Copyright under the law immediately protects all "original work of authorship" that is "fixed in a tangible medium of expression.

"Original" means a minimal amount of creativity was used in its creation; e.g., a phone book is not covered, but your office notes are

"Fixed in a tangible medium of expression" means that it is stable enough to be perceived or reproduced.

Works that fall under Copyright Law are protected at the moment of creation. However, the burden of proof falls on the creator; you can register your work under copyright.

For information relating to your rights, how to register your copyright, and how to transfer your copyrights to another person, visit the U.S. Copyright Registration Portal.

Open access journals are an alternative to traditional publishing and remove all impediments to information for all levels of researchers. Common features of open access initiatives include no expectation of payment for contributing scholars, free and full availability via the Internet for users to journals, and copyright constraint only in the retaining of integrity, acknowledgement, and citation to the work's author. The Directory of Open Access Journals is a well known aggregator of free journals. It will only accept works that are peer-reviewed, have editorial quality, have a scholarly nature, and are serial in format.

For more information on open access journals, please visit:

• Directory of Open Access Journals
• Budapest Open Access Initiative