Author Services

Open Access & Self Archiving

Self-archiving (green open access)
Authors of original research articles are encouraged to submit the author's version of the accepted paper (the unedited manuscript) to a repository for public release six months after publication. 
Learn more about self-archiving.

Open access publication (gold open access)
Authors of research articles can opt to pay an article processing charge (APC) for their accepted articles to be open access online immediately upon publication. Open access articles are published under Creative Commons licenses, which allow authors to retain copyright to their work while making it open to readers.

To facilitate self-archiving we deposit open access articles in PubMed Central and Europe PubMed Central on publication if the article meets the PMC deposition guidelines; full details of our deposition policies are found under the “Self-archiving, manuscript deposition, and digital preservation” information here. Authors are also permitted to post the final, published PDF of their article on a website, institutional repository or other free public server immediately on publication.
Visit our open research site for detailed information about publishing open access in the  British Journal of Cancer:

Find out more about open access publishing:

Compliance with open access mandates
Our open access journals allow authors to comply with all funders' open access policies worldwide. Authors may need to take specific actions to achieve compliance with funder and institutional open access mandates.
Learn more about open access compliance.

SharedIt
Springer Nature wants researchers to share content easily and legally. Our Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative means that links to view-only, full-text subscription research articles can be posted anywhere - including on social media platforms, author websites and in institutional repositories - so researchers can share research with colleagues and general audiences.

How it works:

  • Springer Nature provides its authors and readers with shareable links to view-only versions of peer-reviewed research papers.  Reasonable sharing is encouraged for non-commercial, personal use.
  • SharedIt is available for the whole of Springer Nature’s owned journal portfolio, along with 1,000 co-owned and partner-owned journals.
  • The shareable links can be posted anywhere, including via social channels and on other highly-used sites, institutional repositories and authors’ own websites, as well as on scholarly collaborative networks         
  • The initiative also enables more than 200 media outlets and blogs to link to a read-only version of full-text subscription articles.
  • For subscription articles, subscribers will be able to download, print and save an enhanced PDF, or to view the full-text HTML version.
  • For open-access articles, all readers will be able to download, print and save an enhanced PDF, or to view the full-text HTML version

Extend the reach of your paper
Aside from making use of SharedIt, we encourage you to take some immediate and simple steps that can help extend the reach and impact of your paper. Learn how you can disseminate your research to your inner circles through the use of social media and online communities by visiting our Author Tips page.

Language Editing
British Journal of Cancer is read by scientists from diverse backgrounds and many are not native English speakers. In addition, the readership of British Journal of Cancer is multidisciplinary; therefore authors need to ensure their findings are clearly communicated. Language and concepts that are well known in one subfield may not be well known in another. Thus, technical jargon should be avoided as far as possible and clearly explained where its use is unavoidable. Abbreviations, particularly those that are not standard, should also be kept to a minimum. The background, rationale and main conclusions of the study should be clearly explained and understandable by all working in the field. Titles and abstracts in particular should be written in language that will be readily understood by all readers.

Authors who are not native speakers of English sometimes receive negative comments from referees or editors about the language and grammar usage in their manuscripts, which can contribute to a paper being rejected. To reduce the possibility of such problems, we strongly encourage such authors to take at least one of the following steps.

  • Have your manuscript reviewed for clarity by a colleague whose native language is English.
  • Visiting the English language tutorial which covers the common mistakes when writing in English.
  • Using a professional language editing service where editors will improve the English to ensure that your meaning is clear and identify problems that require your review. Two such services are provided by our affiliates Nature Research Editing Service and American Journal Experts. 

Please note that the use of a language editing service is at the author's own expense and does not guarantee that the article will be selected for peer review or accepted.

Nature Masterclasses
Nature Masterclasses provide training in scientific writing and publishing. The training is delivered by Nature Research journal editors and aims to help institutions and laboratories support their researchers in writing research papers.
Nature Masterclasses began in 2011 as face-to-face workshops and then, in 2015, launched  online training and webinars.

To find out more about how Nature Masterclasses may be able to help you, visit the website.

Subject Ontology
Choosing the most relevant and specific subject terms from our subject ontology upon submission will ensure that your article will be more discoverable and will appear on appropriate subject specific pages on nature.com, in addition to the journal’s own pages.  Your article should be indexed with at least one, and up to four unique subject terms that describe the key subjects and concepts in your manuscript.  Click here for help with this.