Module 1: Publisher Policies in Detail

Publisher Policies in Detail

The first place to begin researching whether your publisher will be open to publishing material from your thesis or dissertation - or whether they will allow you to use a previously published article in your ETD - is on their website. Most publishers will have specific policies on "authors rights," "copyright," "sharing," or "archiving" which will clue you in to how much control they assert over published materials.

How do I determine my publisher's policies? 

If you're having difficulty finding your publisher's policies on their website, a good thing to do is to check SHERPA/RoMEO Links to an external site. - a free resource that collects publisher policies. If they allow self-archiving of the appropriate version of the article, you're all set. We recommend confirming what you learn in SHERPA/RoMEO by clicking through on their links to check the publisher's website.

If the publisher doesn't have a policy explicitly allowing self-archiving or sharing, it's important that your editor be aware that your work is part of your ETD and will be openly available if it is not already. In most cases, editors are completely fine with an ETD being available online. In some cases, an editor may ask you to adjust your access levels so that open access is delayed.

Three versions of the article

Publishers think of articles in three stages, and assert more control over articles as they near publication. Your publisher's policies on sharing articles will probably vary for the following article versions, so pay close attention to what they say about each.

1. The version of the article an author submits to a journal is called the "pre-print," "submitted manuscript," or "author's original manuscript." Traditional journal publishers are less likely to be concerned about submitted manuscripts. Often, authors may continue to use and share them for a variety of purposes.

If you are submitting your thesis or dissertation to publishers, your ETD will therefore be considered this category - so pay special attention.

2. Once the peer review process is complete, an article is accepted for publication and you will be asked to sign an author's agreement. This finalized version is usually called the "accepted manuscript" or the "post print," but can sometimes (confusingly) also be called a "pre-print".

If you are using a previously published work in your thesis or dissertation, this version most closely represents what you will include in your thesis or dissertation, so pay special attention to how your publisher treats it. Publishers' policies for accepted manuscripts will likely be more strict than for the submitted manuscripts.

3. After final editing and formatting, the article is published in the journal. This version of the article might be called the "final published version" or "version of record". Traditional publishing agreements give publishers exclusive rights to the published versions of articles while allowing authors to use them in limited ways. 

Commercial vs. non-commercial uses

In addition to the different limits your publisher places on the three versions of the article, your publisher's policies may also differentiate between commercial and non-commercial uses. This is important to note, because your thesis or dissertation will end up in two places:

• ResearchWorks Links to an external site., which is UW's Institutional Repository and is a non-profit use, and
• ProQuest ETD Database Links to an external site., which is a commercial service.

If you have not kept your copyright and your publisher does not allow commercial use of your article, you will need to either get special permission to deposit your ETD or you will need to permanently embargo your work in ProQuest. Contact uwlib-etd@uw.edu if this is an issue for you, and we can help you figure out what your options are.

Traditional, Open, and Hybrid publishing

Some journals ask readers to pay to access articles - either through a subscription, or by paying for individual articles. A growing community has voiced concerns that this traditional model excludes many, many people who could benefit from the scholarship contained in journals, and so a new model where publishing is paid for either by the author or by some other funder is gaining ground. Open Access journals often ask author's to pay an article processing charge, which results in the article being available to everyone. However, some journals retain the traditional subscription model, but offer authors the opportunity to pay for their individual article to be made open. These hybrid journals will have different policies based on whether you have paid to make your article openly available, or whether it remains behind a paywall. Articles that are openly available - either through an open access journal or through a hybrid journal - usually have much more lenient policies apply to them.

Resources from this module

• Tool: Sherpa/Romeo Links to an external site.
• Guide: ETD Access Decisions
• Guide: Access Options for ETDs

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