At some point before your article is published, you’ll be asked to agree to the journal’s publishing terms. This might be called a publication contract, copyright transfer agreement, licensing agreement, or something else. (You might even be asked to agree to these terms at the point of submission, to go into effect in the event your manuscript is accepted and published.)

Whatever it’s called, this agreement will mostly cover what rights you grant to the journal, as well as what rights you retain and/or what rights the journal grants back to you. For example:

• You might be required to transfer your full copyright ownership to the journal, after which the journal will hold all rights to the article.
   
• You might be required to transfer your full copyright ownership to the journal, but the journal will then give you back certain rights, such as the right to post the article online. (Little known fact: Most journals do permit authors to publicly share some version of their article online! See the Open Access section of this guide for additional information.)
   
• You might retain copyright but be required to agree to share the article under a certain Creative Commons license.
   

Keep in Mind: While the publication contract might be written in dense legal language, be sure to read it in full. It’s important to know your rights to what you write!

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When a publisher presents you with a book publication contract, you might be tempted to sign immediately — to seal the deal as soon as possible. Resist this urge! The contract lays out the terms of your relationship with the publisher both in the lead-up to publication and for years into the future, so it’s important to understand it. Carefully read the full contract, and if anything is unclear, you can ask the publisher for clarification.

Also, if there are any terms in the contract that you’d like to be different, don’t be afraid to negotiate with the publisher. Unlike journal article contracts, which typically can’t be negotiated, it is standard practice to negotiate the terms of a book contract. You might try to negotiate which rights you grant to the publisher, the timeline to publication, the look and feel of the book, the sales price, or the royalties structure, among many other possibilities.

Learn More: For information about common terms in book contracts and ways of approaching negotiation, consult Understanding and Negotiating Book Publication Contracts, an open access book from the Authors Alliance. The book is extremely informative and well worth the time of any author seeking or considering signing a book contract.