Agreement for electronic publication

1 Permission to publish electronic material

1.1 The author hereby grants USN a free, non-exclusive right to make the submitted electronic material, hereinafter called the material, available in electronic form via USN Open Archive, which means publishing it on the internet.

1.2 The author is aware of, understands and accepts the consequences of publication via the internet. Among other things, such publication means that other websites can include links to the material. If the author plans to publish the material through a publishing company or in a journal, the author should be aware that this could have consequences when the material is also made available in USN Open Archive. See clause 3.3. 

2 USN’s obligations/responsibility

2.1 USN shall make the material available in the form in which it was submitted to USN, with text, tables, graphics, images, multimedia content etc., but with such technical adaptations as are deemed necessary for publication on the internet.

2.2 USN shall endeavour to protect the material from being changed by unauthorised persons/third parties insofar as this is possible given the technical solutions we use.

2.3 USN shall not have any rights to the material over and above the rights explicitly set out in this agreement.

2.4 USN is not in any way responsible for the content of material published via USN Open Archive or for any other behaviour/actions of the author. USN shall not be liable for any damage or loss that arises in connection with this agreement, unless the damage or loss was caused wilfully or by gross negligence on the part of USN or a party for which USN is responsible. This liability shall under no circumstances cover indirect damage or losses.

3 The author’s obligations/responsibility

3.1 The author shall comply with USN’s guidelines for publication in USN Open Archive.

3.2 When entering into agreements with journals, publishing companies etc. for making available material covered by this agreement, the author shall endeavour to safeguard USN’s rights pursuant to the present agreement as far as possible.

3.3 The author must clarify the consequences of publishing material in USN Open Archive in relation to publishing companies, journals or other copyright holders. The author guarantees that he/she is the author of the submitted material and has complete freedom to dispose of it in its entirety. If any other parties have rights that rule out publishing in electronic form via USN Open Archive without the permission of a third party, the author must obtain the necessary consent.

If the material has more than one author, the author who has submitted the material guarantees that he/she has obtained the necessary consent from the other authors.

If the material or parts thereof has previously been published in a journal or by a publishing company, or if there are plans to publish the materials or parts thereof in a journal or through a publishing company, the author guarantees that he/she has obtained the necessary consent from the journal/publishing company.

If the document or parts thereof contains photographs, drawings or other copyright material, the author guarantees that he/she has obtained the necessary consent from third parties in advance.

USN recommends the author to obtain written consent from co-authors, journals, publishing companies or third parties, and that these consents be filed so that they can be presented if required.

3.4 The author guarantees that the material neither contains material that can be deemed to be in violation of applicable Norwegian law nor contains links to any such material.

3.5 If USN should become liable in damages in relation to a third party because the author has not fulfilled his/her obligations pursuant to this agreement, the author shall indemnify USN.

4 Transfer and termination of the agreement

4.1 USN can only transfer its rights and/or obligations pursuant to this agreement to a third party on the condition that the author’s interests pursuant to this agreement are safeguarded in the transfer agreement.

4.2 USN has an unlimited right to suspend the availability of the document if there are reasonable grounds for so doing.

4.3 The author can submit a written application to his/her department to terminate the agreement. Such termination will result in the document being removed from USN Open Archive.