Copyright Transfer | Open Access Licenses | Author and End-User Reuse Policy | Preprint Posting Policy

Copyright Transfer

We ask all authors of articles for its journals, magazines, and books to sign a Transfer of Copyright. In doing so, an author transfers ownership of his or her article or book to Optica Publishing Group. Ownership of copyright gives us the right to publish the article and to defend against improper use (or even theft) of the article. It also permits us to mount the article online or to use the article in other forms, such as when a journal article becomes part of a content collection or another derivative product.

We need copyright for an article because, as the publisher, we are in the best position to defend the article legally. In addition, transfer of copyright assures us that the work in question is entirely the author's own. Once again, the purpose of transfer of copyright is not to prevent the author from reuse of his or her own work, as long as this doesn't involve republication in a competing journal or other competing resource.

If you send a manuscript to one of our peer-reviewed journals, you will be given the opportunity during submission to agree to our electronic transfer of copyright, or our open access publishing agreement. You should print and send a hard copy of the below forms only if you are unwilling or unable to use the online option.

• Optica Publishing Group Copyright Transfer Agreement (PDF)
• Optica Publishing Group Copyright Transfer and Open Access Publishing Agreement (PDF)
• Photonics Research Copyright Transfer Agreement (PDF)

Open Access Licenses

Open Access Publishing Agreement

Our "Copyright Transfer and Open Access Publishing Agreement" (OAPA) is the default option for most authors when publishing in one of our fully open access journals or when opting for open access in our hybrid journals. All articles published under our OAPA are freely accessible, while copyright is transferred to Optica Publishing Group. Authors may post the published version of their article to their personal website, institutional repository, or a repository required by their funding agency. Authors and readers may use, reuse, and build upon the article, or use it for text or data mining, as long as the purpose is non-commercial and appropriate attribution is maintained.

Creative Commons Licensing

We are aware that some authors, as a condition of their funding, must publish their work under a Creative Commons license. We therefore offer a CC BY license for authors who indicate that their work is funded by agencies that we have confirmed have this requirement. We ask that authors enter their funder(s) during the manuscript submission process and we use that information to determine whether a CC BY license is mandated. If so, that option will automatically be selected and the appropriate fee applied. Any subsequent reuse or distribution of content licensed under CC BY must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Questions regarding Creative Commons, Copyright Transfer, or Open Access Licensing can be directed to copyright@optica.org.

Copyright and Licence Statements

The following are the current copyright and license statements that appear on the final versions of Optica Publish Group journal articles. When estimating article length, please leave blank space to account for the appropriate statement (do not include any copyright or licensing statement on your manuscript; the publisher will add it).

Author and End-User Reuse Policy

Our policies afford authors, their employers, and third parties the right to reuse the author's Accepted Manuscript (AM) or the final publisher Version of Record (VoR) of the article as outlined below:

Preprint Posting Policy

Authors may post their manuscripts on our preprint server, Optica Open, arXiv, or other preprint servers prior to submission to our journals. Preprints may also be posted while a manuscript is under consideration for publication. Once accepted for publication in an Optica Publishing Group journal, authors may update an existing preprint to the Accepted Manuscript (if published under a copyright transfer agreement) or final published Version of Record (if published under an open access agreement or CC BY license), and should at a minimum provide a link to the final published version.

Updating preprints	Article version that can be posted under:
	Copyright Transfer	Open Access Publishing Agreement	CC BY License
Posting by authors to update an existing preprint that has been accepted/published	AM	VoR	VoR

Attribution

Non-open-access articles

If an author chooses to post a non-open-access article published under the our Copyright Transfer Agreement on his or her own website, in a closed institutional repository or on the arXiv site, the following message must be displayed at some prominent place near the article and must include a working hyperlink to the online abstract in the journal:

© XXXX [year] Optica Publishing Group. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modifications of the content of this paper are prohibited.

Open access articles

If an author or third party chooses to post an open access article published under our OAPA on his or her own website, in a repository, on the arXiv site, or anywhere else, the following message should be displayed at some prominent place near the article and include a working hyperlink to the online abstract in the journal:

© XXXX [year] Optica Publishing Group. Users may use, reuse, and build upon the article, or use the article for text or data mining, so long as such uses are for non-commercial purposes and appropriate attribution is maintained. All other rights are reserved.

When adapting or otherwise creating a derivative version of an article published under our OAPA, users must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Users should also indicate if changes were made and avoid any implication that the author or Optica Publishing Group endorses the use.

If an author chooses to post an open access article published under the OSA Copyright Transfer Agreement (prior to September 2017) on his or her own website, in a closed institutional repository or on the arXiv site, the following message must be displayed at some prominent place near the article and must include a working hyperlink to the online abstract in the Journal:

© XXXX [year] Optical Society of America. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modifications of the content of this paper are prohibited.

CC BY licensed articles

Any subsequent reuse or distribution of content licensed under CC BY must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Users should also indicate if changes were made and avoid any implication that the author or Optica Publishing Group endorses the use.