Author contributor agreement
Note: It is anticipated that authors will agree to these terms at the point of submitting their article to the pre-print server. Agreement to the terms will be online by way of checking a box.
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UCL Open: Environment Terms
Please note that the Article cannot be submitted to the Pre-Print Server and the Publisher cannot proceed to publication of the Article if the terms of this Agreement are not agreed to by the Corresponding Author.
Parties
This Agreement is between the Publisher and the Corresponding Author.
Background
The Publisher operates the Pre-Print Server which invites authors to submit articles for the purposes of open and public peer review and which enables Journal Editors to select suitable articles for publication in the Journal. Articles submitted to the Pre-Print Server are made available to the public to view.
The Corresponding Author wishes to submit the Pre-Print Article to the Pre-Print Server for peer review and, subject to acceptance by the Publisher and Journal Editor, for the Accepted Article to be published in the Journal.
Agreed Terms
1. Interpretation
1.1. The following definitions and rules of interpretation apply in this Agreement
Accepted Article means the version of the Article that is deemed ready for publication in a Journal by a Journal Editor following a peer review process;
Article means any iteration or version of the Pre-Print Article including the Accepted Article;
Co-Authors means any authors who would be recognised by accepted academic practice as having co-authored the Article together with the Corresponding Author;
Corresponding Author means the author of the Article and the person who the Publisher and any Journal Editor corresponds with on matters relating to the Article and this Agreement;
Creative Commons Attribution Licence means the licence terms known as the Creative Commons Attribution Licence 4.0, a copy of which are accessible here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode;
Journal means the online journal UCL Open: Environment published by the Publisher under an imprint owned by University College London, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT;
Journal Editor means the editor of the Journal;
Pre-Print Article means the version of the Article first submitted to the Pre-Print Server by the Corresponding Author;
Pre-Print Server means the pre-print server operated by the Publisher and open to the public to which any Corresponding Author may submit a Pre-Print Article for peer review purposes in accordance with the terms of this Agreement and from which a Journal Editor may select an Article for publication in the Journal;
Publisher means UCL Press, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT;
Repository means a collection of articles and research documents made available, normally online, for the purpose of scholarly research;
and references to you/your shall be construed as references to the Corresponding Author and, where the Article has been co-authored by Co-Authors, shall be construed as references to the Corresponding Author and all of the Co-Authors.
2. Co-Authors
2.1 Where the Article has been co-authored by Co-Authors the Corresponding Author hereby declares that he/she is authorised by all of the Co-Authors to enter into this Agreement on the Co-Authors' behalf. The Publisher is entitled to rely on the Article as accurately identifying all Co-Authors and principal authors. The Corresponding Author shall indemnify the Publisher for any losses arising as a result of a failure to obtain any Co-Author's express prior permission to enter into this Agreement.
3. Rights and Licence
3.1. In consideration of the mutual benefits to be derived by the parties pursuant to this Agreement and subject to its terms, you hereby grant to the Publisher:
3.1.1. the right to produce, publish, distribute and make available and to further sub-license the Article (including the abstract) in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Licence;
3.1.2. the right to host the Article on a pre-print server (or similar) for the purposes of peer review and consideration for publication; and
3.1.3. to right and licence to be the first publisher of the Accepted Article and to be referred to as such.
3.2. Subject to clause 1, you retain all rights in and to the Article.
3.3. In the event of any inconsistency between the terms set out in this Agreement and the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence shall, to the extent of any inconsistency, prevail.
4. Article-Processing Charges
4.1. With the exception of UCL-authors, you shall be liable to pay an article-processing charge at the point the Article is editorially accepted by the Journal Editor as an Accepted Article. Information relating to whether you are a UCL author or non-UCL author and details of article-processing charges including costs and how these are calculated is available here: LINK TBC.
5. Warranties and indemnity
5.1. You warrant to the Journal and the Publisher that:
5.1.1. the Article is original to you and any Co-Authors identified in the Article except for such excerpts of other works as may be included with written permission of the copyright owner;
5.1.2. the Article is not under consideration for publication anywhere else nor been published in any form (other than under the terms of any open access licence granted by you to the institution of which you are a member of faculty or employee, including the licence known as the UK Scholarly Communications Licence), and that publishing the Accepted Article will in no way whatever give rise to violation of any existing copyright or a breach of any existing agreement, including any contract of employment;
5.1.3. the Article contains nothing unlawful or libellous and is in no way a breach of confidence or of any commitment given to secrecy, and that all statements in the Article purporting to be facts are true at the time of publication and that any recipe, formula or instruction contained in the Article will not, if followed accurately, cause injury or illness or damage to the user;
5.1.4. you accept responsibility for obtaining permission for publication in the Article, at your expense, any textual and/or illustrative material in which copyright vests in any other person or party. Permission will be for the right to use the said material in the Article made available on the Pre-Print Server and published by the Publisher. You shall make available to the Publisher upon request any permissions so obtained for publication of copyrighted material;
5.1.5. all such third-party material referred to above is clearly and appropriately acknowledged in the Article;
5.1.6. the Article shall comply with the Publisher's publishing guidelines (if any and as may be revised from time to time). A copy of the current guidelines (if any) shall be made available to you upon request; and
5.1.7. you undertake to indemnify the Publisher against any claims, loss, damage or costs, including any legal costs properly incurred, occasioned to the Publishers in consequence of any breach of the warranties set out in this Clause 5 or arising out of any claim alleging that the Article constitutes a breach of these warranties.
6. Pre-Print Server
6.1. Once submitted to the Pre-Print Server, the Article shall be licensed by the Publisher to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
7. Publication
7.1. The Publisher may decline to publish the Article if it does not meet the Publisher's requirements at which point the Publisher shall forfeit its exclusive rights under Clause 1.3, unless otherwise agreed between the parties.
7.2. No undertaking is given by the Publisher that the Article will be accepted for publication unless the Journal Editor determines that it should be, following peer review, and the Publisher accepts no liability for the comments of reviewers.
7.3. The Article, if accepted by the Publisher or the Journal Editor for publication, shall be licensed by Publisher to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence. The Publisher shall require attribution as the first publisher of the Article.
8. No royalty payment
8.1. You acknowledge that you are not entitled to any royalty payment whatsoever in connection with any publication of the Article including its availability to the public on the Pre-Print Server, regardless of whether you are an employee of the Publisher or not.
9. Consequences of termination
9.1. The warranties and indemnities set out in this agreement shall survive any forfeiture of exclusive rights in accordance with clause 1.
10. Applicable law
10.1. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England whose courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction.