Rights and Reuse

  1. Open Access Kent State
  2. Rights and Reuse
Materials made available through OAKS have been evaluated for copyright and licensing before being made accessible and published online. 

 

OAKS includes:

  • Materials in the Public Domain

  • Materials for which Kent State University owns the copyright

  • Materials licensed under an appropriate Creative Commons license

  • Materials for which Kent State University has permission to make accessible

  • Materials made accessible under Fair Use principles

 

Evaluation of Full-Text Articles for inclusion in OAKS

Lists of publications submitted by KSU faculty researchers to OAKS for inclusion are evaluated using a combination of any available Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) signed by the researcher or SHERPA/RoMEO. SHERPA/RoMEO is “an online resource that aggregates and analyses publisher open access policies from around the world and provides summaries of self-archiving permissions and conditions of rights given to authors on a journal-by-journal basis.” In cases in which SHERPA/RoMEO’s information is absent or out-of-date, publishers’ web sites are consulted. 

If permissible, publishers’ final versions or PDFs of articles will be uploaded to OAKS. Sometimes, the publisher will allow either pre-prints or a post-prints, but not final PDFs. Generally speaking, pre-prints are full drafts of research articles before peer review. Post-prints are drafts of research articles after peer-review has been incorporated. Pre-prints and post-prints can present challenges because authors frequently discard them, thinking they are no longer needed. KSU authors are encouraged to hang on to pre-prints, post-prints, and CTAs for purposes of making their research available through OAKS.

When possible, permanent URLs to commercial websites or aggregators are included in our records. Individuals may or may not be able to access them, depending on institutional affiliation. 

 

The Colors of Open Access (OA)

OA is frequently defined with a color code that designates the level and type of archiving and access. These color codes sometimes have different definitions. Generally speaking, they are as follows:

Green OA - This type of OA allows authors to self-archive their journal articles by sharing them on their own website, in their institution's IR, or in a public archive. Typically, journals allow post-prints to be archived but not publishers’ final vesions or PDFs.

Gold OA  - This type of OA includes articles that are published in OA journals. This means that the journal’s articles will be hosted and published free of charge. Articles are freely available to readers.

Hybrid OA - Some commercial journals offer OA, but they have publication fees that are required to be paid by authors or authors’ institutions to cover publication costs. Articles are freely available to readers.

 

https://oaks.kent.edu/rights.html