Publication Agreement
(Sample text; approval via an online form will be required before publication.)
The author of a living review (hereinafter the "author") and the publisher
of the Living Reviews in Relativity (LRR) (hereinafter the "publisher")
conclude the following publication agreement:
Preamble
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The author and the publisher agree to the following guiding principles:
- LRR reviews are open access publications and will be published under
a Creative Commons license. The publisher requests only those rights
necessary to fulfill the task. Therefore, copyright of the article
remains largely with the author;
- The nature of the LRR requires that reviews will be kept up-to-date
for the foreseeable future.
Author's rights and obligations
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Copyright
1. The author agrees to assign the following rights to the publisher:
1.1. The exclusive worldwide right to publish the article in the
special Living Reviews format on the Internet (that is as a
hypertext with an integrated reference database);
1.2. The non-exclusive right to edit and process the article as
necessary;
1.3. The non-exclusive worldwide right to submit the article to
electronic information networks, to feed it into data-nets,
to up- and download it, to distribute it, to broadcast it,
including to communicate it in any other way to the public
on the Internet and to store it in databases of any kind;
1.4. The non-exclusive worldwide right to reproduce the article
and to print it;
1.5. The non-exclusive worldwide right to give licences with or
without remuneration or royalty fees.
"Exclusive" means that no one else, including the author, is
entitled to exert this right (that is, to publish the article in
the LRR format) but the publisher; "non-exclusive" means that the
author remains free to exert these rights herself/himself or to
license them to others.
2. With a view to enabling the publisher to publish the review under
a Common Creative license (see 9.2.), the author
2.1. Must secure the right to reproduce and distribute under the
Common Creative license any material that has already been
published or copyrighted elsewhere; this concerns, in particular
the unconditioned copyright for any images, tables and figures
and other creations which were not made by the author;
2.2. Agrees that the journal publishes the author's name and address,
including electronic address (email and homepage), together with
the article.
3. Self-archiving and Pre-prints: The author is free to upload the pre-
print version to respective archives. Furthermore, from the day of
publication in the LRR, the author is free to reproduce and distribute
the article elsewhere in the form in which it has been published in
Living Reviews. In particular, the author is allowed to "self-archive"
the manuscript in digital form at his/her personal homepage or home
institution's archive (pre-print as well as the final published version)
provided that there is a link back to the original URL of publication
in the LRR.
Updating of articles
4. Given the nature of a living reviews journal, the author agrees to
keep his/her article up-to-date as needed and as long as possible.
Depending on the developments in the subject matter, minor updates
are expected every 1 to 2 years and major updates every 2 to 3 years.
5. In case an author is no longer able or willing to keep the review
"living", the publisher may appoint a successor or declare the review
as 'no longer updated'. The original author agrees to assist in finding
a co-author. The editorial board will seek to reach consensus with the
author about the successor. However, if no agreement is reached in due
time, the editorial board will decide on a successor.
6. The successor will be treated as a co-author together with the original
(or previous) author(s) of the review and will sign the same publication
agreement as the original author. The original author will be acknowledged
as co-author for at least one major update of the review.
Publisher's obligations
7. The publisher will endeavour to publish the article within three
months of the submission of the final, peer-reviewed version as
accepted by the editorial board. The article will be placed on the
Internet throughout the journal's lifetime. The publisher will
endeavour to organise long-term availability and long-term archiving
of published reviews.
8. The publisher supports the Open Access movement and intends to be
a "ROMEO green publisher" (see: http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php).
Therefore, the publisher permits self-archiving (see 3.).
9. In pursuing an open access policy, the publisher
9.1. Will grant access to the reviews for free;
9.2. Will publish the article under a Creative Commons license of the
type "Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Germany"
that allows users to copy, distribute and display the work under
the following conditions:
o attribution of the work to the author;
o prohibition of use for commercial purposes;
For further information about this Creative Commons licence
please refer to:
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/de/deed.en).
10. The publisher will assist the author to settle any questions regarding
copyright of reproduced material (images, figures, tables and related
illustrations).
Final provisions
11. Any disputes arising from this agreement or that are related thereto
shall be determined by German Law. The seat of the LRR shall determine
Potsdam, Germany as the competent district court.
12. Any changes to this agreement shall be made in writing.