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

• ownership of scholarly works,
• dissertations, and student work.
• Dissertations, theses, and other student work

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.

• University of Minnesota author's addendum (PDF)
• Science Commons Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine

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.