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 the BMJ (including any derivative products) and any other BMJ Publishing Group products (such as the student BMJ or overseas editions), 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 BMJ editions and any other BMJPGL products and to exploit all subsidiary rights, as set out in our licence at http://resources.bmj.com/bmj/authors/checklists-forms/licence-for-publication).”

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 the BMJ and giving a full reference or web link, as appropriate).

• Posting a pdf of their own article on their own personal or institutional website for which no charge for access is made.
• Making a reasonable number of copies for personal or non commercial professional use. This includes the contributor’s 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 email BMJ permissions)
• 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.

On orders that we receive up to five years after publication for a single article reprint or translation sale that exceed £1500 in value, we will pay authors a royalty of 10% of net receipts less sales any commission, which will be paid to the Corresponding Author for distribution as agreed between the authors.