Open-Access / Electronic Archiving Policy

List of CBA Policies

The Catholic Biblical Association of America Open-Access Policy

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The Catholic Biblical Association of America (CBA) has established this open-access policy for authors whose work is published in  The Catholic Biblical Quarterly (CBQ) and in the Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series (CBQMS). The goal of this policy is to make the CBA's publications accessible to the widest possible audience, while ensuring the CBA's sustainability as a publisher.

In addition to these core principles of accessibility and sustainability, there are other factors that have provided the impetus for this policy: (1) the CBA's recognition of authors' rights to their scholarship; (2) the increased availability of scholarship in digital format; and (3) authors' desire to make their scholarship available through personal or institutional web sites; (4) the CBA's responsibility to honor its contractual obligations to academic databases, and (5) the CBA's obligation to preserve the original final copy accepted for publication.

The CBA distinguishes between three versions of a manuscript, which represent different levels of its involvement in the work:

  • The original manuscript is the author's version of the manuscript as it was originally submitted to CBQ or CBQMS, i.e., before the peer-review of the manuscript and without any revisions based on the peer-view. The CBA makes no claim to the original manuscript, which the author is free to disseminate however he or she chooses.
  • The accepted manuscript is the version which has been reviewed by members of the CBQ or CBQMS editorial board and accepted for publication. Because this version includes revisions based on the results of the peer-review and because its content will comprise the final typeset version, the CBA requires an 18-month embargo after the publication of the typeset manuscript before the author may post the accepted manuscript or allow an Institution access to said material. After this embargo, the accepted manuscript may be posted to the author's web site (personal or institutional) or to an Institutional Repository. This posting does not require any permission or notification. An Institution's use of an author's material (either for publication on websites or for repository purposes) is always dependent on the author's permission which can be revoked by the author at any time.
  • The typeset manuscript is the final published version that appears in the CBQ or CBQMS. At the author's request, the CBA will provide a Portable Document Format (PDF) file of the typeset version, but this PDF is subject to the same provision listed above, including an18-month embargo after the manuscript's publication. After this embargo, the typeset manuscript may be posted to the author's web site (personal or institutional) or to an Institutional Repository.  This posting does not require any permission or notification.  Again, an Institution's non-commercial use of an author's material is always dependent on the author's permission which can be revoked by the author at any time.

 In summary:

  1. The CBA retains the copyright of the accepted and final typeset material.
  2. Authors have rights to their material (generally CBQ articles / OTA reviews) to publish to websites (personal or institutional, including for archival purposes) as long as the conditions listed in this document are adhered to. Republication with anyone other than the CBA is forbidden.
  3. After the 18-month period of embargo, the author is free to use the material as long as the full and proper citation is given and the material is for non-commercial use only. No formal permission is required from the CBA.
  4. The CBA prohibits an author from authorizing a third-party to distribute the author's material.
  5. An institution's right to non-commercial use of an author's material is dependent on the permission of the author (as long as this permission is in compliance with the CBA's policy). This permission can be revoked by the author at any time.
  6. This policy does not cover CBQMS publications. These works cannot be republished or distributed under any form other than that formally approved by the CBA.
  7. For commercial use of any material published by CBA, formal permission from the CBA is required. The form is found at the CBA website under Publications.