Introduction

In previous chapters, we covered one of the basic truths that governs traditional scholarly publishing: in many cases, publishers, not researchers, own the rights to a final published scholarly manuscript.

This chapter covers what it means to “own” the rights to ideas, writing, images, etc. (copyright) and how that legal structure impacts a crucial library service, interlibrary loan. This information will help you understand why an important library function exists. It may also help inform where and how you publish your own work in the future.

What is Copyright?

In the modern US, you don’t need to register anything with the government to have copyright over your own work. You automatically have it once you record your idea in a fixed form.

This concept can be tricky to think about when comparing ownership of ideas versus ownership of physical things. If you have a loaf of bread and give it away, you no longer have the bread. Afterwards, the other person can do what they like with the bread. But, if you write a poem about bread and share it, you still have the poem (and, they do too). Copyright is intended to ensure that you still “own” the rights to your poem even if you, for example, share it online. It would be illegal for someone else to print copies of your poem and sell those – even if they found the text online, they don’t own the copyright for your poem. It is your intellectual property.

Copyright and Academic Research

Copyright becomes trickier when you go through a publisher to share your work. Until they publish it, researchers retain copyright for their manuscripts (with some exceptions – sometimes, their employer considers it “work for hire,” and the employer instead retains copyright).

In the traditional publishing model, authors rarely get to keep their copyright if they want to get their work published. Instead, they transfer the rights to their work to the publisher in a Copyright Transfer Agreement. The publisher now has the right to replicate, edit, and disseminate that research. That is how the publisher continues to make money from research rather than the original authors. The manuscript is now the intellectual property of the publisher, rather than the researchers. The publisher holds the copyright.

Why would researchers give up their copyright?

In short, they have to in order to advance their careers. Publishing scholarship is a requirement for tenure at pretty much any institution. Right now, publishers offer the main avenue through which academics’ work can be disseminated to their colleagues and help them become recognized as reputable scholars in their field.

Licensing

Licensing is the legal tool used to define exactly how a copyrighted article can, or can’t, be used by others. It is also the mechanism by which libraries gain access to scholarly material through a publisher, especially for digital works. When purchasing a license (for example, for an eBook), libraries are told the rules they must follow when providing access to their patrons. These rules could include how many people can access it and under what conditions (e.g., How many people can read it at once? Does the patron have to physically be on campus? Is access limited to a particular group of faculty/students?) as well as whether the library can share that item with other libraries via interlibrary loan. Any use outside the paid license could be a violation of the publisher’s copyright.

Interlibrary Loan

We have already established that most articles have paywalls that prevent people from accessing them on the open web. By using a library search tool and logging in with your university credentials, you gain access to materials that your library has licensed from academic publishers. When you use interlibrary loan to get something, you are experiencing an escape hatch built into the legal framework to balance the restrictive nature of the economics of research. It is an extremely important (and sometimes underutilized) service that allows you to read materials even if your library has not purchased or licensed them.

If publishers own most copyrights, how can libraries send articles to each other without paying?

ILL is a right built into copyright law. Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act allows libraries to make and share copies of works for non-commercial, educational purposes. It is a provision that ensures knowledge isn’t locked away because a single library can’t afford it. When a researcher uses ILL, they are participating in a century-old tradition of library collaboration that, like open access, is operating in opposition to the idea that access to knowledge should be determined by what you can afford to pay.

Interlibrary Loan at UMSL

There is no charge to place interlibrary loan (ILL) requests at UMSL. There are two main ways to place requests:

1. Clicking a “Request this Item through Interlibrary Loan” button you see in a library search tool. Using this button auto-fills a request form that is processed by our ILL staff.
2. Manually completing an ILL request form. Make sure to select which type of resource you need using the tabs at the top of the form.

Important: Just like managing budgets and handling complicated purchase/licensing agreements, ILL is an important library service that often happens behind the scenes. It requires staff, funding, software, and materials to function properly.