Forum:The copyright status of journal articles

Is anyone clear as to the copyright rules for academic journal articles? Is there any easy way to know which journals have gone open source. How usual is it for authors to sign away copyright to journals? What proportion would retain copyright so they could put papers up on a wiki? All help appreciatedLifeartist 23:01, 18 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I would assume that any paper is copyrighted unless it's specifically stated otherwise. But if you think it might be open source, then the best place to check is thw website of the journal itself.  With most licences, the licence has to be clearly stated so it should be there. -- sannse (talk) 15:32, 19 June 2006 (UTC)


 * The Public Library of Science articles are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution licenses. Most other journals are not open access... but a few are.  Sannse is right... the default for everything is that it is under traditional copyright unless it says otherwise. --Jimbo Wales 08:37, 22 June 2006 (UTC)