Licensing Principles

License Agreements

Standard License Terms

CzechELib Standard License Agreement represents a set of licensing principles that create a base line for further negotiations. We understand that not all of the provisions of the draft may suit you or the type of resources you offer, nevertheless please consider the Agreement as a specification of conditions that CzechELib would like to achieve with all the publishers/distributors. The license terms for individual Electronic Information Resources (EIRs) are subject to individual negotiations between NTK and the publisher/distributor of the EIR, taking into account any specific characteristics of the particular EIR.

We would prefer to keep the Agreement as is, however, if you wish to use your own version of a License Agreement, please send us your proposal for our lawyers to examine.

Standard License Agreement 2023 NTK-PUBLISHER template (pdf)

Standard License Agreement 2023 NTK-DISTRIBUTOR template (pdf)

Duration of License Agreements

The duration of license agreements follows the approved Methodology for Setting the Duration of License Agreements (in Czech only).

Simplified summary of the main rules:

  • EIRs containing journals (which may be influenced by Open Access), whether it is an aggregator or a primary publisher: 3 years
  • EIRs that do not contain journals (other types) - citation databases, factual databases, e-books, etc. - based on their history:
    • Completely new or newly added in 2018-2022 (CzechELib): 3 years
    • "Established" (already part of the consortium before CzechELib): 5 years
  • Transformative agreement - possibility of flexible adjustment (e.g., offering a longer period is advantageous and desirable)
  • Evaluation tools (SciVal, InCites, etc.): 1 year

Concluded License Agreements

All concluded license agreements are published:

Register of Contracts act

  • The contract becomes valid after being signed by both parties
  • However, it is effective only after being published in Register of Contracts
  • Any invoice issued before effective date is void
  • Unit prices may be redacted, total price must be disclosed (also in metadata)
  • GDPR related stuff is of course redacted too