agreed on how the publisher, researcher and the university of the researcher may use the publication, e.g. whether the researcher is allowed to self-archive the article to the institutional repository of the university and which version is allowed to be deposited. Self-archiving to a commercial service such as ResearchGate is often prohibited. Licenses for open access publishing are also often agreed upon in the publishing agreement.

In accordance with Aalto University's copyright policy, the researcher signs a publishing agreement as the copyright owner. The publishing agreements should be archived. They tell you how you can use the publication.

Read more about Creative Commons Open Content Licenses

Compliance with the requirements of the funder in  publishing agreements

In externally funded research projects, copyright ownership of all project results is transferred to Aalto University in accordance with Annex 1 of the employment contract. For scientific publications resulting from such projects, Aalto University is responsible for ensuring compliance with the funder's open science and open access publishing requirements. In accordance with its copyright policy, Aalto University transfers the signing of publishing agreements to the researcher, provided that the agreement complies with the funder’s requirements.

Please check your funders' open science requirements before signing the publishing agreement. For example, the funder may have requirements related to immediate open access publishing and licenses.

Funders' open science requirements

Publishing agreement and self-archiving

Publishers determine which version of a publication may be deposited in an institutional repository (ACRIS/Aaltodoc at Aalto University) and whether an embargo period applies. 

1. If the article is published as an open access publication under an open license (e.g. Creative Commons), the final published version can be self-archived. 
2. If the article is published behind a paywall, typically the permitted version is the peer-reviewed manuscript (Author Accepted Manuscript, AAM)- the final peer-reviewed manuscript that includes revisions from the review process but does not contain the publisher’s layout, logo, or pagination. 
   • Aalto University prior licence model (Rights Retention Strategy, RRS) secures researcher's right to self-archive their peer-reviewed manuscript in Aalto University’s publication repository and ensure immediate open access, regardless of any restrictions set by the publisher.

You can check the default self-archiving policies of well-known, international publishers on Open Policy Finder. 

Self-archiving

Copyright and social media

Copyright applies also to sharing the original publications via social media networks (ResearchGate, Academia.edu, Mendeley). The researchers must take  copyright issues into account when sharing publications through these platforms. The persistent availability of publications is not guaranteed in networking sites. "How can I share it?" is an online service where you can find information on which version of the publication you can share e.g. in social media. However, not all publishers are included in the service.

How can I share it?

Support

For help, please contact acris@aalto.fi.