Jan Velterop
Director of Open Access at Springer. However, this article is written on a personal title and does not necessarily reflect the company’s views
Recently, two articles have appeared in SCRIPT-ed on ‘Copyright and Research’. One by Kevin Taylor, giving the perspective of an academic publisher (SCRIPT-ed 4:2), and one by Andrew Adams, from the perspective of an ‘archivangelist’ (SCRIPT-ed 4:3). The latter is a critique of the former. Neither article sheds much light on the role copyright actually plays in publishing research results in peerreviewed journals. Taylor brings authors’ remuneration into the discussion, a concept quite alien to most primary research literature, where recognition and citation are the coin of the realm, and Adams seems to argue that copyright somehow impedes open access without explaining how or why that should be the case. This brief article aims to address the actual role copyright plays in the primary research literature and the appropriateness of that role.
