Authors should also see Copyright Information for copyright forms and other post-acceptance obligations.
For works funded by cOAlition S Organizations (i.e. UKRI, Wellcome, NIHR) please see the Addendum below
American Meteorological Society Copyright Policy
(Accepted by the AMS Council 22 September 2010, updated 21 September 2017 and 25 March 2022, 20 July 2023)
The American Meteorological Society’s (AMS) mission to disseminate knowledge in the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences is best served by promoting wide access to AMS publications while ensuring that this dissemination preserves the integrity of the original published Works. The copyright in the materials published in AMS journals, monographs, and other publications, including supplemental material, is transferred from the Author(s) of the Work to the AMS at the time it is accepted for publication, allowing the AMS to act as the steward for the intellectual property contained in the published Work. It also allows the AMS to protect the value of the materials in order to generate revenue for the AMS to support the peer-review publication process so crucial to the scholarly scientific endeavor.
1. General Copyright Information
The recipient of an AMS copyrighted Work is not free to copy it and distribute the copy without obtaining prior permission from the AMS. This concept has been the foundation of copyright protection and continues to be the basic assumption of this Policy. This Policy repeatedly refers to two additional basic assumptions:
- Transmitting an AMS copyrighted Work through a computer network, such as via email, is a form of copying.
- The AMS permits the use of links as a form of citation to its Works.
For the purposes of this Policy, the AMS defines the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) as the final version provided by the Author(s) prior to acceptance for publication and the Version of Record (VoR) as the version of the Work that has been accepted by the AMS, professionally edited, and provided to the community in a final print and/or digitally published form.
This Policy (and other related statements) will be reviewed from time to time and amended or revised as necessary based on the experiences gained under its use and/or changes in the law. The AMS Publications Commission plays a key role in helping to formulate the AMS’s copyright policies. The AMS Council, however, must approve all such policies. This document supersedes all previous AMS copyright policies and any related statements.
2. Copyright Notice
The AMS requires that any republication of an AMS copyrighted Work contains an AMS copyright notice. The AMS copyright notice must be displayed on the first page of any AMS copyrighted Work that is published in print or on the first screen of any AMS copyrighted Work that is electronically published (such as on a website). For digital publications, it is acceptable to include “© Copyright [date of publication] AMS” as a hypertext link to the full copyright notice.
AMS’s Full Copyright Notice
© Copyright [date of publication] American Meteorological Society (AMS). For permission to reuse any portion of this Work, please contact permissions@ametsoc.
3. Requirement for Copyright Transfer
As a condition of publishing a Work with the AMS, the Author(s) must transfer copyright in the Work to the AMS. This requirement may be waived for some materials. The copyright transfer (referred to as the assignment of copyright) becomes effective when an AMS Editor or appropriate AMS staff member accepts the Work for publication.
This requirement is waived for research funded by cOAlition S organizations (i.e. UKRI, Wellcome, NIHR)*. Such Authors retain copyright in the AAM but will transfer copyright to AMS for the VoR. See “Addendum for Research Funded by cOAlition S Organizations” below.
Once assignment of copyright to the AMS has occurred, the Author(s) must incorporate the AMS copyright notice (see Section 2) into any copy of the Work made available to others. The AMS will maintain the VoR as the definitive version of the published Work. If the AMS makes the VoR available electronically, Authors who maintain personal electronic collections should include a link to the VoR maintained by the AMS and should distribute only links pointing to the AMS VoR.
The AMS has several different copyright transfer forms. Nearly all Authors will use one of the “standard” copyright forms, and most will use the form that provides for the transfer of copyright to the AMS by the Author(s). There are additional “standard” forms that allow Authors to sign a statement that the Work was created as part of their official duties as a U.S. government employee and is therefore precluded from copyright protection, that the Work is subject to Crown Copyright, or that the Work was funded by a cOAlitionS organization. In addition, a number of government laboratories have special copyright policies for contractors who work at those laboratories, and the AMS has a set of forms specific to each of those laboratories.
If there is more than one Author of a Work, all Authors must sign the appropriate copyright transfer form or other standard form described above. It is not sufficient for one Author to sign on behalf of coauthors. Coauthors may all sign and submit one form or each Author may sign and submit a separate form.
The AMS and many other publishers have a policy that Authors should submit a Work for consideration for publication to only one publisher at a time. The Author(s) must notify the AMS if a Work is identical to or substantially the same as a Work submitted to another publisher.
4. Permission for Use of Copyrighted Works of Others
Authors who use the material of another author or copyright owner, such as a graphical image, text, etc., in the new Work are expected to obtain written permission from the author or copyright owner where appropriate and provide a copy of that permission to the AMS. The permission must be broad enough to permit the AMS to distribute the material as contained in the Work in any and all media now known or later developed.
5. Citation to AMS Works Using Links
The AMS permits citations to its Works through the use of links and encourages the widespread distribution of links to the VoRs of AMS copyrighted Works. The AMS does not require that Authors obtain prior permission to include such links in their new Works. Execution of a link to view a Work is considered permissible under these policies. Redistributing a copy created by the execution of a link, however, requires permission from the AMS. In addition, entities or individuals may not upload copies of AMS copyrighted Works to a server for distribution by links without the permission of the AMS.
The AMS considers it to be a copyright infringement if a series of links forms a pattern equivalent to the table of contents of an AMS publication or creates a compilation of AMS copyrighted Works. To avoid misunderstandings, individuals should consult with the AMS before duplicating substantial portions of AMS copyrighted Works with links.
6. Version of Record (VoR) of a Work and Early Online Release (EOR)
The AMS is obligated to ensure the Work is permanently archived so that the published research record will always be available to future generations. This stewardship role requires that the AMS maintain the VoR of any Work published in an AMS journal and give permission to copy only true representations of that VoR. The VoR is defined as the version that has been accepted by the AMS, professionally edited, and provided to the community in a final print and/or digitally published form.
In seeking to provide new research results to the atmospheric science community as quickly as possible, the AMS provides limited access to an Early Online Release (EOR) version of an accepted manuscript during the period that the accepted manuscript is being prepared for publication. As soon as the VoR is available, it replaces the EOR version so that only the VoR can be accessed from that point forward. EORs are not intended to be used as replacements for the VoRs and, therefore, permission cannot be provided to post these versions on any non-AMS database or website. (An exception to this Policy can be made for a repository managed by a funding agency that requires the EOR version and will not allow it to be replaced by the VoR. Even in those cases, every effort should be made to ensure that the publicly available version of the Work is always the VoR.)
7. Distribution from a Non-AMS Database or Website
Copies of an AMS copyrighted Work may not be placed on a non-AMS database or website without permission from the AMS unless provided for under this Policy.
a. Distribution prior to Submission
The posting of a draft manuscript on preprint servers or the Author’s personal or professional webpage provides an opportunity for increased communication among researchers. The AMS does not intend to inhibit this avenue of scientific exchange. At the present time, and as long as certain requirements are met, the AMS treats such postings as informal publications and will not reject a manuscript that has been posted in this way on the basis of prior publication.
The AMS strongly recommends that Authors choosing to post their Work as a preprint prior to submission to a journal include within it a header or footnote stating that it has not yet been peer-reviewed, similar to the one shown below.
Sample Notice:
This Work has not yet been peer-reviewed and is provided by the contributing Author(s) as a means to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical Work on a noncommercial basis. Copyright and all rights therein are maintained by the Author(s) or by other copyright owners. It is understood that all persons copying this information will adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each Author's copyright. This Work may not be reposted without explicit permission of the copyright owner.
b. Distribution after Submission but prior to Editorial Decision
Authors who submit a Work for consideration by the AMS should include a notice similar to the following on any copy of the Work posted on a preprint server or the Author’s personal or professional webpage:
This Work has been submitted to <journal name>. Copyright in this Work may be transferred without further notice.
c. Distribution after Editorial Decision
For a Work posted to a preprint server prior to the transfer of copyright to the AMS, permission is granted under this Policy for that Work to remain available online provided the following notice is included at the time the copyright is assigned to the AMS:
This Work has been accepted to <journal name>. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the Version of Record (VoR).
Once the VoR is published by the AMS, preprint servers or hosts of the content must include a full citation to the AMS publication that contains a link to the VoR of the Work residing on the AMS journal server.
d. Open Access Institutional Repositories
The AMS understands the increasing demand for institutions to provide open access to the published research being produced by employees, such as faculty of that institution. The AMS also recognizes that U.S. government policies may exist that apply to certain published research funded by particular U.S. government agencies and that require that the peer-reviewed manuscript be deposited in an appropriate repository of the appropriate U.S. government agency. In cases where such requirements are applicable to a particular Work, the AMS grants permission to the Author(s) to deposit a copy of the VoR in the repository of an Author’s institution and/or the appropriate U.S. funding agency repository provided all of the following conditions are met:
- The article lists the institution hosting the repository as either the Author’s affiliation or as an acknowledged U.S. agency funder of the Work.
- The copy provided to the repository is a PDF of the VoR. (An exception to this Policy can be made for a repository managed by a funding agency that requires the EOR version and will not allow it to be replaced by the VoR. Even in those cases, every effort should be made to ensure that the publicly available version of the Work is always the VoR; see section 6.)
- The repository does not provide access to the article until at least 12 months after the date of publication of the VoR by the AMS. Academic institutions that serve as the Author’s institution can provide access 6 months after final publication.
- The repository copy includes the AMS copyright notice.
8. Permissions Granted to Authors by the AMS
The AMS grants its Authors the following permissions:
- Permission to reuse any portion of the Author’s Work, without a fee, in future lectures, press releases, or Works of the Author's own, provided that the AMS citation and the AMS copyright notice are included.
- Permission to post a copy of the Work on the Author's personal or professional webpage (that is, a webpage under the direct control of the Author) on a non-AMS server for noncommercial distributions, provided the AMS copyright notice (see section 2) is attached to the personal copy and that it represents the VoR (see section 6).
- Permission to have the Work posted on open access institutional repositories under the conditions provided in section 7d.
- Permission for the Author’s employer to distribute copies of the Work to other employees within the organization.
- The assignment of copyright to the AMS does not affect the right of the Author to seek patent protection for any invention that may be disclosed in the Work.
9. Republication
The AMS maintains a policy of not republishing Works, whether copyrighted by the AMS or by others, except under limited conditions where an Editor determines there is significant benefit in republication.
10. Edited Collections
In most cases of conference proceedings and other collections, the collective work as a whole is copyrighted by the AMS, while the Authors may hold copyright to the individual components of the collection.
No collection in which the AMS is the sole or joint copyright holder may be posted for open distribution without prior permission from the AMS. Notice of permission must accompany the AMS copyright notice.
11. Permissions
All AMS journals and monograph publications are registered with the Copyright Clearance Center. Questions about permission to reuse materials for which the AMS holds copyright can also be sent via the Permissions Request Form or to [email protected].
12. Interpretation of Coverage
The AMS copyright transfer form grants the AMS all rights in the Work, including, without limitation, the right to publish the Work in whole or in part in any and all media now known or later developed.
Addendum for Research Funded by cOAlition S Organizations (i.e. UKRI, Wellcome, NIHR)
This Addendum hereby modifies and supplements the AMS Copyright Policy only with regard to research papers funded by cOAlition S organizations (such as UKRI, Wellcome, NIHR) that have implemented an Open Access policy that aligns with Plan S.
This Addendum does not apply to Works that are not funded by cOAlition S organizations.
For Works funded by cOAlition S organizations that have implemented an Open Access policy that aligns with Plan S (“cOAlition S Funded Work(s)”), this Addendum and the AMS Copyright Policy, taken together, allocate all rights under copyright with respect to all versions of the cOAlition S Funded Work. The parties agree that wherever there is any conflict between this Addendum and the AMS Copyright Policy, the provisions of this Addendum shall govern and control and the AMS Copyright Policy shall be construed accordingly.
AMS licenses back the following rights to the Author in the version of the cOAlition S funded Work that has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication (the “Author Accepted Manuscript,” or “AAM”), but not the final, copyedited, and proofed version published by AMS (the “Version of Record”, or “VoR”):
The right to self-archive and distribute the AAM under either a CC BY 4.0 license or a CC BY-ND license, including on the Author’s personal website, in the Author’s company/institutional repository or archive, and in not-for-profit subject-based repositories without embargo but only following publication of the VoR.
AMS’s license back of the foregoing rights to the Author under this Addendum does not extend to any material in the AAM that is copyrighted by a third party. The Author is solely responsible for obtaining rights from any such owner for use of that material in connection with the Author’s exercise of rights licensed back under this Addendum.
The Author may not replace the AAM with the VoR. The AAM posted must contain a notice as follows: “This is the accepted version of the following article: [FULL CITATION], which has been published in final form at [LINK TO VoR].”
Author rights with regard to the VoR remain as stated in the AMS Copyright Policy.
*(A list of cOAlition S oOrganizations is maintained by cOAlition S at https://www.coalition-s.org/organisations/)