Author Addendums & Licenses

The following author addendums are intended to assist with publishing agreements and negotiating your rights as published authors. Negotiating some or all of your rights allow you to archive versions of your manuscript in institutional or generalist repositories, share your research on a professional website, disseminate it within your classroom and other paths to increase the visibility of your research.

For more on author rights and negotiating with publishers, visit the Scholarly Publishing guide.

Author Addendums

GW Authors’ Addendum to Publication Agreement
In 2015, the George Washington University Faculty Senate approved an open access resolution. The resolution grants the University a perpetual royalty-free non-exclusive license to distribute works published by affiliated faculty authors. Authors should use the GW Authors’ Addendum to Publication Agreement or similar addendum when completing a publishing agreement. Researchers should follow their publishers’ guidelines regarding self-archiving practices and the version of the manuscript that may be deposited in a repository.

Researchers may opt out of this resolution by submitting a Waiver Request.

SPARC Author Addendum
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, also known as SPARC, is a nonprofit organization that educates on and advocates for open systems for research and educational materials. SPARC’s Author Addendum is a legal tool that researchers may attach to their publishing contract to retain some of their rights to their published works.

HSRC Non-Exclusive Distribution License

The HSRC Non-Exclusive Distribution License allows repository managers to archive a version of a manuscript or other scholarly work in the Health Sciences Research Commons. If you are a researcher submitting your work to be archived in the repository, download, complete and submit a signed copy of the license. This license is not a publishing agreement. Scholarly works archived in the repository do not receive technical or content editing nor do they undergo a peer review process.

For questions about the linked addendums or licenses, contact the repository manager at hsrc@email.gwu.edu.