The purpose of copyright is to regulate and create a fair balance between the creator of a work and the users’ rights. The law, therefore, combines reasonable exceptions with limitations that serve the public interest. One example of this is the possibility to copy a journal article for private use without consent from the author.  

If the author assigns his/her rights to a publisher the author can no longer make decisions concerning use without consulting the publisher. The publisher may limit restrictions of use through license agreements.

Copyright and Self-archiving

1. Published by Lund University. The author retains copyright and can make the publication freely available unless other agreements prohibiting this have been made.
2. International scientific journals. The author has assigned (parts of) his/her rights to the publisher. Most publishers allow authors to make their articles freely available provided certain conditions are fulfilled. If you want to learn more about the policy of the publisher that published your articles contact Lund University Libraries Head Office, publicera@remove-this-part.lub.lu.se or find the policy of publisher in the SHERPA/RoMEO database. 
3. Dissertations. Monographs – If published by the department, the dissertation can be made freely available. If the monograph is published by a publisher, the publisher must be contacted and asked for permission to self-archive in LUP.
4. Composite dissertations – The author holds the copyright to the comprehensive summary and can make it freely available. Whether articles included can be made open access or not, depends on agreements made with the publisher. Lund University has general agreements with the following publishers: IEEE, Elsevier, Cambridge University Press and Portland Press. 

Hej,
Jag ber att få tillgängliggöra en kopia av (bidragets namn), publicerad i (publikationens namn ). Kopian kommer att bli fritt tillgänglig i Lunds Universitets Publikationer (http://www.lu.se/forskning/avhandlingar-och-publikationer ), Lunds Universitets institutionella arkiv.
Mvh,

Dear
I am writing to ask for permission to self-archive a copy of my article (publication title …), published in (publication name, volume, issue, pages). The copy will be made freely available through Lund University Publications (http://www.lu.se/lund-university/research/publications-and-dissertations ), the institutional repository at Lund University.
Best regards,

Before publication

Publishing in journals:
If you have the possibility to choose between equal journals when submitting your manuscript you should find out about their policies towards open access and self-archiving before submitting your manuscript. Choose a journal that allows self-archiving as first choice. SHERPA/RoMEO is a searchable database which collects  information about  different publishers’ policies on self-archiving.

• When your manuscript has been accepted you usually receive a copyright agreement that you need to sign. Read the agreement carefully and make sure you keep, at least, the following rishts:
  right to self-archive your publication in the open archive at Lund University (or another open archive)
• right to use the article in future educational contexts
• …and, if you are working on your dissertation, right to include the article as part of your composite dissertation and to make it freely available in Lund University Publications.

Open access to publications is becoming a demand from many research funders. You should use the SPARC Author’s Addendum if the publisher’s agreement is not satisfactory.

If you publish a book, dissertation or contribute with a book chapter to an anthology you can ask for permission to self-archive your publication, maybe  a certain time after the original publication (e.g. 1 year, 2 years…). Ellerströms and Gidlunds are examples of two Swedish publishers that have allowed self-archiving of dissertations in LUP without embargo. Still, when it comes to books, book chapters and dissertations (monographs) and the possibility to self-archive, you need to make a request for every separate publication.