Publishing and Digital Preservation

A list of current UGA Open Access publishing agreements is provided below. These agreements allow UGA authors to publish their articles open access at no additional cost. Click the link or contact us to learn more about the accepted types of publications and participating journals.

• American Chemical Society

Publishing Agreement: through December 2026

• Association for Computing Machinery

Publishing Agreement: through July 31, 2028

• Cambridge University Read & Publish

Publishing Agreement: through December 31, 2024

• Company of Biologists

Publishing Agreement: through December 2026

• Institute of Physics (IOP)

Publishing Agreement: through December 2026

• The Royal Society of Chemistry

Publishing Agreement: through December 31, 2024

• Wiley Read & Publish

Publishing Agreement through: from January 1, 2024 onwards

Below is a list of the open access agreements between the UGA Libraries and publishers that offer UGA authors discounts towards their article processing charges.

• BioMedCentral

Publishing Agreement: not available

Discount: UGA authors receive 15% discount toward their Article Processing Charge (APC) for their accepted manuscript in a BioMedCentral journal

• MDPI

Publishing Agreement: through August 31, 2025

Discount: UGA authors receive a 10% discount toward their APC to publish their accepted manuscripts in an MDPI journal

Open access publishing is often still possible without an existing institutional publisher agreement. When your publication is accepted, you will sign an agreement with your publisher. This is your chance to negotiate the terms that meet the needs of your research. For example, if you would like to put a copy of your publication in a repository for wider accessibility and the agreement does not allow for that, you can negotiate the contract with the publisher.

The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) has created this resource to help you draft a contract addendum and attach it to your agreement.

How do I know I'm publishing in a quality journal?

When it comes to publishing your work, evaluating the quality of the journals is essential, regardless of them being Open Access or not. For that, it's important to be aware of different quality indicators and available tools to make sure that you find the best journal for your work. Consider the aspects below compiled by the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) when assessing an open access publisher. Click here for a full list with detailed explanations. 

1. Peer review process

2. Editorial team/contact for information

3. Author fees

4. Copyright

5. Journal's website 

6. Direct marketing

Identifying Quality Journals

Check out the resources below if you're in doubt about the reliability of a journal or publisher. You can also consult the DOAJ database to verify a journal's reputation.

• Beall's List of Potential Predatory Journals and Publishers 

• Predatory Reports

• The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker

Quality Open Access Journal Resources

Think Check Submit: Identify Trusted Publishers for Your Research (OASPA)

• Sherpa Romeo

Sherpa Romeo is an online resource that aggregates and analyses publisher open access policies from around the world and provides summaries of publisher copyright and open access archiving policies on a journal-by-journal basis.

• SPARC Author Rights

SPARC resource designed to help authors develop a contract addendum to attach to their publishing agreements.

A copy of the current author agreement template is pasted below:

ScholarWorksUGA Author Deposit Agreement 

I hereby grant to the University of Georgia (UGA) a non-exclusive, noncommercial perpetual license to store, reproduce, display, and distribute my submitted work (Work) for unrestricted uses by the University to promote scholarship and learning. 

These uses include but are not limited to publicly display the Work, maintain and preserve the Work according to UGA Libraries policies and procedures, reproduce the Work for researchers in or outside of UGA to support noncommercial scholarship and learning, and reproduce the Work for web-based digital collections.  

UGA may retain and make copies of the Work in its original format and migrate it to new electronic or other formats as appropriate, in current or future formats, for the purposes of preservation, access, and security. UGA may not alter the content of the Work. 

A University of Georgia faculty or student author submitting their work into ScholarWorksUGA retains copyright in that Work, in accordance with University of Georgia Intellectual Property Policy (https://research.uga.edu/documents/intellectual-property/) 

REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES 

 I represent and warrant to UGA the following: 

I am the original creator of the Work and retain my full copyrights in the Work, or I have permission from the original creator of the Work to submit it by proxy. 

The Work is original and does not infringe upon the copyrights of others, does not contain any libelous content, and does not invade any privacy or confidentiality of third parties.  

In the case of any legitimate third-party interest in the Work, I have obtained and can show its written permission to make further uses of the Work.  

DISCRETIONARY AUTHORITY 

UGA may remove or disable the Work if it finds that I have breached any of my above representations or warranties, or, for any reason and at any time the University determines as necessary.  

SIGNATURE 

By depositing Work into ScholarWorksUGA, I represent and warrant that I have read and agree to the terms of this Agreement. 

Mission 

ScholarWorksUGA showcases and preserves scholarly, creative, and other works unique to the UGA community. The UGA Libraries manage ScholarWorksUGA and are a partner in the state-wide GALILEO Knowledge Repository. 

Content 

ScholarWorksUGA collects unique scholarly content produced by the University of Georgia community. Our current collection includes UGA theses and dissertations dating back to 1999 and a growing collection of research papers from campus institutes and departments. ScholarWorksUGA accommodates both born-digital materials and items that have been converted to digital, including text, images, audio, video, 3D data, and will add other formats as they become relevant in the future.

We invite submissions for the following types of scholarly and creative works, to name a few, by the UGA campus community into ScholarWorksUGA: 

• Peer-reviewed publications (journal articles or book chapters) 

• Research materials 

• Conference papers 

• Research posters 

• Music scores 

• Performances 

• Capstone projects 

Roles and Responsibilities 

ScholarWorksUGA accepts, stores, and provides access to materials in compliance with U.S. Copyright Law, Title 17 United States Code, and other laws governing privacy and intellectual property. 

To deposit their works in ScholarWorksUGA, contributors must be members of the UGA academic community and grant the University a nonexclusive, perpetual license to accept their work, archive it in whatever current or future format determined to be appropriate, and display the work on a royalty-free basis. 

Depositing work in ScholarWorksUGA requires that the author consent to the  ScholarWorksUGA Author Deposit Agreement.  Anyone depositing work in ScholarWorksUGA affirms that they have the right to deposit a digital copy of the work, and that making the work available through  ScholarWorksUGA does not violate any other party's intellectual property, privacy, or other proprietary right. Prior to making a deposit, it is recommended that contributors consult the Intellectual Property Policy of the University of Georgia per the Office of the Vice President for Research. It is also highly recommended that contributors learn about their rights and responsibilities with third parties such as funding agencies and publishers before submitting their works in ScholarWorksUGA. A University of Georgia faculty or student author submitting their work into  ScholarWorksUGA retains copyright in that Work, in accordance with University of Georgia Intellectual Property Policy (https://research.uga.edu/documents/intellectual-property/) 

Access 

ScholarWorksUGA is intended to serve as permanent archive of submitted material in Open Access format, except those theses and dissertations under embargo with permission from The Graduate School. Works in ScholarWorksUGA will be made openly accessible via the Internet. 

Removal of Content 

For electronic thesis and dissertation, please contact the graduate school.

For all other requests to remove materials from ScholarWorksUGA please contact us!

The law carves out a set of exceptions to owner rights that allow the public to use works while they are under copyright protection. These are the exceptions:

• Section 107         Fair Use

• Section 108         Library copying and ILL

• Section 109(a)    First sale

• Section 110(1)    Display and perform works in f2f classroom teaching

• Section 110(2)    Display and perform works in distance learning 

• Section 121         Special formats for the blind or otherwise disabled

Title 17 Section 106 U.S. Copyright Law gives authors the following set of rights for a time-limited duration

§ 106 . Exclusive rights in copyrighted works38

Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:

• Reproduce

• Distribute

• Create derivative works 

• Display work publicly

• Perform work publicly

• Perform work publicly by digital audio transmission (sound recordings)

Criteria for copyright protection in the United States must meet the following conditions, and is easier to obtain relative to copyright protection in other countries. Upon fixing a work in a tangible medium of expression, the law confers authorip status as your work must be:

• Minimally Creative

• Original

• Fixed in a tangible medium

Copyright formality (registering with the Copyright Office)

• © Notice & registration was dropped for works published after 

• March 1, 1989 – they receive automatic copyright protection

Registration with the US Copyright Office is not necessary for copyright protection, but gives a stronger case if filing an infringement case is anticipated

Copyright protection subsists, in accordance with this title, in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Works of authorship include the following categories:

1. literary works

2. musical works, including any accompanying words

3. dramatic works, including any accompanying music

4. pantomimes and choreographic works

5. pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works

6. motion pictures and other audiovisual works

7. sound recordings

8. architectural works

Copyright law does not protect s such as facts, ideas, raw data. Section 102 of the Copyright Law provides a detailed list of things that copyright does not protect:

§ 102  (b)

In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.

How long does copyright protection last?

The general rule (there are many exceptions): life time of the author + 70 years (US works, published or unpublished).

General Copyright Resources

• Timeline of Copyright in the U.S. (Association of Research Libraries)

• United States Copyright Office

• University Copyright Office, Purdue University

• Know your Copyrights

• Seeking copyright status and permissions (from Copyright Advisory Office, Columbia University)

• ARL Code of Best Practices in Fair Use For Academic and Research Libraries

UGA Copyright Resources

• Fair Use in the classroom

• University System of Georgia Copyright Policy

• UGA Office of Legal Affairs

• UGA System Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Policy