It's a wave . . .

Charlie and I have discussed CC licensing and I'm pleased to say that (some time ago) TWI decided to offer authors the option of copyrighting their work in this way.

It's pretty likely that TWI will make it standard to publish all work with a creative commons license with the copyright resting with TWI. That leaves the author with rights to the work and perhaps addresses the issue I mention here . . .

In the humanities, P&T committees (our colleagues at the local level) have been very slow to grant any authority to an electronic journal. That's one reason why TWI and other journals copyright the articles they publish in the traditional way. There's the tendency for some to view anything on the Web as "self-published," which diminishes the work's impact on one's movement up the hierarchy (if you're the author). With the copyright assigned to the journal, an article wears the seal of approval more prominently. When the author holds it, the rhetorical effect of the copyright is somewhat diminished. I am not saying that this is the way it should be, and the atmosphere of acceptance on the basis of merit and peer review is improving.

Dave Blakesley
Co-Editor, The Writing Instructor
http://www.writinginstructor.com