Intellectual Property and Propriety in Scholarly Communication: How Open Approaches to Publication in the Humanities Increase the Reach and Visibility of Research

Abstract

One size does not fit all when it comes to the proper role of intellectual property in the modern university setting. The balance of interests associated with intellectual works subject to copyright, such as teaching materials, online courses, and scholarly publications, is different from that associated with the model of technology transfer that applies to many inventions created on campus. Specifically focused on publication practices, this talk explains how copyright applies to works of scholarly research, and how many scholars in the humanities are gravitating toward publishing models that rely upon open licensing as the proper means for communicating their work to their peers and to the public in this age of the digital network. The talk will include discussion of how openness facilitates cooperative approaches to both teaching and research. Openness may in fact enhance commercialization of certain kinds of scholarship, rather than be at odds with it. In other cases it may be inappropriate or limit the reach and goals of scholarship. This talk will address questions about whether or how the model of open publication applies equally to monographs, journal articles, and theses and dissertations; how open access to research can be achieved through different means; and how the open model is sustainable and attentive to the need to, for example, preserve the role of scholarly societies in the modern academy.