Copyright protection and risk prevention in journals' digital publishing agreements

[Purpose] To help publishing institutions of academic journals amend agreements with digital publishing providers.[Methodology]The authors analyze the typical risks and terms in digital publishing agreements with case study method.[Findings]The risks in digital publishing agreements mainly are: journal publishing institutions conclude agreement with digital publishing provider while there are defections in agreements with papers' autors,conclude exclusive agreement with more than one digital publishing provider,some terms in agreements restrict publishing institutions' communicating content and copyright utilization,some unfair terms exist such as the agreement will be renewed automatically for a new period. [Conclusions]The typical terms and their correction suggestions to avoid legal risks are given,including the following four kinds: terms about agreements' entities,terms while concluding agreements with more than one digital publishing provider,terms along with the agreements concluded with authors,unfair terms.