Purpose and Scope
This policy establishes how content published by journals operating under the LMI publishing framework is made available, who owns it, and on what terms it may be reused. It applies to all published content and to authors, readers and re-users from publication onward.
Open Access Model
LMI journals publish on a Gold Open Access basis: the published version is freely available on the journal's website immediately on publication, without subscription, registration or payment by readers, and without embargo. Journals shall state their open-access model accurately and shall not describe as open access any content placed behind access barriers.
Copyright
Authors retain copyright in their work. Publication by an LMI journal does not transfer copyright to the publisher, and LMI does not assert ownership of an author's copyright merely because it publishes the work. Where an author's employer or funder holds copyright by operation of law or agreement, that position shall be stated in the article.
Licence to Publish
After acceptance and before publication, the author or other lawful rights holder shall complete a documented publishing agreement granting LMI and the publishing journal a non-exclusive, irrevocable licence sufficient to publish, distribute, display, index, register, migrate, preserve and archive the work, in any format and through services reasonably necessary to maintain the scholarly record under Scholarly Record Infrastructure, Metadata & Preservation (G1), and to make it available under the open licence stated below. Submission alone does not transfer copyright or create a completed licence to publish. Where copyright is held by an employer, funder, government or another party, the signatory shall confirm their authority. The agreement confers no ownership on LMI and no right to alter the scholarly substance of the work; record actions occur only under Corrections, Expressions of Concern, Retractions & Removals (G2).
Article Licence and Exceptions
The standard and default licence applied to research content across LMI journals is the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0). Under it, users may copy, redistribute, adapt and build upon the work, including commercially, provided appropriate credit is given, a link to the licence is provided, and changes are indicated. The authoritative terms are those of the licence itself; nothing in this policy modifies, extends or restricts them, and where any summary here differs from the licence text, the licence governs. Each article shall display its licence clearly, and the licence shall be recorded in the article metadata (G1).
Any departure from the standard licence for a journal, article type or article shall be exceptional: it must be genuinely necessary, receive appropriate LMI governance approval, be stated prominently at article level, never be applied silently, and remain compatible with the journal's public open-access obligations. No exception shall be used to place research content behind access barriers.
Third-Party Material
Where an article incorporates material owned by others — figures, tables, images, extended quotations, instruments, datasets or software — authors are responsible for obtaining the permissions required and for supplying evidence of them on request. Such material may fall outside the article's Creative Commons licence. Where it does, the credit line or rights notice accompanying that material shall say so, and re-users shall seek permission from the rights holder rather than relying on the article licence. Attribution obligations for third-party material are additionally governed by C2.
Non-Copyright Rights and Author Warranties
A copyright licence does not displace privacy, confidentiality, data-protection, publicity, moral, trademark, database, contractual, cultural or community-governance rights. Authors shall identify material subject to such rights, obtain the permissions and approvals reasonably required for publication, and provide accurate credit lines or rights notices. LMI may request evidence of authority and may decline or remove material whose publication would infringe a right that cannot be resolved.
Identifiable Participant Material — Boundary with Consent
Consent for publication and copyright licensing are distinct questions, and neither answers the other. Where an article contains identifiable participant material published with consent under D1, the article's open licence does not grant unlimited reuse rights in that material: the licence conveys such rights as the authors and publisher are entitled to convey, and it cannot convey rights beyond the scope of the consent obtained from the individual concerned. Accordingly:
- an open-access licence over the article never operates as consent by the individual to further use of their image, recording, case details or other identifiable material;
- where consent was limited in scope — for example, to publication in the article and not to commercial reuse or adaptation — the limitation shall be stated in a rights notice or credit line accompanying that material;
- the article licence shall be read together with any credit line, consent restriction or rights notice applying to particular content, which prevails over the general licence for that content;
- re-users remain independently responsible for the privacy and dignity interests of identifiable individuals, irrespective of the licence.
Journals shall ensure that consent documentation and any resulting restriction are recorded and reflected in the published article (D1).
Self-Archiving
Consistent with the open licence, authors may deposit and disseminate their work — including the published version — in institutional or subject repositories, on personal or institutional pages, and in professional networks, at any time and without embargo, provided the deposited copy carries the licence and attribution and links to the Version of Record (G1). LMI imposes no embargo inconsistent with its open-access model. Authors are encouraged to link deposited copies to the published version so that later record actions remain discoverable (G2). Licence positions are recorded in services such as Sherpa Romeo where applicable.
Standards and Guidance
Informed by the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, OASPA open-access publishing principles, and the Creative Commons licence suite.