Slashdot Mirror
Nature lets authors keep copyright
oever writes "In the latest issue of Nature, it says that the copyright for all articles published by the Nature Publishing Group will remain with the article's authors. (I guess I'll have to publish in Nature from now on.) However, to publish an article in Nature, you still have to agree on some limitations with respect to publishing the article in other media. For example, you can put a PDF on you webpage but it's not allowed to add the article to an archive (Google cache?)."
No - it is SEVERELY encumbered. The very first paragraph of the license basically says "You give us the exclusive right for any existing or future paper, electronic, or undiscovered forms of distribution of this article until the copyright expires. Oh yeah - ditto for all derivative works (translations, summaries, etc)."
The second para then says, "But you can print it on paper or post it on your own website or use it in teaching at your university."
And this is different from giving Nature the copyright and them then granting the original author an extremely restricted license exactly how?
This smells more like Nature is scared that someone is going to figure out a way to say "Nature - you don't own the electronic rights on papers published in your magazine - and never did. Too Bad." Something like the LEXUS-NEXUS fiasco where the courts held that LEXUS-NEXUS has improperly stolen authors works by redistributing them electronically beyond the original paper publication. And so they have come up with a creative way of trying to put contract law on their side while still spinning it as "We are good guys! Really!"
When a page goes away, it expires from the google cache some finite period of time afterward. It's not an archive, it's a cache.
Also on a related issue most of these open journals still have not managed to get the kind of image among normal researchers, students etc necessary. Other then the obvious image of being able to say you had an article published in Nature/whatever, there is also the issue of popularity. Many students etc are far less likely to find your article if it's in one of these open journals. Furthermore, many are less likely to trust the content. And it usually isn't just the student's loss. I things will eventually change, but it's not going to happen overnight. What you must realise is the reason people usually trust the journals is because they can be trusted. This doesn't mean that the open journals can't be trust, just that they don't yet have enough history/background. Having a good article will help but of course, most people will still want to publish their good articles in well regarded and well read journals.