37. Author rights in the system of international scientific publications

Author rights of scientific publications' authors are defended by laws about author right. The objects of author right - are creations of science, literature and art independently on achievements and assignment of the creations, and the way they are expressed. The subjects of author right, that is persons possessing the unique rights for creation, are, first of all, the authors of the creation. Laws about the author right defend as non-property rights, that is right to be the author of the creation, and also property rights, that is right for reproduction, distribution, demonstration and sale of the creation.

The property right is called copyright. ("Copyright is the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, and sell the matter and form of a literary, musical, or artistic work", Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam Company, Publishers).

Strictly speaking, the copyright is a sign ©, which is placed in the output data of the issue as the pointer for right of the owner, protective sign. Non-property rights are often unalienable that is they cannot be passed to another persons and they act unlimited. Property rights act during the time defined by the law and can be passed to other persons (in the last case the owner of the creation that is the owner of the copyright becomes another person). After this period the creation becomes the public domain. A creation, defended by the copyright, and it's any part cannot be used without permission of the owner that is the owner of the copyright. It is not always the owner of the copyright is the author of the work. Copyright - is a right of ownership and disposition of the creation. Only the owner of the copyright can reproduce, copy, distribute (give for rent, sell), publish repeatedly all the creation or its part, demonstrate publicly, benefit from these actions or permit to another person to do it.

If the author of the creation is not the owner of the copyright, then he or she cannot do these actions with the creation. According to the laws of most countries, both non-property and property rights for creation of science, literature or art appear at the creator at once after the completion of the work at the creation independently on the time it was released to public (published, shown and etc.) and if it was or not released to public generally, and also if the author rights for its creation were or not registered.

If you compose a verset, draw a picture or write an article, you become an author of the creation at once. An availability of the author rights in such a case means that not only you are the author of your creation, but that you and only you can reproduce, sell, publish, demonstrate it and etc. If the creation was created by several authors, then every one of them become the owner of the copyright, and the rights of all co-owners of the copyright are equal.

However, if the creation of this work is your hired labor or contract, then the property rights for the creation that is the copyright belongs to your employer.

In this case in spite of that you are the author, you should get a formal permission for publication from the employer. The copyright defends an original creation of science, literature and art, its specific expression (novel, melody, picture, story, article, program), but does not defend the idea, method, procedure, principle, conception, discovery or algorithm and etc., which are in base of the creation's expression. After the release of the creation in public, the ideas, methods, principles, discoveries and etc. represented in it can be used and developed by other authors, but the creator of the work remains to be the author.

For example, the novel about the Second World War can be defended by copyright, but the idea of writing of new novels on this theme cannot be defended by the copyright.

Most often the plagiarism is expressed in a publication of the alien creation or alien ideas under your name, and also in borrowing of the fragments of alien creations without pointing out of the borrowing source. The mandatory criterion of the plagiarism is an assumption of authorship. An irregular use, publication, copying and etc. of the creation, covered by author right, is not a plagiarism, if at such a use, in spite of its irregularity, the real author is pointed out. Such use of the creation with break of property rights is called counterfeit or piracy. In most countries the law about copyright says that creations defended by copyright, can be used for critics, comment, discussions, messages in the mass media, education and teaching, and also in scientific investigations. However the creation should be used in a fair way. The fair or true use of the creation covered by copyright requires that specific rules are valid. The most famous is - a mandatory reference for creation and citing for no more than two sub-paragraph of the original text. The copyright can be divided between several persons. For example, an owner of the copyright can permit to one person to reproduce, and to another one - to re-do, translate the creation or create the other work on the base of it. The copyright can also be passed to another persons, and that should be done in a written form. If you want to copy out, re-print the part or all the creation covered by copyright, then you should get a permission of the owner of the copyright, even if you are the author. Let's consider the peculiarities of application of the laws about author right in the system of the international scientific publications, where the important place is for not only "written" laws about protection of author right, but also ethical norms, which will be considered further.

Let's admit that you completed an article. As soon as your pen rends off the paper (nowadays one can say that as soon as your fingers rend off the keyboard) you become the author of your article without any additional applications or formulations. And if you get the ownership of the copyright? If you wrote an article on request or if the writing of articles on this theme is a part of your duties, then the owner of the copyright was your customer or employer. The owner of the copyright has a right to permit or not to publish the article written by you. Employees of scientific-educational organizations don't often have serious problems caused by employer refusal (director or rector) to give the permission for publication of article, although there exist definite formal procedures, which are necessary to do before the manuscript is sent to journal editorial. You send the manuscript of your article to the editorial board of the journal. Nowadays it is done in electronic form on the web-site of the journal. It is seldom when the owner of the copyright for the published article is the journal (in the person of his publisher or owner). In submitting of the manuscript for publication in the journal you and your co-authors will immediately have to sign at consideration or later, at accept of the manuscript to print, a form, which called "copy transfer form" or "copyright agreement".

This form contains several important items, which are the following ones:

1. The manuscript submitted for publication is original, not earlier published elsewhere and not submitted for publication in other issue.

2. There are all and only those who, in accordance with the ethical norms of the academic society, can be the authors in the author list.

By submitting the article for publication in the journal, the authors transfer the copyright to the journal. In the case of publication of the article in the journal you have no right to publish it elsewhere again without consent of the editorial board. The original scientific article can be published in the primary scientific journal only once. All primary scientific journals require the manuscript submitted is the original one and earlier not published. This requirement is often contained in the instructions for authors.

Usually it is the following: Submission of a paper (other than a review) to a journal normally implies that it presents the results of original research or some new ideas not previously published, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, either in English or in any other language, without the consent of the editors" ("General Notes on the Preparation of Scientific Papers," The Royal Society, London). The editorial board of the journal will not give consent for re-publication of total the article or its essential part in other primary scientific journal. However even if such consent is given by the editorial board, then the editorial board of other journal, where you are going to publish your article for the second time, will refuse you in publication, if the journal claims that it accepts for publication only original articles. Of course, the separate parts of the article, for example, tables, photographs, figures can be published in a review article, and even the entire article in whole can be published, but only in the secondary scientific literature (collections of published articles of the outstanding scientists, institutes' works, thematic collections and etc.) For re-publication of the article in the secondary scientific literature it is also necessary to get a consent of the editorial board of the journal, in which the article was published firstly. An illegal re-publication (dual publication) of the article in the primary scientific journal is considered from standpoint of the scientific ethics as the "mortal sin". This can happen if the article is not subjected to essential changes but is submitted to another journal, and the authors conceal from the journal editorial board that the article has earlier been published (and for this it is enough to sign the copy transfer form). Multiple publications of the same material or ideas in different journals, foreign or national, point out to the scientific sterility and are self-promotion. The repetition of itself, self-plagiarism, means the lack of scientific objectivity and modesty. However the authors remain to be the owners of their data and results. If the data is essentially processed and the new results are obtained, then one can write and publish another article on the same source material in another or the same journal. This is not a violation of owners rights for the copyright on the article published earlier. If only a title of the article is changed, and the text is slightly reformulated, and only some parts of the text are omitted, that is the article is not subjected to essential changes, then a re-publication of the article even in another language means a violation of the copyright owners' rights.

The publication itself is considered as a "dual publication", and that could lead to a serious damage of reputation of authors or organizations, where they work. Each of the authors of the article, no matter, at which place in the list his or her name is situated, is burdened with intellectual responsibility for the content of the article, and also for all ethical and legal consequences of publication. Probably, it is a pleasure to get such a present as to turn out to be among the article's authors, over text of which you did not work (and may be not only text, but you have no relation to the investigation), but which turned out to be successful and got a wide popularity. The reverse side of the medal - you can turn out to be the author of the article, containing mistakes (and this is not so bad) or falsified results.

In this case nobody believes you if you say that actually you did not penetrate into the investigation and only skimmed the text through. You equally share the responsibility with other authors that is become the author of the publication, containing falsified data, and will participate in proceedings in this matter. What are the practical consequences for authors transferred the copyright for their article to the editorial board of the journal? The first and currently the most painful limitation is that the authors cannot put the full texts of the articles published either on their personal pages in the Internet or the web-sites of the university where they work, without consent of the editorial board of the journal.

If you strictly follow the law, then authors cannot even distribute the copies of their articles, because only separate reprints can be distributed in an amount transferred to the authors by the editorial board of the journal for free or money. Definite limitations appear also at research and education organizations, which need to copy texts of the articles repeatedly, even for academic purposes. For the solution of this problem in the USA, for example, there created a special center "Copy Clearance Center", where universities pay money for the right to copy the journal publications in academic purposes. Money, paid by universities then goes to the editorial board of the journals. Thus, the editorial boards of the journals avoid time-consuming and unprofitable work of tracking of their rights violation, as the copyrights owners, and without special expenses get extra cash.