Research Article: “An Empirical Study of Law Journal Copyright Practices”

The following article appears in the The John Marshall Review Of Intellectual Property Law.
Title
An Empirical Study of Law Journal Copyright Practices
Authors
Brian Frye
Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky School of Law
Christopher Ryan
Ph.D. Candidate, Vanderbilt University
Franklin Runge
Faculty Services Librarian, University of Kentucky College of Law
Source
The John Marshall Review of Intellectual Property Law
207 (2017)
via John Marshall Inst. Repository
Abstract

This article presents an empirical study of the copyright practices of American law journals in relation to copyright ownership and fair use, based on a 24-question survey.
It concludes that many American law journals have adopted copyright policies that are inconsistent with the expectations of legal scholars and the scope of copyright protection. Specifically, many law journals have adopted copyright policies that effectively preclude open-access publishing, and unnecessarily limit the fair use of copyrighted works.
In addition, it appears that some law journals may not understand their own copyright policies. This article proposes the creation of a Code of Copyright Best Practices for Law Journals in order to encourage both open-access publishing and fair use.

Direct to Full Text Article (40 pages; PDF)

Filed under: News, Open Access, Publishing