Authors Alliance is proud to partner with the following organizations in support of academic authors:
About the Partner Program
The Authors Alliance Partner Program helps us support academic authors by fostering close collaboration with their universities—most often through their libraries—to develop quality resources, advocacy, and tools that support a more open and equitable information ecosystem. For many academic authors, their library is the first place they turn to for advice on publishing, copyright, and scholarly communications. Through the Partner Program, universities are able to draw on Authors Alliance’s deep legal and publishing expertise to expand support for their authors. Universities that are part of our Partner Program support Authors Alliance in the following:
Publishing authoritative, open access guides to legal issues facing authors. Our popular series of legal guides have helped thousands of authors navigate fair use, open-access publishing, publication contracts, permissions, and more. In late 2023 we are publishing a new guide, “Writing About Real People,” addressing defamation, rights of publicity, and rights of privacy, with practical guidance for academic authors on issues such as working with archival materials and interacting with an IRB.
Offering workshops, book talks, and other programs that give authors an opportunity to better understand why information law matters for their work and how they can take action to support good information policy. In 2023 our book talks alone (live and recorded) reached over 20,000 viewers, with talks covering topics such as how the prevailing copyright-internet regulatory system came to be (Jessica Litman, Digital Copyright); how emerging corporate structures leverage technology to mine data about individuals and researchers (Sarah Lamdan, Data Cartels); and pathways forward for open access and open data (Peter Baldwin, Athena Unbound).
Directly intervening with and on behalf of academic authors in support of fair use, the public domain, and access to knowledge. In the last year, this included briefs on behalf of authors supporting controlled digital lending, transformative fair use, and free speech. We also spearheaded efforts before the US Copyright Office, for example, to maintain and expand DMCA exemptions for academic researchers engaged in text and data mining.
Interested in Joining the Partner Program?
Authors Alliance welcomes inquiries about joining our Partner Program! The Partner Program is primarily geared toward U.S. and Canadian institutions, but we are happy to respond to inquiries from others as well.
We view this program as an opportunity for true collaboration. We have, in many instances, been able to work with partners to bolster local outreach and training, give feedback on proposed policies or initiatives affecting authors, and, in some cases, offer consultations with individual authors where additional expertise is needed. In 2024, we were able to secure outside grant funding to allow us to travel to many Partner Program member campuses to offer in-person workshops, events, and other training, and we are actively working to secure funding to do the same in 2025 and beyond.
For 2025, Authors Alliance Partner Program contributions levels are:
SUSTAINING: $5,000 annually
SPONSORING: $3,000 annually
SUPPORTING: $1,500 annually
If you have questions about joining the Authors Alliance Partner Program, we would be pleased to hear from you. You can reach Dave Hansen, Authors Alliance’s Executive Director, at dave@authorsalliance.org.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Arcadia—a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin—for a 2018-20 grant to support this initiative. We’re also grateful to the pilot partners who helped us shape the original Partner Program, including our workshop in a box, webinar, and issue brief resources.