Before Cambridge can publish a journal article (or any other journal content), we need a signed licence to publish agreement. Under the agreement, certain rights are granted to the journal owner which allow publication of the article. The original ownership of the copyright in the article remains unchanged.

If your article is accepted for publication, the corresponding author will receive an email from “Cambridge University Press via Ironclad” ([email protected])* asking them to complete an Information Request Form (IRF). Ironclad is our digital contract management platform and the information submitted via the IRF will determine the terms and conditions under which the article will be published. The IRF will also seek to confirm who will sign the agreement (it is usually, but not always, the corresponding author who will sign).

In order to complete your IRF, you should ascertain in advance:

• the requirements of your funders or institutions, who may have their own conditions for publications derived from their support;
• whether the final version of your article, as published in this journal, will be fully open access (“Gold OA”)*;
• if you intend to publish Gold OA, who will cover the costs of publication;
• and finally, who owns the copyright in your article. This is usually either the author(s) or their employer(s). In some cases the employer(s) may be governmental or other entities for whom special copyright conditions apply.

* Note that some versions of articles that are not fully open access may still be shared under this journal’s Green OA policy.

If you are not sure who owns the copyright in your article, it’s a good idea to check your employment contract or speak with your employer about copyright ownership of content you have produced during the course of your employment.

Authors should also ensure that they have all appropriate permissions for third-party material used in their article.

Once the IRF is completed, the signer will receive an email from [email protected]**. Cambridge manages its publishing agreements using Ironclad and third-party software to collect digital signatures.

Please note that an article cannot proceed to Cambridge Production without a completed agreement.

**Messages regarding the publishing agreement might get blocked by mail filtering software and it may be helpful to add them to your ‘safe sender’ list or equivalent (or ask your IT Department to do so). If your manuscript has been accepted and you have not received emails from these addresses concerning the author publishing agreement please contact [email protected].

Frequently asked questions about the publishing agreement process, as well as examples of the kind of publishing agreement you will be asked to sign, can be found in our publishing agreement FAQs. If you have any queries about the licensing terms and conditions, please contact [email protected].

Gold Open Access articles

If you would like the final version of your article to be fully open access, we ask you to grant us a non-exclusive licence to publish, so that we have the necessary rights to publish your article. A non-exclusive licence means that the rights needed to publish the paper are granted to the journal owner on a non-exclusive basis, while the ownership of the copyright remains unchanged.

A fundamental principle of open access is that content should not only be accessible, but also freely reusable for the good of research and humanity. We comply with this principle by asking you to select a Creative Commons licence for your article. The CC licence you choose will determine how your article can be shared and re-used by others.

For information about Gold OA fees and support, please see this journal's fees and pricing page.

Articles that are not Gold Open Access

If you do not intend to make the final version of your article fully open access, we ask you to grant us an exclusive licence to publish, so that we have the necessary rights to publish your article. An exclusive licence means that the rights needed to publish the article are granted to the journal owner on exclusive basis, while the ownership of the copyright remains unchanged.

If your article is not published Gold OA, the ways in which your article can be accessed and re-used will depend on a number of factors. Please consult this journal’s Green OA policy for more information about the rights you retain and how you may share different versions of your article.

During the Covid-19 crisis we understand that some authors may not have access to equipment to enable electronic return of a scanned, signed Author Publishing Agreement. If this applies to you, please see these FAQs. If you are able, please return the full Author Publishing Agreement as normal.