We and our publisher, MIT Press, want you to understand copyright, its practical applications and what MIT Press as your publisher and copyright agent will do to disseminate your article as widely and as effectively as possible.

The 1976 U.S. Copyright Law vests statutory copyright in an article with you or your employer. The right to publish an article can only be given by a written document from you. Without such a document, MIT Press would have permission for one-time publication, but not for the additional forms of dissemination that you, and those who would benefit from your research, have come to depend on.

MIT Press routinely receives requests for permission from:

• Professors and universities wishing to copy articles for their students in both print and electronic format
• Other publishers to include the article (or a portion of the article) in an edited collection of articles, or to translate the article for inclusion in a collection of articles in another language
• Secondary publishers to include the entire contents of a journal in a microfilm, microfiche, or online archival collection, CD-ROM collections, or online databases of journals in a particular discipline
• Document delivery companies that provide copies of articles on demand to individuals and libraries

In order to effectively fulfill the information requirements of your colleagues and others who would benefit from access to your research as noted above, MIT Press asks that you transfer the copyright for your article to MIT Press. Why?

MIT Press assumes responsibility for preventing copyright infringement.

It registers all of its publications with the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.

It has existing relationships with all of the major information brokers. This enables MIT Press to act as an effective focal point for the administration of copyright licenses and applications.

MIT Press continually works to develop additional forms for dissemination of your article.

Some of these forms—such as online databases, CD-ROMs of back issues, cumulative indices and abstract services in various formats or simple reprints—are developed and administered by MIT Press. Other systems are made possible by subcontracts with vendors such as the Copyright Clearance Center whose systems can only represent publications in their entirety.

MIT Press supports your right to reuse your own material easily.

You can:

• Photocopy and distribute the article for your own academic or research purposes in paper or electronic form.
• Republish the article (or a revised version of the article) in another book you write or edit or in an anthology you prepare, giving first publication credit to Leonardo.This applies only to books you author or edit as a whole. When only contributing to a chapter to a new work that someone else is working on, then that editor or publisher needs to contact us to get permission.
• Post your article on your own website or your institution’s author repository, after the specified embargo period (6 months) listed in your publication agreement, as long as you don’t offer it for sale or commercial distribution. Such requests should be directed to MIT Press. Please see the author posting guidelines.

NOTE: Material (text or illustrations) that has been reprinted by permission from third-party sources is, of course, not covered by this agreement unless full rights were given to you (see below).

What about multi-authored articles?

If there is more than one author of the article, each author may submit a signed publication agreement, or the lead author may sign on behalf of all authors if he or she has the authority to act as their agent. Please check off the “for all authors” box if it is applicable on the publication agreement.

What about illustrations?

If an illustration is authored by you, and you wish to give MIT Press only one-time publication rights for it, please indicate this on your image release form, and we will not license the reuse of the illustration outside the context of the article. Otherwise, its reuse will be limited by your publication agreement.

What about material (text or illustrations) reprinted from other sources?

The author is legally responsible to comply with copyright laws and laws of privacy and libel. You must obtain such third-party permissions in advance of your article being published. This includes any illustration that you are using with permission from another copyright holder, such as a photographer, museum or library. Copies of these permissions and/or release forms should be returned with your publication agreement as any permissions requests we receive for that material will need to be referred to the copyright holder.

These third-party materials must be properly credited in the published article. If the person granting permission of an illustration or text specifies particular wording, those instructions must be followed. However, the copyeditor of the article may make minor changes to conform to the journal’s or book's style. Some works have more than one source and each must be cited.

For example:

• A photo of a painting should have a credit line listing both the artist and the photographer.
  Sample: (© 2013 John Smith. Photo by Chris Johnson)
• Translations should have a credit line of the author/copyright holder as well as the translator, if different.
  Sample: (© 2013 John Smith. Translated by Chris Johnson). Alternatively, a note mentioning the translator can be included in references and notes or another suitable location.

Questions?

If you have additional questions, please contact:

Pamela Quick
Permissions Manager
MIT Press
Tel: 617.253.0080
Fax: 617.253.1709
quik@mit.edu or journals-rights@mit.edu