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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsAsk for written answers to two separate questions before you sign or submit: what may the publisher do with your work, and what may you do with AI while creating or revising it? A contract grants rights; an AI policy sets operating and disclosure rules. Neither automatically replaces the other, and a policy for a journal article may be entirely different from a policy for a book.
Use the checklist below with an editor, agent, or publishing lawyer. It is a negotiation and review aid, not individualized legal advice. Ask for an amendment or clarification when existing language is ambiguous.
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Start by separating a contract grant from an AI policy
A publishing agreement determines which rights you transfer, reserve, or license. An AI policy may tell authors and staff which tools are allowed, what must be disclosed, and how files are handled. Read both documents together, but do not assume a policy narrows a broad grant of rights or that a contract silently adopts every policy revision.
Also identify the publication type. A trade or academic book agreement, a commissioned work, and a scholarly-journal submission can use different rules. The current Elsevier book policy and Oxford University Press (OUP) journal policy illustrate that difference; they are publisher-specific examples, not universal standards.
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Questions about the rights you are granting
1. Which AI uses are expressly covered?
“AI use” is not one permission. Ask the publisher to list each intended use rather than relying on a broad phrase such as “new technologies” or “all media now known or later developed.” At minimum, ask whether the grant includes:
- training or fine-tuning a model on the full work, excerpts, or metadata;
- using the work to produce text, images, audio, summaries, answers, or other AI outputs;
- retrieval-augmented generation, search indexes, or “chat with a book” services;
- automated summaries, study aids, or other reader-facing products;
- translation, synthetic audiobook narration, or other adaptations; and
- internal editorial, production, accessibility, marketing, or metadata tools.
Ask which rights remain reserved if they are not listed. The Authors Guild’s baseline model clause treats reproduction, distribution, and derivative-work rights for AI training or AI outputs as ungranted unless the agreement expressly provides them. That is model negotiation language, not evidence that a publisher has accepted it or that it controls an existing contract.
2. Is the permission opt-in, opt-out, or automatic?
Find out whether AI rights are reserved unless you sign a separate license, automatically included in the main grant, or subject to an opt-out. Ask whether your approval is required for each use, for a defined category of uses, or only when the publisher wants to make a commercial product. Put deadlines, approval standards, and the consequence of a refusal in writing.
3. Can the publisher sublicense the AI rights?
Ask whether the publisher may license your work to model developers, technology vendors, retailers, accessibility providers, or other third parties. Clarify:
- which partners and uses are in scope;
- whether the publisher can add new categories without your consent;
- whether you approve each deal, a named partner, or only a defined class of partners;
- what confidentiality and use restrictions bind the sublicensee; and
- when you receive notice of the license, its term, territory, and commercial terms.
A right to sublicense can make a seemingly narrow grant much broader, so ask for reporting even when individual approval is not available.
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4. How will money be calculated and paid?
Do not accept “appropriate compensation” without a mechanism. Ask what counts as receipts, which deductions are allowed, and what percentage or other share you receive. Ask whether income is paid directly or treated as subsidiary-rights income credited against your advance. The Authors Guild’s model-clause discussion notes that AI income can otherwise be applied against an advance and expresses a preference for direct payment where possible, or a properly valued advance when direct payment is impractical.
Require the agreement to state the accounting period, statement format, payment date, currency conversions, reserve rules, and audit rights. Ask whether you will receive the licensee’s reports or only the publisher’s summary. No suggested split should be treated as an industry-wide standard; the economics must be negotiated for your deal.
Questions about unpublished manuscripts and data security
5. Who can upload your manuscript, and to which system?
Ask whether the publisher, an editor, copyeditor, production vendor, freelancer, or contractor may submit all or part of an unpublished manuscript to an AI service. Identify approved systems by name or by enforceable security criteria. Ask whether the tool is an open public service, an enterprise instance, or an internally hosted system.
Get specific answers about:
- whether prompts, files, and outputs are retained;
- how long they are retained and where they are stored;
- whether submitted content is used to train or improve a third-party model;
- who can access the material and how access is logged;
- encryption, deletion, breach notification, and incident response; and
- the rules imposed on vendors and subcontractors.
Ask whether you must approve an upload before it occurs and whether you can withdraw permission. The Authors Guild’s 2026 model-clause update discusses author approval for manuscript uploads and protections against third-party training. Elsevier separately warns authors to review tool terms and avoid placing restricted, sensitive, or copyrighted material into external open tools. Those are useful questions to raise, not guarantees that every publisher uses the same safeguards.
6. What happens to drafts, research files, and confidential material?
Clarify whether the policy covers only the final manuscript or also outlines, notes, peer-review reports, source files, images, and personal data supplied during production. Ask for a deletion schedule and confirmation when deletion is complete. If the work contains confidential interviews, unpublished research, contractual secrets, or another person’s personal information, ask what additional controls apply.
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Questions about editorial and production uses
7. Which tasks may staff perform with AI?
Separate routine assistance from substantive transformation. Ask whether AI may be used for spelling, grammar, punctuation, style suggestions, developmental editing, fact checking, indexing, metadata, marketing copy, accessibility descriptions, translation, or audiobook narration. For each task, ask:
- who reviews the output and whether a qualified human must approve it;
- whether the author can reject or revise machine-generated changes;
- whether the use alters attribution, moral rights, or warranties;
- whether you receive notice before publication; and
- whether a separate fee, royalty, or consent applies.
Routine internal tools may be treated differently from a customer-facing product. Make the distinction explicit so an internal proofreading permission cannot be read as consent to train a commercial model or release an AI-narrated edition.
8. Are synthetic narration and translation separate rights?
Ask whether an AI-narrated audiobook, synthetic voice, machine translation, or other adaptation is already included in the grant. If so, ask how voice selection, quality control, corrections, attribution, territory, and payment work. If not, require prior written consent and a separate economic term. The Authors Guild identifies AI narration and translation as distinct matters in its model clauses, which is a useful structure for the conversation.
Questions about your own AI use and disclosure
9. What may you use while writing?
Ask whether the publisher’s rule covers only generated prose or also substantial rewriting, brainstorming, research assistance, translation, code, images, audio, and tools that transform your own text. Ask whether the rule changes for an initial proposal, an unpublished manuscript, a revised edition, or promotional material.
Also ask whether you may upload your own draft to a tool, whether the tool may retain it, and whether the contract’s confidentiality or originality warranties make that risky. A permission to use AI for language cleanup does not necessarily permit uploading a complete manuscript to an external service.
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10. What triggers a disclosure?
Get the threshold in writing. Does disclosure apply to any generated material, only material that remains in the published work, or only substantial assistance? Ask what information is required, where it must appear, and whether the statement is part of the book, a cover letter, acknowledgements, notes, or a separate form.
Elsevier’s book policy, identified as updated in July 2026, asks authors to document the tool, its purpose, and the extent of human oversight in an AI declaration. It says basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation checks do not require declaration, while relevant AI use in research has a separate method. The policy also says its terms may change.
OUP’s journal policy, last updated July 13, 2026, uses its own permitted, disclosure-required, and prohibited categories. It asks authors to disclose use in the cover letter and acknowledgements, to include methods disclosure when a tool is integral to the research, and to provide the tool name and version, a description of its use, and the author’s role in directing and reviewing the output. Journal-specific instructions control when they add detail, so check the target journal’s current guidelines.
How the major questions differ by setting
| Setting or document | What to examine | What the cited example establishes |
|---|---|---|
| Book contract | Rights grant, reservations, sublicensing, manuscript uploads, adaptations, payment, accounting, and audit | The Authors Guild’s model clauses separate training, outputs, translation, narration, editing, and uploads; they are negotiation language, not a universal publisher term. |
| Publisher book policy | Permitted author tools, declaration threshold, oversight, research-use procedure, and policy-change notice | Elsevier’s July 2026 book policy is one publisher example; it asks for tool, purpose, and oversight and excludes basic spelling, grammar, and punctuation checks from declaration. |
| Scholarly-journal policy | Submission-stage disclosure, acknowledgements, methods reporting, prohibited categories, and journal-specific instructions | OUP’s policy was last updated July 13, 2026 and uses a framework distinct from the cited book policy. |
Read AI wording alongside the rest of the agreement
Search the entire contract, not just a heading labeled “artificial intelligence.” Read the AI language beside the grant of rights, subsidiary-rights clause, confidentiality duties, warranties, delivery provisions, and any all-rights transfer. An all-rights deal may transfer full copyright ownership; if you do not intend to grant AI rights, ask for an express reservation rather than relying on an implication.
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A practical review workflow
- Collect the controlling documents. Put the offer letter, contract, schedules, publisher AI policy, vendor terms supplied by the publisher, and target journal or series guidelines in one folder. Record each document’s date and version.
- Make a rights map. Create rows for training, outputs, retrieval, summaries, sublicensing, uploads, editing, translation, narration, marketing, accessibility, and metadata. Mark each as expressly granted, reserved, conditional, or unclear.
- Trace the data path. For every permitted upload, identify the person, vendor, system, retention period, training status, access controls, deletion process, and breach contact.
- Trace the money path. Write down the revenue definition, deductions, author share, advance treatment, statement timing, audit rights, and approval or notice requirement.
- Trace your disclosure duty. Note which AI-assisted activities trigger disclosure, the required wording or facts, the destination for the statement, and any deadline.
- Turn gaps into questions. Send a numbered list and ask for answers in the contract, a signed rider, or a dated written policy confirmation. Keep the response with the final agreement.
- Escalate ambiguity. Have an agent or qualified publishing lawyer review language that affects ownership, warranties, confidentiality, indemnity, or payment before you sign.
Red flags that warrant clarification
- A clause grants “all rights in any technology” without naming AI training, outputs, or adaptations.
- The publisher may sublicense to unnamed third parties with no notice, approval, security, or reporting duty.
- “Net receipts” is undefined, or AI income is automatically offset against the advance without a statement method.
- Staff and vendors may upload material to any tool, while retention and model-training terms are unspecified.
- A policy can change unilaterally and is said to override the contract.
- The policy requires disclosure but does not define substantial use, oversight, tool identification, or placement.
- An AI translation or narration right appears in an all-rights clause with no approval, quality, attribution, or payment terms.
Each red flag is a reason to request a narrower definition, an express reservation, a consent requirement, a security schedule, or an accounting provision. Do not assume silence means permission.
Questions you can send to an editor or agent
These prompts can be copied into an email and adapted to the deal:
- “Please identify every AI-related right included in the grant, including training, fine-tuning, outputs, retrieval, summaries, translation, narration, and reader-facing services.”
- “Which AI rights are reserved to me, and can any reserved right be licensed without my separate written approval?”
- “May you sublicense these rights? If so, to whom, for which uses, with what notice, reporting, security terms, and author approval?”
- “How are AI receipts defined, what deductions apply, how is my share calculated, and is payment direct or credited against the advance?”
- “Who may upload my manuscript or excerpts, to which systems, for how long, and under what no-training, confidentiality, deletion, and breach-notification terms?”
- “Which editorial, translation, narration, marketing, metadata, and accessibility tasks may use AI, and what human review, notice, consent, attribution, and payment apply?”
- “What AI use is permitted on my side, what triggers disclosure, and exactly what tool, version, purpose, oversight, and placement details must I provide?”
- “If this policy changes, does the signed contract control, and will I receive notice of revisions?”
Mary Rasenberger, chief executive of the Authors Guild, described the need for this level of specificity in the Guild’s April 29, 2026 announcement:
“There is a great need for clarity in the industry around what rights are implicated by the different types of AI uses, how those rights should be framed in contracts, and what AI uses authors and publishers can make,”
That principle is practical: name the use, identify who controls it, protect the manuscript, and state the economic and disclosure consequences before the work changes hands.
The Bottom Line
Before signing or submitting, obtain written answers on AI rights, sublicensing, compensation, manuscript security, production uses, and your disclosure duties. Treat model clauses and publisher policies as starting points for review, not as universal rules.
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