Terms of Publication for Open Access Papers

Rights of Authors, Readers and the Publisher

The Author has submitted the Paper to Dove and does so under the understanding that the Paper, if accepted for publication under the terms of this Agreement, shall be published by Dove under a Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial license. Creative Commons attribution noncommerical license has been developed to facilitate open access to, and free use of, original works of all types for personal, research and educational use but not commercial use (as defined below).

A Paper published by Dove is made freely available in electronic form to the public upon publication, and without subscription barriers to access. Users of such a published Paper are entitled to reproduce, distribute, create adaptions (derivative works) and distribute any adaptations using the published Paper provided that:

• The original Author of the Paper is properly and fully attributed;
• Dove's journal in which the Paper is published is attributed as the original place of publication of the Paper with correct citation details of the Dove journal, and publisher's details given;
• If an adaption or derivative work is created using the Paper, in whole or in part, and distributed the use of the Paper is clearly attributed to the original author and publisher;
• The Paper, or part thereof, may not be distributed, reproduced or adapted for commercial advantage or private monetary compensation without the prior written consent of Dove, and payment to Dove of any appropriate fee.

The Author is entitled to distribute or deposit the final electronic version of the Paper into an institutional or centrally organized subject repository upon publication provided that the Author shall include a link to the published version of the Paper on the journal's web site, and attribute Dove as publisher, the Dove journal as the original place of publication, with correct citations given.
Dove may, at its sole discretion, choose to produce printed copies of the Paper in a collection of papers in bound form. This means that the Paper will reach a wider audience than users of the web-based journals which Dove produces, and that the Paper will be available in durable form. Without prejudice to the terms of the Exclusive License between Dove and the Author, Dove reserves the right to reproduce the Author's Paper in this way. Dove further reserves the right to sell any copies made to Dove's benefit and credit. This right is exclusive to Dove and the author must disclose any third party who may have a conflict of interest in this regard.

Article processing fees
Upon acceptance the author agrees to arrange payment of the article publishing charge (if applicable). Owing to fluctuations in foreign exchange rates fees may occasionally be subject to change. See Article Publishing Charge page for details.

Color Illustrations
Illustrations are reproduced at no cost to the Author.

US Federal Government Employees
A Paper prepared by a US federal government employee as part of the employee's official duties is a 'US Government Work' and is in the public domain in the United States.

Author responsibilities
The Author warrants that:

• The Paper submitted to Dove is an original, unpublished work, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
• The Paper is submitted in accordance with Dove's Author Guidelines.
• Signed copyright permissions are obtained from copyright owners for any material over 44 words reproduced from another source and all illustrations or tables from another source or adapted from another source. For further information please contact [email protected]
• Any words in a language other than English are accurate.
• All facts and references are correct.

The Author warrants that all persons who have a reasonable claim to authorship are named in the Paper as co-authors, including the Author, and the Author has not fabricated or misappropriated anyone’s identity, including their own.

The Author warrants and guarantees that the Paper protects the confidentiality of individuals or organisations mentioned in the Paper, and further warrants that the Author has obtained and can supply upon demand written permission from any parties for the reproduction of their verbal statements, written statements, or client records.

The Author warrants and guarantees that, where the Paper represents results of research, and where there is an applicable ethics committee overview of the research, approval has been obtained and complied with.

The Author warrants that he or she is the sole legal and equitable owner of the Paper, and that the Author is fully capable of granting the Exclusive License to Dove and entering into this Agreement.
By acknowledging consent to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, the Author unconditionally confirms that they have obtained any and all necessary copyright authorisation/s as required by law from any third party in respect of the indefinite use of copyright material of any nature, whether data, tables, text or otherwise which has been used either partially or wholly in any material submitted by the Author to Dove.

The Author also confirms that any third party copyright materials which have been reused either partially or wholly in any way in producing material submitted to Dove have been fully cited in the Author's document by identifying the original source and copyright owner and noting any terms and conditions of use of such third party, whether expressly stipulated by the third party or otherwise.

In respect of any document submitted by the Author and published by Dove through any medium the Author agrees at all times to indemnify Dove in respect of any loss or damage, direct or consequential, and whether arising in tort (including negligence or breach of statutory duty), contract or otherwise, which may be suffered by Dove as a direct or indirect result of any breach by the Author of any of its legal obligations or duties, whether under Terms and Conditions, or as the result of any negligence, breach of statutory duty or any other act or omission on the Authors part whatsoever. The Author agrees to pay upon demand any amount for which Dove may become liable as a result of any action or liability that is incurred by Dove in this regard, and for the avoidance of doubt, including solicitor-client costs of enforcement hereof.

By signing this agreement the Author confirms that the submitted manuscript is:

• Unique
• Has not been published elsewhere; and
• Is not currently under consideration for publication by any other publisher.

Understandings
DMP reserves all of its rights to refuse or decline any Paper submitted for consideration for publication, to refuse or decline to publish any Paper, or remove or delete any published Paper where it is considered, at Dove's sole discretion, that there has been a breach of any of the terms and conditions of this Agreement by the Author.

If we reasonably consider that the article should not be published for any reason, including but not limited to a breach of your author warranties, we may decline to publish the article or rescind acceptance of the article, as applicable. If, after publication, we reasonably consider that the article should be retracted or removed from publication for any reason, we may retract or withdraw the article. In any of the above situations, we shall be entitled to retain any Article Publishing Charge you have paid, and any decision to refund the Article Publishing Charge shall be in accordance with our Author Guidelines.

By submitting a manuscript the authors give Dove permission to contact them about their submission via email, even if they have previously expressed a wish to unsubscribe and not receive any emails from Dove.

The Paper submitted to Dove is subject to peer and editorial review.

On acceptance of the Paper for publication, the Author agree that any commercial use of the Paper, being use of the Paper which is directed toward or primarily intended for commercial advantage or private monetary compensation, shall only take place with the written prior approval of the publisher, Dove. Such permission, approval or consent shall only be made available upon payment of a fee to Dove by the party seeking to use the Paper for any commercial use.

As the exclusive holder of the commercial re-use right over the Work of the Author, DMP does not pay, and does not have any obligation to pay, any monies, royalties, fee, commission or remuneration whatsoever nor does it grant or confer any financial benefit directly or indirectly to the Author or any person nominated by the Author in relation to the Work.

The Author hereby grants and assigns an exclusive commercial use right ("the Exclusive License") in the Paper to Dove , and hereby acknowledges that the aforesaid Exclusive License extends and includes any work (or part thereof) which is provided by way of a restricted act in terms of the Copyright Act 1993 or at common law. Any commercial use (or re-use) of the Paper without Dove's written consent shall be in breach of these terms of publication and the Author or third party acting in breach of these terms of publication will be liable to Dove for such amount as Dove would have charged for providing permission for commercial re-use of the Work, PLUS all legal/recovery costs in enforcing Dove's exclusive commercial re-use rights and licence against the party in breach.

Dove is not responsible for returning any original disk, hardcopy, and any photographs or illustrations provided by the Author.

Conflict of Interest
The Author of a Paper submitted to any Dove journal must inform the journal's editor of any commercial associations or financial interests held by any of the Author (including all authors of the Paper) or immediate members of the Author's family (or families as the case may be), which might be construed as posing a conflict of interest, including but not limited to consultancies, employment, expert testimony, honoraria, retainers, stock holdings or options, and membership on boards of for-profit organizations with a financial interest in the Paper.

The Author is responsible for collecting disclosure information for each of the co-authors in a multi-authored paper. Dove's editor(s) will determine what disclosures, if any, should be made available with the published Paper.

Dove subscribes to the general intent of the principles adopted by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) on the control of data in publications arising from sponsored research. The Author submitting a manuscript for a Paper for any study funded by an organization with a proprietary or financial interest in the outcome shall have access to all the data in that study, and to have complete responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the data, and the decision to publish.

Further, where a submitted manuscript has been prepared or supported by any third party, the Author shall disclose this information to Dove in the manuscript of the Paper.

Electronic Usage
The Author is permitted to post the Paper on a website until Dove has accepted the Paper for publication. Author shall add the following notice to the first page of the Paper upon its submission to Dove for publication: This article has been sent to Dove Medical Press Limited for publication.

If the Paper is accepted for publication, the Author must remove the pre-publication version of the Paper from any such website where the pre-publication Paper was available.

Where Dove accepts the Paper for publication the Author may post an exact copy of Paper submitted to Dove for publication on a website with the following notice on the first page of the Paper: "This article has been accepted for publication in (insert name of relevant Dove journal)".

Upon publication of the Paper the Author shall amend the notice on the first page of the Paper published on such a website to state:
"This article is published in (Dove journal name, issue, date, and pages)".

Authors may post the published Paper (in .pdf format) on any website that they wish, subject to the commercial use/re-use conditions included in these Terms and Conditions).

Commercial use of papers published under the Open Access model

Commercial use: No articles from the Dove Medical Press website published under a CC-BY-NC license may be reproduced, in any media or format, or linked to for any commercial purpose (eg. product support, etc) without the prior written consent of Dove Medical Press and payment to Dove Medical Press of an appropriate fee. For further information on commercial use of published papers please see sections 4 and 5 here.

Commercial use or re-use includes any use or re-use of material contained in any Paper from any Dove journal where such use or re-use of the Paper or Dove journal is primarily intended or directed toward the commercial gain of the user of the Paper and/or their employing institution or any third party. In particular, commercial use or re-use includes (without limitation) the following examples:

• Re-use by a non-author/third party/other publisher of all or any part thereof of the Paper in another publication (including without limitation any journal, book, website or other medium of publication, irrespective of the form of that media) to be sold or offered for sale for commercial purposes.
• The proactive supply of multiple print or electronic copies of items taken from a Paper or Dove journal to third parties on a systematic basis for marketing purposes.
• Permission for this kind of reuse should be obtained from Dove, who retains the right to levy an appropriate fee
• Re-use by the Author of parts of or all of the Paper in other publications published by commercial organisations. Permission for this kind of reuse should be obtained from the publisher. We would consider this to be commercial reuse but would not normally charge a permission fee if the author is involved. Dove's permission to reproduce selected figures would generally be granted without charge, although Dove reserves the right to charge a fee for the use of these and/or the full text of the Paper.

Invalidity
If any provision of this Agreement is held to be invalid, void, illegal or unenforceable the validity, existence, legality and enforceability of the remaining provisions will not be affected, prejudiced or impaired.

Agreement prevails
The provisions of this Agreement replace any contrary terms, conditions, arrangements or agreements between the parties and, to the extent that this Agreement is inconsistent with any other agreement between the parties, including the Conditions of Sale, the terms of this Agreement shall prevail.

Execution
Nothing in this Agreement is binding upon any party until this Agreement has been executed by all parties.

This Agreement may be executed in any number of counterparts, each signed by one or more parties, and each of which will be deemed an original, and all of which taken together will constitute a single document. A facsimile copy of the Agreement showing a representation of the signature of a party will be deemed to be an original counterpart copy of this Agreement.

Applicable Law
The contents of this Agreement shall be construed, interpreted and applied in accordance with New Zealand law and the forum for all disputes, litigation or otherwise shall be New Zealand.

Amendments
No amendment to this Agreement will be effective unless in writing and signed by all the parties.

Dispute Resolution
Governing law/jurisdiction: This Agreement is governed by the laws of New Zealand, and subject to exclusive jurisdiction of New Zealand.

General: Where any dispute, disagreement, difference or claim ("Dispute") between the parties in any way arising out of the publication of any paper, these terms and conditions of publication or the Exclusive License or this Agreement, or concerning the interpretation or effect of these terms and conditions of publication or the Exclusive License or this Agreement, the parties will make a genuine effort to resolve the Dispute by using the procedures set out in this dispute resolution clause.

Representatives for Negotiation: The party seeking resolution of a Dispute ("the First party") must provide written notice of the same to the other party ("the Other party") and nominate in that notice its representative(s) for the negotiation, along with all relevant contact details The Other party must within 5 working days notify the First party in writing of the name(s) of its representative(s) for the negotiation, along with all relevant contact details. Each representative nominated shall have authority to settle the dispute. For a period of the 10 working days after the First party receives a notification of the Other party's representative, and with time being of essence, the parties shall with best endeavours and in good faith negotiate to attempt to resolve the matters raised in the dispute notice and shall (subject to privilege) furnish to the other party all information with respect to the dispute which is reasonably requested by the other party. In this clause, a working day means any day of the week, other than a Saturday or a Sunday, that a registered bank is open for business in Auckland, New Zealand.

Referral to Arbitration: If the Dispute remains unresolved after the expiration of the 10 working day period discussion and negotiation between the parties, then the Dispute must be submitted to the arbitration of a single arbitrator agreed on between the parties, or in default of agreement to be nominated by the President of the New Zealand Law Society. Any Dispute shall be finally settled by arbitration in Auckland, New Zealand. The arbitration will be conducted in accordance with the Arbitration Act 1996 and the provisions of the Second Schedule of the Act will apply. The parties reserve the right to appeal to the High Court on any question of the law arising out of an award. The arbitrator may make an award as to costs as the arbitrator considers appropriate in the circumstances. The costs of any arbitration shall be borne equally by the parties unless such arbitrator shall decide one party has acted unreasonably, in which case the arbitrator shall have discretion as to an award of costs.

Urgent Interlocutory Relief: Neither party shall commence legal proceedings against the other save that nothing in this clause will preclude or prevent either party from taking immediate steps to seek urgent injunctive relief before an appropriate court.

Pending Resolution: Pending resolution of the Dispute, this Agreement will remain in full effect, and the parties shall continue to actively discharge their obligations hereunder, however without prejudicing the parties' respective rights and remedies.

No Public Statement: The parties agree that pending final resolution of any Dispute hereunder, neither of them shall make any press release, public announcement or statement concerning the subject matter of the Dispute to any person or organisation (save as expressly or by implication authorised herein).

Definitions
The following defined terms have the corresponding meaning in these terms of publication: “DMP” or “Publisher” means Dove Medical Press Limited; “Paper” means the medical or scientific paper or works submitted by the Author to Dove Medical Press Limited for publishing; “Author” means the author or all authors (as the case may be) of the Paper; “Agreement” means DMP’s terms of publications, and author guidelines as published on DMP’s website (as amended from time to time); “Exclusive License” means the irrevocable granting by the Author to DMP of an exclusive world-wide right, in perpetuity, to publish, distribute, use, and derive benefit from the Paper.

Updated 25 June 2025