Ask Us: Scholarly Communications

Through this policy, UAlbany authors grant the University a nonexclusive license "to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, provided that the articles are not sold, and to authorize others to do the same." 

In copyright terminology, a license is a grant of permission to exercise your rights under copyright. When you give someone a nonexclusive license, you give the licensee permission to exercise the rights in question, but you also reserve the right to continue exercising these rights yourself and to authorize others to do so as well. 

Through the Policy, then, you have not given the University your copyright; you have simply granted the University permission to exercise your rights under copyright. You retain the copyright in your scholarly articles. And the permissions you have granted to UAlbany do not prevent you from granting permissions to others, including transferring your copyright to a publisher. 

In practice, you have given the University permission to reproduce, display, and distribute your articles as long as the articles are not sold, including permission to make open access versions of your articles available in UAlbany's institutional repository, Scholars Archive. The Policy also allows the University to authorize others to use the articles as long as the articles are not sold.