Journal Production FAQs

Contact

1. My email address has changed since my article was accepted for publication. What do I do?

It is important that you notify your content manager of any changes to your email address. If you do not, the pdf proof of your article will not be delivered correctly and the publication of your article will be delayed. A correct email address is also required so that a final pdf can be delivered to the corresponding author when the article has been published.

Proofs

2. My article has been accepted but I have not received a pdf proof to check

It can take between 2 and 6 weeks, from receipt of your article at Cambridge University Press, for proofs to be sent out. If you have still not received a proof after this time please check your spam filter and then contact jnlsproduction@cambridge.org. Your article might not yet have been submitted for production by the journal’s editorial office, there may be a problem with the email address you supplied, your server may be rejecting the pdf proof, or there may be other reasons for the proof being delayed.

Note that for most journals the proofs will only be sent to the corresponding author.

3. In what format will my proofs be sent to me?

The corresponding author will be sent an email with a link to a proof. A covering note attached to the proof will include full instructions on what you need to do with the proof and a link to the author publishing agreement and copyeditor queries (if appropriate).

4. I have just received my proof, what do I do?

You must now check your proof. If you have received a pdf proof, you will need a pdf reader such as Adobe Reader to view your proof.

The email you have received includes full instructions for proof reading as well the contact details of the relevant proof collator. Please follow these instructions carefully in order to avoid delays in publication.

It is your responsibility to check your proof very carefully at this stage. Errors not found may appear in the published journal. Please ensure you answer all author queries received with your proof. Please note that this is not the time to rewrite large sections of your text or introduce editorially significant changes. Corrections must be confined to typographical errors only.

5. What is an online correction tool?

Some journals asks for corrections to be submitted via an online correction tool. An online correction tool enables corrections to be made directly to the article proof, reducing the risk of ambiguity about corrections and providing a streamlined approach when dealing with corrections from multiple authors or editors. Instructions for using the tool can be found on the correction tool’s home page.

6. What is a proof collator?

The proof collator coordinates receipt of all author corrections for a particular journal and ensures they are forwarded to the content manager who will arrange for corrections to be implemented. The full contact details of your proof collator will be provided in the instructions you receive with your proof.

7. How can I contact the journal’s content manager?

The proof notice you receive will give details of your content manager. If you have any queries prior to proof stage then email the journal’s editor whom you have dealt with to date or jnlsproduction@cambridge.org.

Your content manager can help you with any questions you may have about production matters; but if you have any queries about corrections to your proof then please contact the proof collator or content manager.

Author Corrections

8. How do I mark my corrections?

For the majority of journals, we ask that you mark your corrections electronically by annotating the PDF. Instructions for commenting on PDFs can be found here.

Some journals ask for corrections to be submitted via an online correction tool. Instructions for using the tool can be found on the correction tool’s home page.

Some journals ask for a list of corrections to be submitted via email.

Do not reply to the email proof alert or directly to the typesetter. If you have any queries about your proof please contact the proof collator.

9. When do you need my proof corrections?

We generally require your corrections within 2 to 4 working days. Please check the instructions sent to you with your proof for the deadline and details of where to send your corrections. It is important that you attend to your proof as soon as possible so that publication is not delayed.

You should return your proof as soon as you can even if this is after the deadline has passed. However, if you are away for any significant time, you should nominate a co-author to check the proof for you, or if this is not possible please email the proof collator to let them know when you may be able to return the proof.

10. I do not have any corrections. What do I need to do?

If you have checked your proof carefully, do not wish to make any corrections, and have no author queries to resolve please email the proof collator and tell them you are happy for the proof to be published as it is. Do not forget to send your completed author publishing agreement if you have not already done so.

11. I have received a proof and see that my article has been changed after it was accepted. Why has it been changed?

After an article is accepted, it is copyedited to ensure it conforms to the journal style. Usually the changes are not major. If major changes are required the article will be referred back to the journal’s editors. If you believe that changes have been made which are inaccurate then please clearly mark the corrections you require.

12. I have already returned my corrections to the proof collator but I’ve just spotted some more errors. What can I do?

Please email the proof collator who will be able to advise if it is still possible to make the corrections. The proof collator may need to refer this to the content manager for a decision. If your article is published online it will be too late to make any changes. However, if your article is not already published online, we may be able to accept further corrections. It is always best to try to avoid this situation happening by checking your proofs very carefully.

Online Publication

13. What exactly do you mean by FirstView publication?

Many Cambridge journals publish individual articles online ahead of issue assignment. Articles are corrected and published online as soon as possible after they are corrected. This means that articles are published more quickly and publication is not delayed by the collation of an issue. Please note that FirstView publication is considered final.

14. I returned my proof corrections a week ago. Why isn’t my article published?

If you are publishing in a journal that allows FirstView publication – through which each article is published online as soon as production is complete – please allow up to 2 weeks for an article to be corrected and uploaded to Cambridge Core. You can check if your article is online by visiting the journal’s home page and clicking on ‘FirstView’. A number of journals do not publish articles under this model. For these journals, articles will not be published until the whole issue is ready. Refer to your journal’s home page for further information.

15. Will I get a pdf of my final article?

If you are publishing in a FirstView journal your article will be published online within 2 to 3 weeks of the completion of proof corrections. The corresponding author will be sent a pdf of the final published version to distribute among co-authors. It is not another proof and you cannot make any further corrections to it. You will also receive another pdf once your article is repaginated and published in an issue.

If your journal is not a FirstView journal then you will receive a pdf of the final published version when the whole issue is published on Cambridge Core.

16. What is Cambridge Core?

Cambridge Core is the online content delivery service for Cambridge University Press’s collection of leading journals across the sciences, social sciences and humanities. All visitors to the site can:

read tables of contents and abstracts for all Cambridge journals
search the full text of articles
keep up to date with the latest research in their field

17. When will my article be published online?

If you are publishing in a FirstView journal your article will be published online within 2 to 3 weeks of the completion of proof corrections. If your journal is not a FirstView journal your article will be published when the whole issue is published on Cambridge Core.

18. I’ve seen my article on Cambridge Core but I can’t get access to the full text. What can I do?

To view the full text of your article you must be a subscriber/registered user. If you are the author of the work please contact jnlsproduction@cambridge.org

19. How should I cite my article if it is published FirstView but not yet in an issue?

You should follow your usual citation style but include the article’s online publication date and DOI, both of which will remain consistent after the article is repaginated and included in an issue. For example:

Lazerson, Samuel A. and Wiechen, Heinz M. ‘Three-dimensional simulations of magnetic reconnection in a dusty plasma’, Journal of Plasma Physics, doi: 10.1017/S0022377807006861, Published online 27 November 2007.

The published online date establishes the copyright date for your article and the DOI is the unique string of characters which enables other readers to access your article.

20. What is a DOI?

The DOI (digital object identifier) is a string of characters which together uniquely identify a published article. The DOI is permanently assigned to an article, and provides a persistent link to current information about that article, including where the article, or information about it, can be found on the Internet. It enables readers to find the article on the Internet irrespective of any subsequent changes in the website structure, in the management responsibility of the journal in which it was first published, or the location of the website on which the journal is hosted.

For more information about DOIs, see www.doi.org or www.crossref.org.

21. Can I create a web address to my paper using the DOI?

To convert a DOI to a web address you need to add a prefix to the DOI. For papers published on Cambridge Core use the url prefix http://dx.doi.org/

For example, assuming your paper has DOI as follows:

doi:10.1017/S1368980008002541

Your web address will then be:

http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1017/S1368980008002541

You can use the url string within any documents you write, or you can simply copy and paste it into your browser.

The url will lead to the page where your paper is published on Cambridge Core.

22. I have just received my FirstView pdf and have found an error. Can I get this corrected?

Articles published online under the FirstView model are considered published and can be cited and quoted using the DOI as the reference source.

Cambridge University Press has a policy that changes will not be made after publication of an article. The reason is not technical, nor is it a bid to avoid extra administrative time or cost, it is instead a matter of publishing principle that we can only ever release into the public domain a single definitive version of anything we publish. It’s an industry standard practice to maintain the integrity of published content in the digital world. If a significant error is discovered after online publication you should contact the journal’s content manager to decide if there is a need to publish a separate corrigendum/erratum linked to the online version. Please see our policy on post-publication notices.

Please note that simple typographical errors and other aesthetic changes are not considered serious enough to warrant publishing an erratum. We will only issue notices for errors that affect the understanding of the article, the integrity or usability of the paper, or where there is a legal or safety imperative to do so. Please see our policy on post-publication notices.

23. My article is now online. When will it appear in an issue?

Each journal has its own policy for including articles in issues and what goes into each issue is usually the journal editor’s decision. Many journals also have large forward loads of articles waiting for inclusion in an issue. Issues are generally compiled about 6 to 8 weeks before the issue cover date. However, online publication confirms that an article is published and it can confidently be cited as such.

24. I’ve looked at the latest issue of your journal and several articles are included which were published online after my article. Why was my article not included in the issue?

When scheduling articles for any particular issue, the journal editor and/or content manager take a number of things into account, including date of submission, date of acceptance, date of online publication, subject balance or theme in an issue, and also length (every journal has a strict annual page budget, and we try to get as close as possible to this). When making the final selection of articles for an issue, date of online publication has to be balanced against all these other factors so may not always be the prime consideration

25. My article was published in a 2021 issue but the copyright date on the first page is 2020. Is this an error?

The copyright date of an article always matches the date an article was first published. As many of our journals publish online ahead of issue publication (FirstView), individual articles are published online as soon as they are corrected. It can easily happen that an article may not appear in an issue until some months later, possibly the following year. In these cases the journal’s year of publication will not match the copyright year stated, and this is entirely correct.

26. What is accepted manuscript publication?

Some journals publish early versions of articles as soon as they enter the production cycle, allowing articles to be read and cited more quickly. A PDF version of the accepted manuscript (a manuscript that has completed peer review and editorial acceptance, but has not been copyedited or typeset) is published online ahead of FirstView. This is usually published within four days of the manuscript being accepted by Cambridge University Press, and will eventually be replaced with the final copyedited and typeset Version of Record.

The licence that Cambridge University Press applies to this accepted manuscript may be more restrictive than what is agreed for the final Version of Record, due to workflow timings and limitations. Please note:

The final Version of Record will always be published with the licence chosen in your publishing agreement.
Cambridge’s publication of this accepted manuscript in no way restricts authors from also sharing their accepted manuscripts in accordance with our Green Open Access policy.

Check your journal's information pages for information about what licence it applies when publishing accepted manuscripts.

After Publication

27. When will my journal copies and/or offprints be sent to me?

Each journal has its own policy on providing complimentary copies to authors. If your journal sends out complimentary copies or offprints you should allow 6 to 8 weeks for these to be delivered.

Most journals no longer provide offprints but offer a pdf of the final version instead. Please consult your journal’s author instructions for the current policy.

28. How can I buy a copy of the journal in which my article appears?

Please contact our Customer Services department at journals@cambridge.org for assistance.

Permissions/author publishing agreements

29. Can I email my signed author publishing agreement as a pdf?

Yes, email signed pdfs to the name/email address provided on the form.

Traditionally, only hand-signed forms are accepted and we are unable to accept forms that include electronic signatures. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Press is providing alternative contract signing procedures that you can read about here.

30. I have received an email from Ironclad. What should I do?

Some journals use Ironclad, a digital contract management platform, to manage author publishing agreements. If you receive an email from “Cambridge University Press via Ironclad” (noreply@mg.ironcladapp.com) please follow the instructions and complete an Information Request Form (IRF). The information submitted via the IRF will determine the terms and conditions under which the article will be published. Failure to provide the information promptly may result in publication delays.

31. I want to post my article on my own website, do I need the Press’s permission?

Please refer to the author publishing agreement you signed before publication for a full explanation of the rights you retain in your published article. Further details about how you may share different versions of your article are explained in our journals Green Open Access policy.

32. Can I use figures from my own article published in a Cambridge journal in another publication?

Authors should always read the particular terms and conditions on the author publishing agreement they submitted. For more information please see our permissions FAQs.

Third Party Depositories, Indexing, and PubMed

33. Will my article be submitted to PubMed Central?

If your article is published Gold Open Access and the funding has been provided by NIH Wellcome Trust (or other funders with such a requirement to deposit in PubMed Central) then it will be submitted to PubMed Central when it is published in an issue. Please note that articles are not submitted to PubMed Central upon FirstView publication.

34. What if my article is not Gold Open Access, will it still be submitted to PubMed Central?

No. We do not automatically deposit copies of papers to PMC upon publication unless the articles have been published as Gold Open Access. In all other instances it is the author’s responsibility to deposit a copy. However, for a selection of our journals we do deposit all articles a year after publication. Please check your journal’s author instructions to see whether this applies.

35. Will my abstract be submitted to PubMed?

For a selection of our journals we automatically deposit abstracts in PubMed. PubMed does not index all journals but carefully selects what is to be included in the database. Please check your journal’s author instructions to see whether this applies.

36. Where else will my article be sent?

Please check your journal’s homepage to find out where articles are deposited and which abstracting and indexing services it uses.

37. Where and when can I deposit my article?

Information on depositing different versions of your article can be found in our Green OA policy for journals.