LibGuides: Copyright, Author's Rights, and Generative AI: GenAI & Scholarly Publishing

Increasingly, academic publishers are announcing deals, or the intention to pursue deals, with AI developers. Some publishers have signed agreements on behalf of all their contributors to share their content with AI developers, without consulting the authors who created that content. Others have offered an opt-in approach, presenting each author with an agreement or addendum granting the publisher the right to license their content to these AI partners.

Who Has Announced AI Licensing Deals?

Cambridge University Press has sent published authors a request to sign addendums to their publication agreements to allow for licensing of their content to undisclosed AI partners.
- Cambridge University Press Author FAQ [Archived PDF]
Taylor & Francis has announced a partnership with Microsoft to allow content and data access for AI development.
- Informa PLC Market Update [Archived PDF]

See also the Generative AI Licensing Agreement Tracker maintained by Ithaka S+R. It includes information about existing or in-the-works deals by Wiley, Sage, Oxford University Press, and De Gruyter Brill.

All publishers that have announced deals so far have also announced the intention to grant authors remuneration, as according to their contracts.

Cambridge explains in their FAQ that this could be in the form of a lump sum payment if the data is used “once” in developing an LLM. Alternatively, it could be in the form of continuing royalties based on usage, for example if the data is used as accessible content for an LLM to pull from when prompted.

Harper Collins, a non-academic publisher, is currently offering their authors a fixed lump sum per title for a 3-year license.

Some scholars believe that monetary compensation is less important in academic publishing than correct citation (e.g. Carpenter, 2024). Two publishers (Cambridge and Taylor & Francis) have already stated that part of their partnerships with AI developers will focus on improving or implementing the ability to correctly cite sources.

What Should I Do?

Read all new contracts carefully!

Commercial academic publishers will almost certainly begin to adopt new publication agreements that include language around licensing your content to AI developers and AI providers.

Don't be afraid to ask questions.

If you have concerns about how your already published materials are being or will be used by your publisher, reach out to your publisher contact with those concerns. And if you do not want to sign a new publication agreement without clarifying certain clauses related to AI, or want to negotiate the terms of your agreement for that or any other reason, ask as early as possible in the process.

Say informed about GenAI and related topics.

Make use of the resources provided in this guide to stay up to date on generative AI and its uses, learn about your rights as an author, and find strategies to negotiate your future publication agreements.

A note on BC policies: While there is currently no University-level policy on generative AI and licensing published content, if you have a question about other University policies concerning copyright, please contact the Office of Technology Transfer and Licensing at 2-1682. If you have a question that requires the advice of an attorney, please contact the Office of the General Counsel at 2-0960.