Publishing and copyright

Copyright is the exclusive right of the creator to publish and reproduce his or her work. The rights to these two actions are also referred to as exploitation rights.

The Hague University of Applied Sciences exercises the copyright over all products that fulltime staff members create for The Hague University of Applied Sciences as part of their job. In this, The Hague University of Applied Sciences follows the applicable legislation and the Collective Labour Agreement for universities of applied sciences.

Staff members who have written research publications of which the copyright rests with The Hague University of Applied Sciences are authorised to grant a publication licence under certain conditions to third parties so that they are able to publish. This means that the author may choose the manner in which he or she publishes research results and may negotiate with publishers about the publication on behalf of The Hague University of Applied Sciences. The employee will, unless this is impossible due to legislation and regulations or other agreements or contracts, publish research publications in open access. This is to ensure that the publications can be freely used for teaching and research purposes.

Please read the publication policy of The Hague University of Applied Sciences for further conditions. Below is a list of various ways in which you can exert influence on copyright. Do you have doubts about copyright when publishing? Prevent publishers from having complete copyright over your work. Contact the THUAS library for support.

Open Access

Open Access is a broad international academic movement that strives for free online access to scientific information, such as research publications and data.

Open access publishing can generally be done in two ways:

  • Via the golden route: you publish your research publication via the publishers' platforms in a (partly or entirely) open access journal.
  • Via the green route: you publish your research publication in a closed journal (to which you, as a reader, must subscribe) and an (authorised) version of your publication (whether or not after an embargo period) becomes open access in a repository. This is a publicly accessible database of the research institution. At The Hague University of Applied Sciences, this means that you can publish in the HBO Knowledge Base.

Both routes may have charges or conditions attached, depending on the contract between the publisher and author, of which copyright is an important part. For more details visit the page publishing. 

Open Licences

A licence is a declaration by the copyright holder explaining what users may and may not do with a particular work. If traditional copyright law is maintained in publishing, where all rights are reserved for the copyright holder, open access publishing would not be possible. Open access journals therefore make use of Creative Commons licences.

These are open licences that create the situation where 'some rights are reserved' for the copyright holder, but other rights are not.

If you publish via the golden route, your publication will receive an open licence from the publisher. This open licence allows free use for educational and research purposes in all cases and therefore complies with the publication policy of The Hague University of Applied Sciences.

Creative Commons

Flexible copyright

Creative Commons provides a flexible application of copyright. From "all rights reserved" to "some rights reserved". Without a Creative Commons licence, everyone would have to ask the copyright holder explicitly for permission to use a work. With a Creative Commons licence, it becomes clear at once under which conditions a work may be used without having to obtain permission each time. You can read more about these licences on the Creative Commons website.

Six standard licences

The most extensive licence allows the user to do anything with the work as long as the original author is credited (CC-BY). But the user can also be restricted in what he or she can do with the work: not using it commercially (CC-BY-NC) or not making derivative works from it (CC-BY-ND). If derivative works are allowed, the user may be required to share the derivative work under the same licence as the original work (CC-BY-SA). Finally, combinations are possible: non-commercial use and equal sharing (CC-BY-NC-SA), non-commercial use and no derivative works (CC-BY-NC-ND).

Preservation of Rights

Most closed journals (to which you as a reader have to subscribe) use more conventional copyright licences and will ask you as an author to sign a copyright transfer agreement. This often means that the publisher determines how your research publication can be used. As an author, you may even have to ask the publisher for permission to use your own publication for educational and research purposes. The publication policy of The Hague University of Applied Sciences stipulates that this must be avoided. Some publishers already have a policy for open access publishing via the green route, ask for the conditions. So try to ensure that you retain certain rights when submitting a manuscript for publication.

Copyright is about the exclusive right to make a work public and to reproduce it. For example, being able to share your work with colleagues, publish your work as a chapter of a book, copy or upload it into the digital learning environment for your students to use, and so on. If copyright is transferred to a publisher, you as the author must ask the publisher for permission to use your work in this way. So try to make sure that you retain the following rights when you go to the publishers to have your work published:

  • Reuse of your work in another publication, e.g. reuse of your article in a book
  • Rewriting and adapting your work, for example you want to write a shorter version of your article in another language
  • Distributing your work to colleagues, thus complying with the publication policy of The Hague University of Applied Sciences that a publication can be freely used for research tasks
  • Copying your work for educational purposes; this complies with the publication policy of The Hague University of Applied Sciences that a publication may be freely used for educational purposes
  • Archiving an (authorised) version of your work in a repository, open access publishing via the green route will maximise the benefit and use of your publication. Some publishers already have a policy for open access publishing via the green route, ask for these conditions. 

Publishers Policies

Although publishers work with standard contracts that automatically transfer copyrights, fortunately there are methods to ensure that you can still use your publication effectively after it has been published. An increasing number of closed journals (to which readers must subscribe) allow open access publishing via the green route. The green route means that, under certain conditions, publishers offer authors the possibility of archiving a specific version of their research publication in an open access repository.

Books and Other Publications

"If I have my book published in open access, I won't sell anything anymore, will I?" is the opinion of many authors. Quite the contrary. People discover books on the internet, but prefer to read the paper version. By publishing your book in open access, more people can get to know it. This increases the willingness to buy. Discuss this with your publisher at an early stage. It is also best to retain certain rights to a book so that you do not have to ask permission from the publisher for every reuse of your book.

When contributing to a conference, congress or seminar, the organisation of the event acts as publisher. Check whether the policy of this organisation allows you to publish your contribution in the HBO Knowledge Base and under what conditions. This is especially relevant when your contribution is published in a proceeding.

Research publications published by The Hague University of Applied Sciences itself do not involve the transfer of copyright. These publications can therefore be included in the HBO Knowledge Base without any problems. Use an open licence such as a Creative Commons licence to reach a maximum readership and make it easy for your readers to reuse your work.

Multiple Authors

Research publications may also be co-written with authors who work for universities, other institutions or companies. Students (from The Hague University of Applied Sciences) can also contribute to research publications. In all these cases, the copyright does not lie solely with The Hague University of Applied Sciences. The publication policy prescribes that efforts must be made to make written agreements on open access with co-authors, institutions or companies and the publishers of these research publications prior to publication.

Useful External Websites