1. Green open access and sharing policies for Royal Society of Chemistry Books
When you publish in a Royal Society of Chemistry book, the agreement you sign will state what you are allowed to do with your work. For authors of chapters in collected volumes, our agreement allows you to make your original, submitted version available after a 36-month embargo period. This is known as the green route to open access.
How you can share or deposit your book or chapter (via green open access)
We distinguish between your original version (of a chapter, or full book, submitted to us before we have copy edited and typeset), and later versions (the proofs, or the final version which is found in the printed work).
| Sharing rights | As the author of a book: | As the author of a chapter in a collected volume: | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your full original submitted manuscript | Your original submitted chapter | Any later version (e.g. proofs, final PDF) | |
| Share with individuals on request, for personal use | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Use in submissions of grant applications, or academic requirements such as theses or dissertations | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Use for teaching or training materials | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Share with a closed group of research collaborators, for example via an intranet or privately via a scholarly communication network | ✕ (except for one example chapter after ⌛) |
✓ | ✓ |
| Share publicly via a personal website, institutional repository or other not-for-profit repository | ✕ (except for one example chapter after ⌛) |
⌛ | ✕ |
| Share publicly via a scholarly communication network that has signed up to STM sharing principles | ✕ | ⌛ | ✕ |
| Share publicly via a scholarly communication network that has not signed up to STM sharing principles | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
⌛ = Our embargo period is 36 months
As the author, you are not allowed to share the final version of your full book in any situation. As the Editor of a collected volume, you are not able to share any content that was not authored by you.
2. Rights stipulated in our book contracts
Book and chapter authors
- Copyright remains with the author (unless the author wishes to assign this to somebody else)
- RSC has the exclusive right and licence throughout the world to edit, adapt, translate, reproduce and publish the work in whole or in part in all editions, forms and media, including electronic media, in the English language and in any translations without limitation. This licence is for the full term of copyright in the Work throughout the world (including all renewals, extensions and reversions). This licence is freely transferable by the RSC and includes the right to sub-license.
- The Author(s) may, without seeking permission from the RSC:
- reproduce/republish portions of the Work;
- adapt the Work and reproduce adaptations of the Work for any purpose other than the commercial exploitation of a work similar to the original; and
- reproduce, perform, transmit and otherwise communicate the Work to the public in spoken presentations (including those which are accompanied by visual material such as slides, overheads and computer projections).
Editor
As the Editor of a collected volume, you are not able to share any content that was not authored by you.