Scholarly Communication Tips

NEGOTIATING YOUR RIGHTS AS AN AUTHOR

As a member of the UT community, you retain copyright ownership of your scholarly work, unless you agree to transfer that ownership upon publication.   Many publishers are willing to consider changes to these copyright agreements, though they do not often and openly advertise this flexibility.

Consider asking to retain full ownership or partial rights in order to place a copy on electronic reserves, distribute copies in your course packets, post a copy on your web site, or deposit a copy in an institutional (UT) or disciplinary digital repository (ERIC).

More Information and Useful Tools…

Resources for Authors, SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition)

ACRL Scholarly Communication Toolkit, Association of College ad Research Libraries

Creative Commons (create a usage license for your work)

Sherpa / Romeo (database of publisher copyright policies)

IMPROVING THE DISCOVERABILITY OF YOUR WORK

The easier your work is to find, the more it will be used and cited.  When making a decision about where and how to publish, consider these options….

• Choose a journal that is well indexed.  Ulrich’s is a database that provides this information.

• Choose a journal that publishes online editions and allows Google Scholar to search the full text (even if they don’t give away the article for free).

• Choose an open-access journal that makes the articles freely available online.

• Submit your work to the ERIC documents collection.  This is especially important for “grey literature” such as conference papers, research reports, and other publications that do not make their way into journals.

• Post your work on your personal web site

• Archive your work in the UT Digital Repository

ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF YOUR WORK

Although there is no comprehensive, absolute way to know how often your work has been cited, there are many tools that can help you get a sense of the impact your work may be having on the scholarship of others.

Journal Citation Reports: Provides impact data for journals indexed in Web of Science (Social Science Citation Index)

Helpful Links:
Web of Science Journal List
Tutorial
Quick Reference Guide
User's Guide

Web of Science (ISI): Who has cited your article (in ISI-tracked journals)?

Google Scholar: Who has cited your articles (in Google Scholar tracked literature)?

Google Books: Have you been cited in a book?

How many libraries own your book?