Q1: What rights can an Academia Sinica (AS) employee obtain for works of authorship created and completed in the course of or arising out of the employee’s independent research duties?
A1: When completing a work in the course of or arising out of the independent research duty, the AS employee not only enjoys the moral rights as an author. The economic copyrights to the work are now also assigned by AS to the employee-author except in the following four situations where the economic rights to the work remain in AS:
1. Computer programs
2. Works resulting from sponsored research projects
3. Works completed in the course of or arising out of assigned official duties
4. Works completed with resources appropriated by AS for specific purposes.
Q2: When the economic rights to a copyrighted work remain in AS in accordance with the Guidelines for Copyright-related Matters, does the employee-author have the right to license its use?
A2: No. When the economic rights to the works remain in AS, the employee-author, while in most cases retaining the right to publicly release the work, does not have the right to “license” others (including the publisher) to use its work. The employee-author shall through the affiliated institute report to AS (using the "Application Form for Copyright of the Employee(s) of Academia Sinica" provided by the Department of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer website) of the completed work. Licensing of such works is within the purview of AS.
Q3: Is a contract-based assistant entitled to obtain the economic copyrights to works created in the course of or arising out of the employment?
A3: Works created and completed by a contract-based assistant within the scope of the research project, under which the assistant is employed, and upon the request or under the instruction of the Project PI are considered “works completed in the course of or arising out of assigned official duties” whose economic copyrights remain in AS rather than the contract-based assistant. However, if a contract-based assistant independently creates copyrighted works outside the scope of the research project and completes without request or instruction of the Project PI, the economic rights belong to the contract-based assistant, provided that the works are not computer programs, results of sponsored research projects, or works completed with resources appropriated by AS for specific purposes.
Q4: Is there any limitation or condition attached to the economic copyrights assigned to the employee-author in accordance with the Guidelines for Copyright-related Matters?
A4: Except for the cases in which the work has been exclusively licensed without reservation or where there are other legitimate reasons approved by AS, AS retains a perpetual, royalty-free, and non-exclusive right to use the work for research and educational purposes. (See further details in Q6)
Q5: Do employee-authors have the freedom to determine the publisher for publication of their works?
A5: For works whose economic copyrights are assigned to the employee-authors, the publishers are solely determined by the employee-authors. For works where the economic rights remain in AS, AS may take into consideration of the employee-author’s preference in determining whether to publish the work with AS Press or with other publishers.
Q6: Does an employee-author need to inform the publisher when submitting journal articles or other works for publication of the AS open access policy, which allows AS to retain a perpetual, royalty-free, and non-exclusive right to use the original works for research and educational purposes? Furthermore, is AS's open access policy applied to the print format of the works?
A6: Except for the following situations approved by AS, an employee-author submitting journal articles or other works for publication should inform the publisher of AS open access policy:
1. work exclusively licensed before the implementation of the Guidelines;
2. other legitimate reasons for not permitting open access.
The AS’s reserved right to open access applies only to the 'original work' completed by the employee-author and does not extend to the print format of the publisher.
Q7: What is the difference between AS's open access policy and the publisher's option for authors to make their works freely accessible to readers?
A7: The publisher's option for free access involves authors paying a fee upon submission of their work. In return, the publisher makes the 'published work' freely available for public reading, downloading, or access. This approach aims to enhance the visibility and impact of the publication, thereby increasing the exposure of academic output.
In contrast, AS's open access policy pertains to the 'original work' and retains to itself the right to make the work available for public use for research and educational purposes. This policy balances the assignment of economic rights to individual employee-authors with AS's mission to disseminate research results. It does not charge employee-authors any fees, nor does it require authors to choose open access publishing when submitting their works to publishers.
Q8: How would revenues derived from economic rights be allocated?
A8: If the economic rights are assigned to the employee-authors, all revenues derived therefrom belong to the employee-author and are not subject to distribution. If the economic rights to the work remain in AS, 80% of the remains after deducting necessary expenses shall be allocated to the employee-author(s) and 20% to the national treasury or funding agencies. In special cases, the allocation ratio may be determined otherwise through a special approval process.
Q9: Is an employee-author required to openly share the work of computer program?
A9: No. While it is not uncommon to share data and software among computer scientists and AS now allows employee-authors to share their copyrighted computer programs with certain open-source licenses, the AS employee-authors are not required to do so. It is up to the employee-author to determine whether or not to openly share the computer program works in the first place.
Q10: If an employee-author chooses to open-source their computer programs, how could they select the licensing terms?
A10: In principle, an employee-author should avoid selecting licensing terms with patent grants, such as Apache or GNU-GPL licenses. On the other hand, if the work completed by the employee-author incorporates contents released under prior Apache or GNU-GPL licenses, requiring the use of the same licensing terms for further licensing, AS will not file patents for that computer program work.
Q11: Can employee-authors commercially license their computer programs on their own?
A11: No. The economic rights to computer programs remain in AS. Except for certain open-source licenses permitted under the Guidelines, an employee-author is not allowed to grant patent licenses or commercial usage rights for a fee. An employee-author shall report computer program works produced through the affiliated institute to AS for any commercial licensing. The allocation of any revenue generated therefrom shall be subject to the general distribution rules applicable to other research and development results.
Copyright-Related Matters QA