IEEE EDITORIAL STYLE MANUAL
Open Access
http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/oapa.pdf
Q: Do authors need to sign an IEEE copyright transfer form for an OA article?
Not in every case. The standard document for an author to authorize publication of an article supported by an article
processing charge (APC) is the IEEE Open Access Publishing Agreement (OAPA). This form transfers copyright to
IEEE, while assuring that IEEE will make the article freely available to all visitors to IEEE Xplore. The OAPA gives
IEEE full authority to resolve any complaints of abuse (such as plagiarism) of the authors' content.
IEEE will make exceptions for authors who have special requirements from their funding agencies to publish their
OA articles with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Two such funding agencies are the Wellcome
Trust and the Research Councils of the United Kingdom (RCUK), both of which require authors to use the CC BY
license. IEEE will accept use of the CC BY license in these cases. Authors with a funding requirement to use the CC
BY license should not sign the OACF, but instead should request a CC BY license.
Q: What if the authors choose both OAPA and are also US Government employees? Which copyright form do they
sign?
ANS: Section (2) of the OAPA copyright form.
How do an author obtain the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license?
Authors who choose to submit their manuscripts under a CC BY license, or whose research has been supported by
any funding agency and are required to submit their manuscripts under a CC BY license, will need to provide a letter
or e-mail to the editorial staff or the IEEE Intellectual Property Rights Office, in which they must clearly state their
interest in submitting their manuscript under a CC BY license. The letter must also provide basic information about
the manuscript (e.g., author names, article title, and IEEE publication title to which the manuscript is being
submitted). Authors will receive an acceptance letter indicating that the CC BY license has been approved.
Authors who submit a manuscript and opt for a CC BY license are required to accept the Terms & Conditions of
IEEE in order for their paper to be published and posted in IEEE Xplore. Authors who choose to submit under a CC
BY license will be subject to the publishing policies and procedures of IEEE.
The IEEE Open Access Publishing Agreement (OAPA)
With the OA publication model comes a new IEEE Open Access Publishing Agreement, which is available for
immediate use. The agreement serves four important purposes:
1. An explicit promise is made to OA authors that IEEE will present their work with free access to all users.
2. OA authors are assured that they are free to post the final, published version of their articles on their personal
Web sites, their employers' sites, or their funding agency's sites.
3. The OAPA gives IEEE sufficient legal rights to resolve any complaints of abuse (such as infringement and
plagiarism) of the authors’ content.
4. The OAPA allows users to copy the work, as well as to translate it or to reuse it for text/data mining, as long as
the usage is for non-commercial purposes.
IEEE authors who want to submit their manuscripts under an OA license are encouraged to use the IEEE OAPA.
Open Access copyright lines
OAPA:
1949-3029 © 2013 IEEE. Translations and content mining are permitted for academic research only. Personal use is
also permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See
http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
U.S. Government + OAPA