Author agreement

Authors submitting to Hemispheres will agree to the terms of this Contributor Letter Agreement, which goes into effect on acceptance of the submission. Authors keep copyright to their submission under the terms of this agreement.

CONTRIBUTOR LETTER AGREEMENT

This Contributor Letter Agreement (this “Agreement”) for Hemispheres: The Tufts University Undergraduate Journal of International Affairs  (“Journal”) dated as of ___________ (“Effective Date”) is by and between Trustees of Tufts College, a Massachusetts non-profit educational corporation with a principal place of business at 136 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02111 on behalf of the Tufts University Libraries (hereinafter “Tufts”), and [Name] [entity type and address] (individually, an “Author” and collectively, “Authors”). Each of Tufts and the Authors are referred to individually as a “Party” and collectively as the “Parties”. 

(1.) License.  The Author hereby grants to Tufts, a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty-free, sub-licensable perpetual license to display, reproduce and distribute the work being submitted to Tufts by the Journal (“Submission”) or portions thereof in print and electronic format and in any medium. The Author acknowledges and agrees that Tufts may grant these same rights to the Journal and its sponsoring associations. Additionally, the Author grants the right to both Tufts, the Journal, and the sponsoring associations of the Journal to enter into agreements with third-party entities that grant any or all of the rights the author has granted to Tufts herein. This may include the rights necessary to print, index and abstract the Submission. Tufts may make and keep multiple copies of the work for purposes of security, backup, preservation and access; and may migrate the work to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation and access. This Agreement does not represent a transfer of copyright to Tufts. 

(2.) Warranty.  The Author represents and warrants, to the best of the Author’s knowledge, that: 

a. the Submission is the original work of the Author ;

b. the Submission does not infringe the copyright or violate any proprietary rights, rights of privacy or       publicity, or any other rights of any third party;

c. the Author has the authority as sole author and/or on behalf of my co-authors to grant the rights contained in this Agreement and to enter into and execute this Agreement; 

d. the Submission contains no content promoting for-profit companies, goods or services; and 

e. the Submission contain no libelous, defamatory or other unlawful materials. 

(3.) Permissions. The Author further represents and warrants that the Author has obtained all necessary rights to permit Tufts to reproduce and distribute the Submission. Alternatively, I represent that my use of third party material is allowed because the material is in the public domain or I have performed a fair use analysis and reasonably believe my use is permitted. Any third-party owned content is clearly identified and acknowledged within the work..  

(4.) Open Access. The Journal follows an open-access publishing model, meaning that all accepted Submissions will be publicly accessible on the Internet immediately upon publication. The Author acknowledges and agrees that the Author may share a draft or preprint version of the Submission through a personal or institutional website prior to its publication in the Journal; however, the Author agrees to refrain from distributing the accepted, peer-reviewed version of the Submission prior to its publication by the Journal. 

(5.) Liability. The Author agrees to be responsible for any claims, losses, damages or legal actions incurred by any of the Tufts University Indemnitees arising from the content of the Submission, dissemination or publication of the Submission, or any breach or violation of this Agreement by the Author. 

(6.) Declining to Use the Submission.  Tufts or its sub-licensees may, in its sole discretion, decline to display the Submission, or remove the Submission from distribution or display by the Tufts University Libraries, by sending written notification to the Author.  

(7. ) Exclusivity. After acceptance by the Journal, the Author may not submit the Submission to another undergraduate research journal. The Author may use the Submission as the basis of a submission to another publication type such as a conference or academic journal, and will acknowledge the original publication in the Journal. 

(8.) Use of Name.  Neither Party shall use the name of the other in any form of publicity or advertising without the prior written permission of the other, provided that Tufts and its sub-licensees shall provide proper attribution to the Author for the Submission. For use of the Tufts University name, requests for permission shall be directed in writing to Tufts University Office of University Counsel. Authors are welcome to share and promote their accepted Submission using the Journal name without seeking prior permission. 

(9.) Entire Agreement; Miscellaneous.  This Agreement and its attachments, if any, constitute the entire understanding between the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof; supersedes any and all prior understandings and agreements, oral and written, relating hereto; and may be amended at any time only in a writing signed by both parties. This Agreement shall be governed exclusively by, and construed and interpreted under the law of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the applicable U.S. Federal Law, without reference to conflict of law principles. 

Last updated May 2025