Copyright licences: how it works for JIPLP

Contributors to the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP) are required to grant a licence to Oxford University Press to use their contributions in periodical format and online.  Following its successful trial earlier this year, JIPLP has now been selected to operate OUP's the new licensing system with effect from 15 September.  Let OUP explain further:

Until now, authors have been asked to complete a paper licence, then fax or post it in to Oxford Journals Production.  This is increasingly outdated, when compared to the rest of the production process, almost all of which is now digitally managed.

Oxford Journals has therefore built an online licensing interface and database which allows corresponding authors to digitally sign and accept their licences. The completed licence will be saved and securely archived in three ways – in a licence database maintained by Oxford Journals, in an email attachment to Oxford Journals’ Rights Department, and as an email attachment to the corresponding author. The author will also be able to go back to the online system at any time to view all accepted licences.

The introduction of the new system will greatly help expedite the collection of licences for all papers, which should in turn result in faster publication times. At present waiting for the faxed/posted licence can occasionally slow publication of articles. Provision will still be made for authors who need to sign their licence offline.