This page states BMU-wide publishing principles. It does not replace journal-specific author guidelines, peer-review descriptions, fee schedules or discipline-specific ethical requirements. Operational claims apply only where implemented by the relevant journal or publisher system.
Open-access status
A journal should state clearly whether its content is open access, subscription based or uses another access model. Access claims must correspond with what readers can actually retrieve without misleading barriers.
Article-level licensing
Every published article should display the licence that applies to that article. Website copyright and article copyright are distinct concepts and should not be conflated.
Copyright ownership
The journal or publisher should state whether authors retain copyright or transfer specified rights and should explain the rights granted to the publisher for publication, distribution, preservation and metadata registration.
Creative Commons and reuse
Where a Creative Commons licence is used, the exact licence version should be identified. Users remain responsible for complying with attribution and any other conditions of the selected licence.
Third-party material
Authors are responsible for identifying material for which they do not own sufficient rights and for obtaining permission where required. A publication licence does not automatically relicense third-party content that is expressly excluded.
Self-archiving
Each journal should state what versions authors may deposit in institutional or subject repositories, whether an embargo applies and what acknowledgement or link to the Version of Record is required.
Rights inquiries
Questions about reuse, permissions and licensing should be directed to the relevant journal or to BMU through info@bmuventures.com where a publisher-level response is appropriate.
Accuracy of rights statements
Rights statements must correspond with actual publishing agreements and article metadata. BMU does not support displaying a licence that has not been validly granted or applying a policy retroactively without appropriate legal basis.
Policy basis and interpretation
Adapted principally from JHWCR Policy 27. The BMU version generalises journal-specific material into a publisher framework and removes details that should remain title-specific. Where a journal publishes a more specific requirement that is consistent with these principles, the journal-specific rule governs that journal's submissions.
Questions about this framework may be sent to info@bmuventures.com.