Copyright submission is a pre-requisite for publication with the Foundation of Computer Science (FCS) journals. All the FCS journals use a common copyright template which needs to be signed and sent to the concerned journal before the article can be published.

Frequently Asked Questions on Copyright Submission


  • How do we need to send the copyright form?
  • The copyright form needs to be scanned and sent to the concerned FCS journal in an email.
  • I do not have access to a scanner. Is it mandatory for the authors to sign the copyright form?
  • It is not mandatory to sign the copyright form. You can fill up the copyright form and sent it to us from your email address. The email address which you use to send the copyright form needs to be the same as the email address from which you have originally submitted the paper. In this case, we will consider the copyright form to be digitally signed by you.
  • What is third-party material?
  • Third party material is content for which neither you nor FCS is the copyright owner. This might include journal articles, book chapters, images, figures, formulas and such like.
  • When should we seek permission for third-party materials which I have used in my paper?
  • If the third party copyright material within your research paper consists of a short quotation from a published work and you have acknowledged and referenced it adequately it will probably not be necessary to seek permission from the copyright holder. However, copyright law does not define what is meant by a short extract. If in doubt, it is best to seek permission.
    Ideally you should seek permission to include 3rd party copyright material in your research paper as you go along rather than at the point of writing up your paper.
  • How to seek permission for 3rd party material?
  • To seek permission to include 3rd party material within the electronic version of your thesis you need to contact the rights holder. This may be the author of a work, a publisher, an illustrator etc. In the case of material from books and journals your first course of action should be to contact the publisher. Many publishers give details on their web site of how to seek permission and who to contact. Look for information on rights/permissions/copyright clearance. If the publisher does not hold the rights to the work they should forward your enquiry to whoever does.
  • No third-party materials are used in the paper. Should I still sign the Section C. of the copyright form?
  • If you haven't used any third party materials in the published paper, the Section C. is not required to be signed.
  • The research paper does not belong to any government organizations. Should I sign the Section B of the copyright form?
  • If the published material does not belong to any government organization, you are not required to sign the section.
  • How should I send the form to Foundation of Computer Science (FCS)?
  • The best way for faster processing of the copyright transfer document is via an email to the editorial board of the concerned journal. However, you can also send a postal mail to the USA based offices of Foundation of Computer Science (FCS)