There is support at University of Tennessee taking steps to protect your rights to your intellectual property.
This is the text of a resolution now before the Faculty Senate.

Simple steps you can take to protect your work are below.

Faculty Senate Resolution on Scholarly Publishing
Draft: March 15, 2006

WHEREAS the faculty of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville seek to maintain control of their work product by retaining intellectual property rights and/or by submitting their work to non-traditional peer-reviewed venues, and

WHEREAS the faculty wish to retain control of their scholarly production to foster greater freedom to disseminate their work, thereby increasing its availability and maximizing its influence on future scholarship, and

WHEREAS the academic community needs efficient, economical, and accessible models for research and scholarly communication,

Therefore BE IT RESOLVED that:

1. Creative/scholarly production will be judged based on its individual quality and scholarly content and that the role of a publication venue in this process will be assessed according to, but not limited to, its demonstrated standards, degrees of selectivity, and the quality of its peer-review;
2. The faculty and administration of the University of Tennessee will support the library’s efforts to provide increased access to research and educational resources;
3. The UTK administration provide appropriate incentives and tools for faculty to establish alternative scholarly outlets, serve on and lead relevant editorial boards, and submit their scholarly work to such ventures;
4. All those involved in the process of academic review (including retention, tenure, and promotion) will not discriminate against non-traditional peer-reviewed venues for scholarly communication;
5. The senate reaffirms its endorsement of “The Tempe Principles” (Faculty Senate Meeting, March 03, 2003) for emerging systems of scholarly publishing.

UNDERSTAND AND PROTECT YOUR WORK:

1. To understand your intellectual property:

Copyright Resources for Authors: Practical Guidance When Submitting Articles from SPARC http://www.arl.org/sparc/resources/copy.html

2. To protect your rights:

Submit your article to an open access journal such as BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) –see flyer attached http://www.biomedcentral.com/download/advocacy/openaccess/vetres.pdf

OR

If not publishing in an open access journal, use the SPARC Author’s Addendum (http://www.arl.org/sparc/author/addendum.html) to RETAIN the certain rights to your article—see addendum attached. Most publishers will agree to amend a contract.