You probably wouldn't purposely keep your research from a readership that might benefit from it. Yet when many authors sign traditional publication agreements they sign over all their rights - including copyright - to the publisher or journal.
University of Minnesota Libraries maintains a site explaining the copyright basics surrounding
More about Copyright in the UMD Copyright research guide?
Submit either of the addenda below with your copyright agreement to ensure that you retain certain rights.
SHERPA/RoMEO is a freely accessible online database of publisher policies. Database content is contributed by SHERPA partners and community contributors.
RoMEO summarizes and ranks publisher copyright policies according to four color-coded categories. You can search RoMEO by publisher name, journal title, or ISSN.
For information on research funders' mandates and guidelines, see RoMEO's companion database, SHERPA/JULIET.