copyright licensing
Depositing first page of Version of Record in institution repository
<p>Some of my university colleagues deposit the first page only of the Version of Record of their articles in our institution's repository. Only the first page is deposited because the license agreements with the publishers do not allow the Version of Record (the final published version) to be deposited. Instead, they only allow depositing the Accepted Version (before proofing and typesetting). My colleagues prefer to post the first page of the Version of Record instead of the full Accepted Version. Any thoughts on whether the posting of the first page only of the Version of Record is a violation of the license agreement? The agreements are silent on this matter.</p>

<p>One concern regards copyright violation. With or without assignment of copyright, the publisher still holds copyright in the artistic elements of the published article (the typesetting). One might, however, defend oneself against an infringement suit with a fair use defense. </p>

<p>The more likely concern is breach of contract. If the contract underlying the publication says "don't post the version of record", then it is a breach of contract to post a part of the version of record. You could try defending yourself in such a case with the claim that the contract is ambiguous, and that it is just as reasonable to construe the contract language as saying "don't post the entire thing", but the success of such a defense would depend on what exactly the contract says.</p>

<p>Needless to say, even if your defense in the lawsuit succeeds, you may have burned a bridge, and then you may have to sue them in the future, if you want to publish with that publisher in the future (to somehow argue that they have no legal right to decline subsequent submissions). Whereas, if you ask for and get permission to post that first page, these issues won't arise. Alternatively, if/when the first page becomes available via Jstor, you can link to the Jstor page. It is also highly likely that the publisher will not care and would not pursue sanctions against an author, but they might care.</p>
