Am I required to sign copyright agreements as they stand? Can I make changes to an agreement or offer an alternative agreement?
Most publishers will be willing to discuss copyright agreements with authors. Obviously they may simply refuse to publish an article if an author is unwilling to sign a copyright agreement as it stands. However, publishers may be willing to accept a license that you have amended. They may also be willing to accept an alternative agreement. A number of publishers are now starting to offer “License to publish” agreements as an alternative to “Copyright Transfer” agreements, and often these are more liberal and may permit authors to deposit their papers in institutional repositories. For example: Licence to Publish Agreement option offered by Professional Engineering Publishing PEP are the publishers of journals for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
