Sharing new educational resources on open licensing for preprints – ASAPbio

"Today we’re happy to share two new documents that we hope will aid researchers in their decision to share early work as preprints. Even while the practice of publishing preprints continues to grow, we know from our community outreach that there are still lots of questions regarding open licensing options, including downstream publishing implications for preprints.

So, ASAPbio has worked with its expert committee to draft and share a set of resources. The first is a list of questions and answers that focuses on open licensing and preprints. The FAQ includes fundamental questions such as “Who holds the copyright in a manuscript?” but also digs into more specific questions related to preprints like “Does the act of posting a preprint transfer copyright or sign rights away to the preprint server provider?” and “Why should authors consider applying an open license to their preprints?” The purpose of the FAQ is to provide useful and descriptive information to authors about how Creative Commons and open licensing operates with regard to preprints and their downstream journal publications. We hope that the resource can help researchers feel more comfortable sharing preprints under open licenses, and thus open the door to early access and collaboration possibilities with others...."