Since January 2000 the BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJPGL) has not asked authors of journal articles to assign us their copyright. Authors (or their employers) retain their copyright in the article; all we require is an exclusive licence (except for government employees who cannot grant this, thus non-exclusive) that allows us to publish the article in ADC (including any derivative products) and any other BMJ Publishing Group products, and allows us to sub-licence such rights and exploit all subsidiary rights.
We ask the corresponding author to grant this exclusive licence (or non-exclusive for government employees) on behalf of all authors by reading our licence and inserting in the manuscript on submission the following statement: the Corresponding Author has the right to grant on behalf of all authors and does grant on behalf of all authors, an exclusive licence (or non-exclusive for government employees) on a worldwide basis to the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and its Licensees to permit this article (if accepted) to be published in ADC and any other BMJPGL products to exploit all subsidiary rights, as set out in our licence .
This licence allows authors to use their own articles for their own non-commercial purposes without seeking permission from us. Only if the use is commercial do we need to know about it. In addition, we will pay authors a royalty on certain commercial uses that we negotiate.
Thus authors may use their own articles for the following non-commercial purposes without asking our permission (and subject only to acknowledging first publication in ADC and giving a full reference or web link, as appropriate).
- Making a reasonable number of copies for personal or non-commercial professional use. This includes the contributors own teaching purposes.
- Republishing part or all of the article in a book or other publication edited by the author (except for multiple contributions in the same book or publication, for which permission needs to be sought). Please refer to our Copyright and Permissions Guidelines.
- Using individual figures or tables or extracts of text (up to 250 words) in other publications published by a third party.
- Using the article in a course pack or compilation (whether paper or electronic) in the authors' institution. This does not apply if a commercial charge is made for the compilation or training programme.
- For non "Author pays" (Unlocked) articles, the right to post the accepted manuscript, but not the final published version of the article, on the contributor's own and/or his/her institution's website 6 months after the print publication date or if not published in print, from being published online.
- For Unlocked articles, the completed final published version may be posted on the contributor's own and/or his/her institution's website immediately on publication, whether online as publish ahead of print (Online First) or in print.
For commercial reprint sales in excess of £2000, BMJ Journals is pleased to offer authors a 10% royalty of net receipts less any sales commission. The corresponding author will be contacted automatically should such a sale be secured to determine how the royalty should be paid. The royalty will be offered for up to 5 years after publication. Authors should note that accepted documents and PDFs are deleted from Bench>Press after 12 months.
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