Copyright and authors’ rights
For most journals, authors (or their employers) retain copyright in their work. BMJ usually requires an exclusive licence that allows us to publish the article in the chosen journal and sublicence the rights. A non-exclusive licence is available where BMJ has agreed a CC BY licence shall apply or for authors that are unable to sign an exclusive licence, such as UK Crown employees and US Federal Government officers or employees acting as part of their official duties.
We ask the submitting author to grant the exclusive licence (or non-exclusive licence for applicable authors) on behalf of all authors by reading and agreeing to the following statement at the point of submission:
“I [SUBMITTING AUTHOR NAME], the Submitting Author has the right to grant and does grant on behalf of all authors of the Work (as defined in the below author licence), an exclusive licence and/or a non-exclusive licence for contributions from authors who are: i) UK Crown employees; ii) where BMJ has agreed a CC BY licence shall apply, and/or iii) in accordance with the terms applicable for US Federal Government officers or employees acting as part of their official duties; on a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free basis to BMJ Publishing Group Ltd (“BMJ”) its licensees and where the relevant Journal is co-owned by BMJ to the co-owners of the Journal, to publish the Work in [JOURNAL NAME] and any other BMJ products and to exploit all rights, as set out in our licence [link].”
Author licences by journal
BMJ has a standard author licence for wholly owned and co-owned Journals. BMJ Journals that are published by BMJ on behalf of other organisations may have different licensing arrangements, so authors should check the individual journal’s licence below:
- BMJ Case Reports
- European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy
- Family Medicine and Community Health
- General Psychiatry
- International Journal of Gynecological Cancer
- Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer
- Journal of Investigative Medicine
- Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery
- Lupus Science & Medicine
- Postgraduate Medical Journal
- Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine
- Stroke and Vascular Neurology
- Trauma Surgery and Acute Care Open
- World Journal of Pediatric Surgery
Authors’ rights
The BMJ Author Licence allows authors to use their articles for their own non-commercial purposes without seeking permission from BMJ – the only condition being that a full reference or link to the original is included. For further information on authors’ rights please visit this section: BMJ policies on author self-archiving and permissions.
Open Access options
Please see this section for Open Access options.
NIH Employees
Manuscripts authored or co-authored by one or more National Institutes of Health (NIH) employees must be submitted with a completed and signed NIH Publishing Agreement and Manuscript Cover Sheet according to NIH’s Employee Procedures.
Conference Abstracts
If you have any questions about using your published abstract as part of future articles please email bmj.permissions@bmj.com with the details.