Open access licences

When agreeing to the BMJ author licence during submission you will be required to select whether your article will be open access (upon payment of the APC) or not. Most BMJ journals permit the reuse of articles under two Creative Commons licences:

CC BY-NC

This is the default open access option for BMJ articles. For articles where BMJ is allowing reuse under CC BY-NC this permits the author and any non-commercial bodies to reuse the material in any non-commercial way they choose under the terms of the licence, without acquiring permission from BMJ.  Commercial users will require permission from BMJ for any reuse. 

 CC BY

This option is only available to those whose funders mandate it. For articles where BMJ is allowing reuse under CC BY this permits anyone to reuse and adapt the material in any way, without acquiring permission 

Any reuse of content using a CC-BY-NC or CC BY licence must comply with the following:

 i) give attribution to the author(s), usually by including a reference

ii) include a link to BMJ’s version of record on BMJ’s website

 iii) should there be a retraction, expression of concern, or significant correction applied to the version of record, any other permitted publication of the article must link clearly to the published notice

iv) unless reuse is an exact replication of the published version of record all BMJ trademarks (and co-owner trademarks, if applicable) must be removed and 

v) any permitted translations of the article must state: “This is an unofficial translation of an article that has been accepted for publication by BMJ. Neither BMJ nor its licensors have endorsed this translation.”  

PubMed Central depositing and author archiving

BMJ will deposit all open access articles, including expressions of concern, retractions and other notices, with PubMed Central and its mirror sites promptly following publication in a printed issue or, if not published in print, from being published online. Authors of open access articles may deposit the final published version in the repositories of their choice in accordance with BMJ’s self-archiving policies.

For information about author licences and specific journal licences please visit this section.