Wiley has adopted standard Author Agreements, all of which are outlined and linked below. For society-owned journals, the societies for whom we publish decide which versions of the forms they require.
In most cases, electronic signing is available; in others, authorized representatives of the Copyright Owners are required to sign or additional information is needed, which requires PDF download and upload. Please do not use any of the agreements listed as an “Example” below because you will be presented with the applicable license after your article is accepted for publication.
When signing the agreement, as reflected in the template, you confirm that:
If you are not publishing your contribution open access, you are required to provide Wiley with either a signed Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) or an Exclusive License Agreement (ELA) before publication of your contribution can be processed.
Please note that Wiley updates standard forms periodically in line with policies and applicable legal developments, and only the most current forms linked here will be used.
The Author or, if applicable, the Author's Employer, retains all proprietary rights other than copyright (or in the case of an ELA, other than exclusive license of copyright), such as patent rights, in any process, procedure or article of manufacture described in the contribution. Authors may re-use unmodified abstracts for any non-commercial purpose. For online use of the abstract, Wiley encourages but does not require linking back to the final published contribution. Authors may use the articles in teaching duties and in other works such as theses. Authors may re-use figures, tables, data sets, artwork, and selected text up to 250 words from their contributions without seeking permission, provided the following conditions are met:
The rules regarding abstracts are as follows:
Conference abstracts: We do not require a signed Agreement to publish abstracts of material submitted for poster sessions and presentations at conferences or meetings. The right to publish such material is presumed
Abstracts specifically created for abstract publications: If you have written an abstract of a previously published article for publication in another journal (e.g. a reviews-type journal), we do require you to sign an Agreement
Reproduction of existing abstracts: If you wish to include verbatim abstracts from previously published articles, you do not need written permission from the publisher of those articles, although the source should be cited. Abstracts are covered by copyright and are not in the public domain but there is an exception in UK law which permits the copying and publication of scientific and technical abstracts accompanying published periodical articles.
Example: You have published an article in Spanish. You have translated the article yourself or by employing a translator and want to submit the English translation to a Wiley journal for re-publication. In order to make the translation, you must first approach the Spanish journal for permission to translate the article for republication. The translation itself would then be held under separate copyright by you or the translator. You would then be able to sign the English journal’s Copyright Transfer Agreement for the translation, rather than the original article. The translation must include a full bibliographic reference to the original publication and you must have obtained permission from the original copyright holder to make the translation.
All of Wiley's fully open access journals and most* of Wiley's subscription journals with the open access option publish open access articles under a Creative Commons license. With Creative Commons licenses, the Author or, if applicable, the Author's Employer retains copyright and the public is allowed to reuse the content in accordance with the Creative Commons license . The copyright owner grants Wiley a license to publish the article and to identify as the original publisher.
CC BY - Creative Commons Attribution License Allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article, and adapt the article as long as the author is attributed. The CC BY license permits commercial and non-commercial reuse. CC BY Example
CC BY-NC - Creative Commons Attribution:Non-Commercial License Allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article, and adapt the article as long as the author is attributed and the article is not used for commercial purposes. CC BY-NC Example
CC BY-NC-ND - Creative Commons Attribution:Non-Commercial/No-Derivatives License Allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article as long as the author is attributed, the article is not used for commercial purposes, and the work is not modified or adapted in any way. CC BY-NC-ND Example
Exceptions *A limited number of society-owned journals have opted out of this license policy - for more information see our Open Access Without a Creative Commons License page. Wiley will continue to brief societies on any discussions held regarding funder agreements and the processing of the articles, appropriate acknowledgements with citation and linking to the final published version on the publisher's site, and clear licensing terms and conditions for the use of material protected by copyright.
Need help with license signing? Our PDF guide walks you through it.
You must sign the agreement and indicate whether you own the copyright in your work, the copyright is owned by your employer, or you are a government employee. If your co-authors have different copyright ownership categories, please see Multiple Ownership. It is essential to check that each agreement has been completed, signed and dated correctly before your contribution can be published.
In most academic and healthcare institutions, faculty own the copyright for articles that they have authored and can sign a standard agreement under “Author-owned work.” Please check whether different policies apply in your institution.
Work carried out by government employees or military personnel may require a statement to the effect that the opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the military or government agency for which they work. Please ensure that you check with the appropriate authorities and include the necessary statement within the body of your contribution.
Australian Government and Reserve Bank of Australia Download the Australian Government License Agreement or the Reserve Bank of Australia License Agreement if your article is subscription-only, or sign the standard open access agreement under “Other ownership.”
Canadian Government Download the Canadian Government License Agreement if your article is subscription-only, or sign the standard open access agreement under “Other ownership.”
U.K. Government The rights in a contribution prepared by an employee of a UK government department, agency or other Crown body as part of his/her official duties, or which is an official government publication, belong to the Crown. An authorized signatory for the government must therefore sign and can use the standard agreement, signing under “U.K. Government work (Crown Copyright).” Authors must ensure they comply with departmental regulations and have the appropriate authorization to publish.
U.S. Government A contribution prepared by a U.S. federal government employee as part of the employee's official duties, or which is an official U.S. government publication, is called a "U.S. Government work" and is in the public domain in the United States. This does not mean that the article is automatically open access; rather, it means there is no copyright to transfer under U.S. law, though there may be copyright (or other related rights) transferred under the law of other jurisdictions. Therefore, you should sign the standard agreement under “U.S. Government work.” If the contribution was not prepared as part of the employee's duties, is not an official U.S. government publication, or at least one author is not a U.S. government employee, it is not a U.S. Government work. In the case of a contribution prepared under U.S. government contract or grant, the U.S. government may reproduce, without charge, all or portions of the contribution and may authorize others to do so, for official U.S. government purposes only, if the U.S. government contract or grant so requires. If you are employed by an agency that requires a non-standard agreement, please follow the specific instructions below and submit it per the journal's licensing workflow (usually through your Author Services dashboard):
Other
Employees of all other governments can sign a standard agreement under “Other ownership.” If you need further assistance, please contact cs-author@wiley.com.
Where work is carried out by an author in their capacity as an employee of a company, copyright will be owned by the company. An authorized signatory of the company must therefore sign the agreement under “Company/institution-owned work.” If you are employed by one of the companies below, please follow the specific instructions:
Most Authors can sign a standard agreement under “Other ownership.” If you are employed by an organization that requires a non-standard agreement, please follow the specific instructions below and submit it per the journal's licensing workflow (usually through your Author Services dashboard). If you need further assistance, please contact cs-author@wiley.com.
For contributions where there are multiple copyright owners, one author or authorized representative can sign on behalf of co-authors in the same category. The Responsible Corresponding Author needs to download the appropriate forms in coordination with their co-authors and submit them per the journal’s licensing workflow (usually through their Author Services dashboard). For articles with authors employed by multiple government agencies, companies, or organizations, one signature is needed per agency/company/organization – uploading a separate file for each group is acceptable. For example, where there is a government-employed author and a non-government employed author, each author must sign the appropriate agreement/section.