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Legal Information


Your rights when you publish on the publication server

In contrast to many commercial publishers, when a work is first published on the publication server of the University of Potsdam, the rights of use of the published work remain with the author.

In accordance with the Open Access Guidelines for our publication server, by signing the publication agreement, authors only transfer the simple right of use for online publishing and the right for long-term archiving to the university. Authors may still publish their work in print or online elsewhere.


Publishing Agreement

In a publishing agreement to be signed by hand, you affirm...

...that you grant the University of Potsdam, represented by the Universitätsverlag Potsdam, the simple and permanent right to publish the work on the Internet and

...that the rights of third parties are not violated by the publication and that the University of Potsdam is released from any claims by third parties,

...that the German National Library/Deutsche Nationalbibliothek may archive the publication and make it publicly available on its servers,

...that the work may be converted into another format for reasons of archiving and preservation, and

...in the case of dissertations, additionally that the work corresponds to the work released for publication and is identical to the print copies submitted at the same time.

What legal options do you have to make your work freely accessible online?

What rights do users of my work have?