Copyright policy
Basic Principles: copyright protects the interests of those who create and invest in creativity.
The creator of an original work is the prime owner of intellectual property. Copyright confers exclusive legal rights to control that work on the owner of intellectual property. A copyright owner has the right to copy, adapt or distribute the work by any means and to authorize others to do so by the transfer (assignment) or licensing of copyright. Without permission of the copyright owner, a work cannot be copied, adapted or distributed. Fair Dealing (Fair Use) for the purpose of non-commercial research, private study, criticism or review, instruction or examination does not infringe copyright. An author's moral rights are:
- to be identified as the author
- to object to derogatory treatment of their work and
- not to have work falsely attributed to them
We ask for transfer of ownership of copyright from authors. This enables us to distribute our authors' published research via a number of means to a wide range of readers, to take advantage of new technologies as they arise to distribute and store authors' work, and to protect our authors from copyright and moral rights violation. We only work with third party distribution partners with assured copyright policies, and monitor usage to ensure that it is in accordance with our principles.
We do not restrict authors' rights to re-use their own work. This is an important difference. Authors don't have to ask our permission, and if they do, the answer is always yes.
Emerald authors who assign their copyright to us retain unlimited free reproduction rights for their own work. Authors do not give up their rights to use, republish or reproduce their work for course notes, in another journal or as a book chapter, or electronically including their own institutional website, subject to acknowledging first publication details. Authors who publish with Emerald are not required to seek our permission with regard to their own work.
We actively reinvest copyright royalties back into the research community.
Emerald offers active support for authors who contribute to our publications, with free membership of the Emerald Literati Network, and annual awards for Excellence amongst our tangible author benefits. We reinvest 25 per cent of copyright royalties (up to £25,000 annually) received from the Reproduction Rights Organizations to research which promotes the advancement of knowledge for the common good, via the Emerald Research Fund. This is managed by a panel which invites funding applications.
We actively try to facilitate subscriber access.
We aim to bring our authors' work to the widest audience, under the protection of our copyright policy. Emerald subscriber licenses are generally recognized as an industry standard for their simplicity and liberality, and follow National and International Library Association guidelines. Emerald achieves industry-leading download ratios; Emerald authors get widely read.
We offer an Authors' Charter, and complete transparency in our policies on copyright and authors' rights.
We are proud of our copyright policy and in the interests of openness, prominently display on our website a statement of Emerald's copyright principles, and our Authors' Charter. The full Emerald Copyright Policy will be made freely available on request.
The Emerald copyright policy is managed by a senior team, and reviewed and agreed annually by the board of directors, following regular industry consultation and advice.