Policies

Rights of Authors

San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (ISSN 1546-2366) is one of the original signatories of The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI). SFEWS adheres to the BOAI definition of open access: that users have the right to "read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles.” SFEWS has chosen to publish all articles under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. This broad license was developed to facilitate open access to, and free use of, original works of all types, and has been adopted by a growing group of authors and artists. Applying this standard license will provide strong legal protection to you as an author and those wishing to use your work, and thus ensure your right to make your work freely and openly available. As in our original policy, authors will retain copyright of the work.

Rights of California Digital Library

The California Digital Library has the right to view and display, store and copy (for preservation purposes), and distribute all eScholarship content. Basic policies for eScholarship are delineated here. All eScholarship content may be browsed and downloaded at no cost and with no access restrictions. Once an article is published in an eScholarship journal or peer-reviewed series, it may not be removed.

Embargo Policies

SFEWS, in the long-standing tradition of scholarly publication to ensure responsible coverage of technical topics, occasionally makes available scientific findings to interested parties (e.g., peer reviewers, resource managers, policy-makers, public information officers, etc.) before the journal’s official publication date, with the express understanding that general coverage occur only after that publication date. To make clear our embargo policies, we have adopted the following guidelines to assist those in understanding them and how to act ethically when using them.

Primary Guidelines

The following guidelines apply to articles published in SFEWS. SFEWS’s policy is to not discuss any manuscript submitted to the journal with anyone other than the corresponding author before the manuscript has been accepted for publication in the journal and assigned a publication date. Unless otherwise noted, all information provided by SFEWS is subject to a press embargo whose date and time will be clearly stated.
It is our policy that, if we choose to press release an article, we will release advance notice of that article, including a link to the PDF, to our restricted media list, typically 2-7 days ahead (or other specified time) of publication. Distribution and use of all advance materials—including the content of media releases and articles—are subject to the SFEWS embargo policy. The releases include contact information for the corresponding authors and/or institutional press officers, along with relevant institutional affiliations, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.
SFEWS believes that this embargo policy serves scientists, journalists, and the public by ensuring that the article is available to everyone when it is reported in the media. The policy also allows fair and equal access to our content, ensuring that no one reporter or organization receives preferential treatment or advantage over any other. It also gives the media the opportunity to research and accurately report on scientific articles while ensuring that publicity does not appear before the articles are accessible to the public. Furthermore, it gives authors the chance to comment on research before it is reported in the media. It is likewise designed to give public information officers adequate time to coordinate coverage with scientists at their institutions.

Eligibility to Access Embargoed Materials

Journalists and freelancers writing for daily or weekly publications that are registered with EurekAlert are eligible to receive advance, embargoed material from SFEWS. Science bloggers of good standing may also be eligible to receive advance, embargoed material from SFEWS. Bloggers wishing to apply for inclusion in our press list should do so through the emailing a request to the Editor-in-Chief, and should include links to six of their own blog postings that were written in the last six months and that discuss the content of primary research papers. In general, such posts should conform to the guidelines set out by Research Blogging.Org. Public Information Officers (PIOs) are eligible to receive advance, embargoed materials from their own institutions only. Eligible individuals must agree to follow the terms of the embargo policy. Individuals who break the embargo policy will be removed from the media release circulation list for a period to be determined by the Editor-in-Chief of SFEWS.

Journalists, PIOs, and bloggers are asked to credit the journal, SFEWS, as the source of the study and, in addition, to provide a link to the journal and/or the original paper in any online coverage. Supporting materials provided by SFEWS, such as graphics, are to be properly credited to the appropriate source, which will be stated in the press release.

Conditions of the SFEWS Embargo Policy

Stories or reports on articles and other selected materials may not be published, broadcast, posted online, or shared publicly before the embargo date and time. Precise embargo dates and times will be clearly marked on all advance material.
Advance material is for background research only. Recipients may share embargoed materials only with experts in the field to seek comment, but such materials must be clearly identified as embargoed and must include the embargo date and time. Recipients are responsible for taking all necessary steps to ensure that all third parties honor the embargo.
Public information officers may not distribute embargoed materials in any publicly accessible location before the embargo date. However, embargoed materials may be distributed to the media by public information officers one (1) week (or other specified time) before the embargo date, using services such as EurekAlert, which has strict policies governing media access to embargoed materials. Such releases must be clearly identified as embargoed and must include the embargo date and time. PIOs are responsible for taking all necessary steps to ensure that all third parties honor the embargo.
Failure to adhere to the embargo policy will result in suspension of privileged access to all embargoed materials from SFEWS publications.