Question - Sabbatical Works

While on sabbatical, a professor in the nursing program writes a textbook. Although it originally was not her intention to make use of the college's resources, she ended up using two student assistants to help her complete the book in order to meet her publication deadline. She also made use of a college lab, her college office, and the college's fax and telephone lines while working on the book. Does the professor own the textbook's copyright?

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Tough call. Although the book was written by the professor while on sabbatical, she used substantial college resources (college paid student assistants, college lab, college office, phone and fax) to create it. If these resources are greater than those typically offered other faculty members writing textbooks, ownership may vest in the college and not her. On the other hand, textbooks generally are considered "scholarly works" and many institutions have created an exception for scholarly works in order to provide an incentive for their development, asserting that the rights in such works vest in the faculty members who create them. Ideally, faculty members and their institutions should enter into agreements before the faculty members' work begins. That way they can address issues of ownership, use of resources, licensing, etc. and eliminate later confusion.