Researcher

Pure is the research information system (CRIS) of the University of Groningen, in which all of the research output within the University is stored. Archiving publications in the University’s open access repository is also referred to as green open access. Learn how to present yourself and your publications in Pure.

Publishing contracts: what are your rights as an author?

Under Dutch copyright law, when a work is created in the course of employment, the copyright generally vests in the employer. This would mean that the University of Groningen could be regarded as the copyright holder. However, the university has a policy of exempting academic works and books from this rule. As a result, as the author of an academic work – whether it is a book or an article – you are usually the primary copyright holder of the work. Where several persons have made an original contribution to the work, they share the copyright. This copyright grants the author, amongst other things, the exclusive right to make copies of the work, to sell or distribute it and to make adaptations, such as translations. If you use third-party material, such as images, photographs, graphs, tables and long quotations, you, as the author, must ensure that you provide correct source references and attribution, and obtain the necessary permissions for reuse.

Publishing your work

When a publisher accepts your book for publication, you will be asked to sign an agreement. This agreement sets out who holds the copyright, what rights the author and the publisher have (for example, regarding reuse or translations), and the terms regarding royalties (if applicable) and how the work should be cited.

Such agreements are referred to, for example, as a Copyright Transfer Agreement, an Author Agreement, a License to Publish or just Contract.

Book contracts

Book contracts vary from publisher to publisher and can be complex. When you sign a contract to publish your work, it is important to check that your own rights are adequately protected and that the contract takes into account any obligations you may have towards your employer and/or the funder of your research.

In many cases, a contract involves the transfer of part of the copyright or certain exploitation rights to the publisher. This may affect how you are able to use your own work in the future. It is therefore advisable to consider in advance how you might wish to use your work in the future, for example in your reaching, in future publications or when producing a translation.

Publishers often ask for (all) exploitation rights to be transferred. However, this is not necessary. In many cases, it is possible to adapt the agreement to suit the author(s)’wishes.

From 1 May 2021, the publisher’s versions of all short publications (articles and book chapters) authored by UG/UMCG staff that had not previously been made open access were published open access via Pure. This is now always done after six months and stating the source of the original disclosure.

This is possible thanks to Article 25fa of the Copyright Act (also known as the Taverne Amendment), which gives researchers at Dutch universities the right to make their short scientific publications open access after a brief embargo period.

Open access means free, immediate, and permanent access to academic research. By publishing your research open access under a public copyright license, you enable readers to freely consult, distribute, and reuse the material. The University Library open access team can inform and advise you about everything related to open access and open science in a broader sense, with information about publication, deals with publishers, archiving in Pure, and more.

The University of Groningen Press (UGP) supports editors and authors in establishing and publishing digital scientific journals and books. Through this service, the UGP aims to apply its knowledge of digital publishing and the hosting of journals and books to support editors and authors associated with the University of Groningen.

The Digital Competence Centre (DCC) supports your conduct of research throughout the entire research (data) lifecycle, from grant applications to FAIR data archiving. The DCC website provides an overview of the services on offer and information on all aspects of IT and data research at the University of Groningen.

Although the data is openly available to everyone, you are still processing personal data when you want to process social media data as a researcher. You will therefore have to take into account legal and ethical considerations in your research, such as privacy, informed consent and lawful access.

​​Furthermore, you should abide by the terms and conditions of the relevant platform.

For more information on the above aspects: Digital Competence Centre (DCC)'s website Using Social Media Data where the ‘DCC guide to using social media data in research’ can also be found.

TDM (Text and Data Mining) is an automated process in which large collections of data or texts are selected and analysed to discover patterns and relationships.

TDM for scientific research is possible with all works to which researchers have lawful access through their institution or because the works are freely (and legally) accessible on the Internet.

Publishers may not contractually exclude TDM for scientific research, but they may set rules for the use of their databases by text mining tools, e.g. regarding the limits on the speed and volume of data that can be downloaded and on their storage and dissemination. These rules must be followed.

Please note that access to the library’s full-text databases can be revoked when the license terms and conditions are breached.