Ask Us: Scholarly Communications

No. The nonexclusive license granted to UAlbany under the Policy is not an assignment or transfer of copyright. It is simply permission from you, as the copyright holder, to make certain uses of your scholarly articles. You as the author still retain ownership and complete control of the copyright in your articles, subject only to this prior permission. You can exercise your copyrights in any way you see fit, including transferring them to a publisher if you so desire. However, if you do so, UAlbany retains the right to distribute your articles from Scholars Archive and to exercise other rights under copyright, including reproducing, displaying, and distributing the articles, as long as the articles are not sold.

Licensing this broad set of rights to the University essentially allows UAlbany authors to retain their rights in copyright, since the University can grant these rights back to them. The Policy is, in effect, a strategy for UAlbany authors to use the University to help them retain their rights.