The American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Publications Division will begin rolling out a new publishing agreement in mid-October 2010 to expand and clarify author rights and responsibilities.
There are several key differences between the new journal publishing agreement and the old ACS Copyright Status Form:
The new agreement addresses what authors can do with the different versions of their manuscript – for instance, use in theses and collections, teaching and training, conference presentations, sharing with colleagues, and posting on websites and institutional repositories. The terms under which these uses can occur are clearly identified to prevent misunderstandings that could jeopardize final publication of a manuscript.
The new agreement also extends the key terms of use to an author’s previously
published works with ACS – as long as the same conditions of use are met.
The new author agreement also highlights two current ACS programs. The first is ACS AuthorChoice, which provides authors or their funding agencies the opportunity to sponsor immediate, unrestricted online access to their final published articles. The other is ACS Articles on Request, which permits free distribution of journal article reprints online via author-directed links provided to the author when their article is published online.
