AMS Copyright

The AMS upholds a very flexible copyright policy for the books and articles we publish. Although we usually suggest that authors transfer the copyright to the AMS, at the author’s request the rights can remain with the author(s) of a book or an article in a journal or proceedings volume.  Information about copyright for journal and proceedings volume authors can be found below; monograph authors may contact an AMS Acquisitions editor with any copyright questions.

Consent to Publish and Copyright Agreement

All authors submitting papers to any journal or proceedings volume must give the AMS specific permission to publish the work ("consent to publish"). This is a legal requirement that arises in part from provisions of copyright law.

In addition to giving the AMS permission to publish his or her work, an author is also encouraged to transfer copyright of the work to the AMS. In doing so, the author retains the right to use the work for his or her own purposes but simplifies the permissions process by enabling the AMS to administer it.

After a paper is accepted for publication, the AMS will send out a Consent to Publish and Copyright Agreement Form to all authors of the paper.

For articles that will appear only in electronic format, the AMS will register copyright with the Library of Congress on behalf of the copyright holder.

Authors may choose to dedicate their work to the public domain after 28 years from date of publication. For further information, see the article by John Ewing in the March 2004 issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society entitled A Modest Proposal.