ASME Copyright Guidelines
“I used your [electronic copyright] system as an author of a paper for the Micro/Nanoscale Heat and Mass Transfer Conference to be held in Shanghai later this month. I was very pleasantly surprised at the ease with which I could enter the data and have the procedures completed. It took a very short time and the instructions were clear and simple. I look forward to having that ease and simplicity for our journal and other conferences.”
ASME Electronic Copyright Beta Tester
GENERAL ASME COPYRIGHT GUIDELINES
Copyright Assignment
ASME requests that authors/copyright owners assign copyright to ASME in order for a conference or journal paper to be published by ASME. Authors exempt from this request are direct employees of the U.S. Government (i.e., not U.S. Government contractors), whereby papers are not subject to copyright protection in the U.S., or non-U.S. government employees, whose governments hold the copyright to the paper.
Who Should Sign
Only the copyright owner(s) of the Paper, or an authorized representative, can sign the copyright form. If one of the following applies, you may not own the copyright to the paper, or you may not be authorized to sign the copyright form, and you may need to have the appropriate copyright owner(s) or organization representative sign the form:
- You created the Paper within the scope of your employment, and your employer is the copyright owner.
- You created the Paper under a U.S. Government or other independent contractor form (See section below on “Copyright Assignment and U.S. Government Requirements.”)
- You received a grant that funded your Paper.
Please review your company policies regarding copyright, and if you are not authorized to sign the form, please forward to the appropriate organization representative. Please review applicable company, institutional, and grant policies and your employment/independent contractor form to determine who holds the rights to your Paper.
U.S. Government Copyright Requirements
If the paper you are submitting was prepared in the course of your direct employment with the U.S. Government, please include the following footer on the final PDF version of the paper you are submitting:
"This material is declared a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.”
*Employees of organizations that operate under contract to the U.S. Government, such as U.S. Government labs, please note the following:
- Depending on the policy of your organization and your organization’s contract, the copyright transfer form should be signed either by you or by an appropriate representative from your organization.
- You may be required to include a footer on the final PDF version of your paper acknowledging contract information and also the following statement:
“The United States Government retains, and by accepting the article for publication, the publisher acknowledges that the United States Government retains, a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this work, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes."
Copyright Requirements for Non-U.S Governments
If you are directly employed by the Government of a country other than the U.S., and you do not have authorization to sign the copyright form, please forward the form to the appropriate person.
Copyright Requirements Not Covered
If your particular copyright situation is not covered by the information in this page, please contact copyright@asme.org.
Terms and Conditions
For ASME Copyright Terms and Conditions, which are considered part of the Copyright form, please go to: ASME Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Post-Conference Permission to Publish
While ASME conference authors assign copyright to ASME, they retain broad rights to continue to use their content. This extends to journal publication in both ASME and non-ASME journals. Authors simply need to contact permissions@asme.org after the conference.
ASME ELECTRONIC COPYRIGHT GUIDELINES AND PROCESS
In order for the electronic copyright form to be processed correctly, a few procedures must be followed:
- At abstract submission, the corresponding author must enter all co-author information in the Tool with complete and verifiable contact information, including email address and telephone number. Incomplete or non-verifiable contact information for all authors may prevent you from completing the copyright form, and your paper may not be published in the conference proceedings.
- Once a draft paper has been accepted for publication, the corresponding author will not be able to change the author lineup or paper title.
- In order to guarantee that your form is verified and your paper is included in the conference proceedings, please complete the process as soon as possible. For conference papers, as a condition of publication, ASME also requires that you or one of your co-authors register, pay any applicable registration fees for that conference, attend, and present the paper to your fellow conference attendees.
Please note that accepted and approved papers will not be processed for publication without receipt of a fully executed, signed, and verified copyright form. If copyright issues are not resolved by the specified resolution deadline, your paper may be subject to removal from publication in the conference proceedings. Please refer to the Publication Schedule posted on the Website of each specific conference.
Once a draft paper is accepted for publication, each author of the paper will receive an email message with a unique link that will take each individual author to a website to electronically sign the form.
If you are an author/copyright owner of the paper or are authorized to sign the copyright form on behalf of your employer or organization, the system will take you through the signing process.
If you are an author but your organization owns the copyright to the paper or you are delegating signing authorization to a Designated Author, you will need to forward the email to that individual.
The system is highly user friendly and will take you through the process in 30 seconds or less.
Should you have any questions about the new process or about adding your co-authors, either now or once the process has started, please contact copyright@asme.org.