Please visit the SPARC author rights resource page for more information and resources on how you can retain your rights and publish in OA journals.
Also, take a look at the Creative Commons page to explore their alternative take on copyright by empowering you to safely and efficiently share what you create.
Charles W. Bailey's overview of author's rights.
A publisher's copyright policy will outline what sorts of archiving is allowed. Many publishers allow the archiving or submittal of pre-prints and/or post-prints of articles to repositories.
WITH A SPARC AUTHOR ADDENDUM The form below can be attached to and submitted with any publisher agreement. Feel free to use this form when you are submitting to a non-OA journal.
WITH A CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE License your own work through Creative Commons and make your own choices about attribution, share alike, commercial uses, and derivative works.
BY PUBLISHING IN AN OA JOURNAL Explore the Directory of Open Access Journals to find a peer-reviewed scholarly journal that supports your research.
BY SELF ARCHIVING Check out the SHERPA/RoMEO database to find out whether or not your favorite publications allow the archiving or a post-print or pre-print of your article to an institutional or discipline repository.