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The AWP Director's Handbook A Compendium of Guidelines and Information
for Directors of Creative Writing Programs A Publication of The Association of Writers & Writing Programs 2012
AWP Policy on Electronic Theses and Dissertations Just as it is important for graduate students in the sciences to protect the patent potential of their work, graduate students in creative writing need to protect the copyright potential—and specifically, first serial and book rights—of work they produce for their capstone creative projects. For this reason, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) recommends the following for situations where electronic archiving and universal access to dissertations or theses is the default:
The problem these recommendations address: Capstone projects in creative writing programs aim, almost in every case, to result in book-length, publishable dissertations or theses. It is not uncommon in many programs to have alumni whose capstone projects were accepted, wholly or in part, for publication by independent or commercial publishers. Without the ability to offer publishers first rights to such work, however—rights that are expended by universal dissemination of EDTs—a student has dramatically reduced prospects for getting such work published after graduate school. Such sales of first serial rights help the work reach a wide public audience. Limiting public access now can ensure the best public access later. Protecting this potential for public distribution is in the best interest of the university as well as the writer who created the work. |
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The AWP Annual report is a comprehensive look at the organization's activities throughout the year.
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