The Interfolio Blog

We've been talking a lot here at Interfolio lately about intellectual property protection, privacy and how academics can maintain better control over their work online. 

Many in higher ed balk at the idea of putting their work online because of the possibility of someone copying it completely. Others worry they'll infringe on exclusive publishing clauses enforced by the journals in which they've published work. Still others simply don't want their documents -- syllabi, course ideas, resumes, CVs, teaching evaluations, etc. -- published for the whole work to see.

However, by trying to keep your work offline, you often miss an opportunity to control how your research gets published. Students, peers and journals have begun to publish documents and upload presentations online, without the author's permission, in places you cannot control or access. So instead of engaging in increasingly futile efforts to keep your work behind closed doors, here are three tips on how to allow online access to your work while maintaining control over your documents. 

1. Establish a professional web presence where you can share your work. People will always default to finding what they are looking for in the easiest place. And just because you don't want to publish your class materials doesn't mean someone else won't. Don't believe us? Check out this week's article on Course Hero. Make it easy for people who search online for your work to find it...on YOUR site. If you publish your documents on your own site, you can control access, track who views them or downloads them, and share them proactively with groups you designate. Some people may still seek the documents or files out elsewhere, but they'll be a lot easier to find on your own site where you can maintain control. There are a number of tools you can use, and we've been working on one option we just launched called Portfolio... check it out here.
2. Pay attention to what you sign when you get an article published.  In many cases, academic journals are starting to recognize the need for open access to scholarly work and are publishing articles online to allow greater access for the general public. Your professional web site or online portfolio should include links to these types articles you have published. If the journal does not have an online component, try to negotiate to be able to include all or part of the piece on your own site, where far more readers will be able to access, comment on and learn from it. Some academics have worked with the press to publish work online in draft form and allow colleagues and peers to add comments and suggest revisions. 
3. Look into using Creative Commons.  Creative Commons is used by authors, educators, artists and others to protect work online while still allowing for greater collaboration and interaction. Share your work without fear! Learn about how Creative Commons licensing can help you protect you work while taking control of distribution. The best part? It's free.