Copyright & Permissions

As a not-for-profit organization incorporated in the United States, AACR adheres to U.S. copyright law (PL 94-553), which became effective January 1, 1978. The law stipulates that copyright for works is vested in the author from the moment of creation and remains the property of the author until legally transferred. Authors who wish to publish articles and other material in AACR journals must formally transfer copyright to AACR. The copyright transfer form must be signed by all authors before AACR can proceed with publication. Appropriate forms for transfer of copyright will be requested from all authors after a manuscript has been deemed potentially acceptable.

Authors—use the Copyright Transfer Forms available online:

• Cancer Research
• Clinical Cancer Research
• Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention
• Cancer Prevention Research
• Molecular Cancer Research
• Molecular Cancer Therapeutic

or request a form from the AACR Publications Department. The journal will not publish a paper unless the form is properly filled out and signed by all authors.

 

It is understood in conveying copyright that the authors have not published this material elsewhere, either whole or in part (except in abbreviated form as a preliminary communication or abstract), and that they have neither concluded previous negotiations nor initiated pending negotiations for copyright of this material.

The duly authorized agent of a commercial firm or commissioning organization must sign the AACR copyright transfer form if the author prepared the article as part of his or her official duties as an employee.

The federal government has determined that it has a nonexclusive right to publish or republish material developed from work performed by federal employees. Since the federal government does not recognize private copyright for work performed by its employees as part of their official duties, the journal will accept papers from government laboratories without copyright transfer, provided that the authors abide by the same provisions required of other authors and sign the appropriate section of our copyright transfer form.

Authors of articles published in AACR journals are permitted to use their article or parts of their article in the following ways without requesting permission from the AACR. All such uses must include appropriate attribution to the original AACR publication. Authors may: 

1. reproduce  parts of their article, including figures and tables, in books, reviews, or subsequent research articles they write;
2. use parts of their article in presentations, including figures downloaded into PowerPoint,  which can be done directly from the journal’s website;
   
3. post the accepted version of their article (after revisions resulting from peer review but before editing and formatting) on their institutional website, if this is required by their institution. The version on the institutional repository must contain a link to the final, published version of the article on the AACR journal website. The posted version may be released publicly (made open to anyone) 12 months after its publication in the journal;
   
4. submit a copy of their article to his or her university in support of a doctoral thesis.

 

The AACR will routinely allow third parties (persons who are not authors) to use all or parts of articles for educational, not-for-profit purposes and for purposes defined as fair use in the copyright law, without charge. Third parties may include select parts of a copyrighted article in published reviews, books, or subsequent papers, provided that the requesting party obtain written permission from the AACR Publications Department. For each requested use of an article, the AACR Permission Request Form should be completed and returned to the AACR Publications Department [Fax: (215) 440-9354; E-mail: permissions@aacr.org. Authors requesting permission should use the form available online (click here for the Permission Form Word document).

Requests to reproduce an article in its entirety will be considered on an individual basis and permission may be granted contingent upon payment of an appropriate copyright fee. All reproduction requests must include a brief description of intended use.

Our standard turnaround time for permission request replies is two weeks. Please note that if a reply is required in five or fewer business days, a $50.00 per request Rush Fee may be assessed. The Rush Fee is levied in addition to any applicable copyright fees.

Free Access to AACR Journal Articles

All content of AACR journals is made free (open) to anyone to read or use (subject to the conditions listed above) 12 months after its original publication at our online publishing site www.aacrjournals.org. In addition, AACR provides several hundred countries in the developing world with immediate free access to all AACR journals through the HINARI program (www.who.int/hinari/en/).

Funding Agency Requirements

Although AACR does not agree with the decision of some funding agencies to require deposit on government websites of articles that are already made available free to anyone online at the Publisher’s expense and that are maintained online in stable archives, we recognize that funding agencies have forbidden their grantees to publish in journals that do not allow such mandated deposits.

Because AACR does not wish to do anything that prohibits scientists from publishing in the journal of their choice, we have developed policies to accommodate the mandates of funding agencies. In addition, beginning May 18, 2009, AACR journals will further assist authors in meeting their funders' mandates by offering the option to have the AACR deposit their accepted manuscript directly to PubMed Central. [Click here for more information.] We will continue to work to reduce the literature redundancy these mandates impose, and have decided, for the immediate future, to not add to the financial burden of scientists by imposing fees for mandated deposits. The AACR Board will continue to review our policies to ensure they meet the needs of our authors.

 

National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy

 

Prior to January 11, 2008, authors of manuscripts reporting NIH-funded work that were accepted by a journal after May 2, 2005 were requested but not required to deposit their unedited and unformatted manuscripts on the National Library of Medicine's PubMedCentral (PMC) database. Deposit is now required (mandated) for papers accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008. NIH-funded authors are not required to deposit manuscripts accepted before that date, and it is not necessary to go back and deposit those papers. The AACR grants permission for authors who have signed our copyright transfer form to deposit their manuscripts on PMC, without formal request or fee, subject to the following conditions:

• Only the accepted manuscript is deposited, not the edited and formatted paper as published in the journal.
• Authors stipulate that PubMedCentral may release the paper for public access not sooner than 12 months after its print publication date (the print publication date is considered the official publication date, not any prior online publication of earlier versions of the paper.
• Authors acknowledge the published source of the material.
• A link to the final PDF version of the article on the publisher’s journal website is included.
  

During the submission process for your manuscript, you will be asked to confirm whether any authors on the paper are employed or funded by the NIH. If you wish, you can request that the AACR deposit your accepted manuscript to PMC on your behalf. You may be contacted by the repository for approval of the submission. [Click here for more information.]

 

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)

 

Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists who are major authors (usually but not always the first or last author) of original research papers submitted to journals after January 1, 2008, are required to deposit their accepted manuscripts on the National Library of Medicine's PubMedCentral (PMC). The AACR grants such permission to authors who have signed copyright transfer forms, without formal request or fee, subject to the following conditions:

• Only the accepted manuscript is deposited, not the edited and formatted paper as published in the journal.
• Authors stipulate that PubMedCentral may release the paper for public access 6 months after its print publication, not sooner.
• Authors acknowledge the published source of the material.
• A link to the final PDF version of the article on the publisher’s journal website is included.

During the submission process for your manuscript, you will be asked to confirm whether any authors on the paper are employed or funded by HHMI. If you wish, you can request that the AACR deposit your accepted manuscript to PMC on your behalf. You may be contacted by the repository for approval of the submission. [Click here for more information.]

 

 

Authors of manuscripts reporting original research funded by the Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research-UK, or the UK Medical Research Council and accepted by an AACR journal after October 1, 2006, are required to deposit their articles on UK PubMedCentral (UKPMC) and allow distribution on PMC international mirror sites (currently only the U.S. PMC). Notwithstanding the terms of the AACR copyright transfer form and policies stated herein, AACR grants permission for such deposit, without formal request or fee, subject to the following conditions:

• Only the accepted manuscript is deposited, not the edited and formatted paper as published in the journal.
• Authors stipulate that UK PubMedCentral may release the paper for public access 6 months after its print publication, not sooner.
• Authors acknowledge the published source of the material.
• A link to the final PDF version of the article on the publisher’s journal website is included.
  

During the submission process for your manuscript, you will be asked to confirm whether any authors on the paper are employed or funded by Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research-UK, or UK Medical Research Council. If you wish, you can request that the AACR deposit your accepted manuscript to UKPMC on your behalf. You may be contacted by the repository for approval of the submission. [Click here for more information.] 

AACR further recognizes that granting permission to authors to deposit on UKPMC and mirror sites accepted manuscripts reporting work funded by the Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research-UK, or the Medical Research Council includes AACR granting permission for such work to be used freely by anyone for non-commercial purposes so long as proper attribution to authors and original publication are made. This permission applies only to reports of work funded by these UK-based agencies that are accepted by an AACR journal. Commercial purposes are defined, but not limited to, any use that involves the exchange of funds, including resale or funded distribution or use in commercial advertising.