New MLA Author Agreements Aren’t New To AAA

“On June 5, 2012, the journals of the Modern Language Association (MLA) adopted new author agreements that allow the authors to deposit their journal articles in open-access repositories, and to post on personal and departmental websites. The Inside Higher Ed article, MLA Shift on Copyright, notes that ‘The new MLA policy appears to move beyond those of other humanities organizations.’ AAA members should rest assured that such an agreement is not new to publishing; in fact AAA journal authors have enjoyed this practice for quite a while. In the author agreement for AAA journals, the author reserves the right (among other rights) to post his/her article on the author’s personal or institutional website, and to post the article on free, discipline-specific public servers. Because of these clauses, AAA’s author agreement is rated green by SHERPA/RoMEO, a project designed to help facilitate green open access. Such status has been enjoyed by AAA and its journal authors since January, 2009. Learn more about the additional steps AAA has taken to facilitate access to its publications in order to widely disseminate the works of its members and to further the discipline of anthropology.”