Copyright Policy

Ownership of Submitted Work

All manuscripts, documents, and materials submitted to the BYU Faculty Publishing Service (FPS) remain the sole intellectual property of the submitting author(s). Submission of work to FPS for editing services does not transfer, assign, or otherwise affect the author’s copyright in any way. FPS does not acquire any rights (including publication rights, translation rights, or any other subsidiary rights) to the materials we edit.

Authors are responsible for ensuring they hold the rights necessary to submit materials to FPS for editing. If a manuscript includes third-party content (such as figures, tables, quotations, or AI-generated text), authors are responsible for obtaining any required permissions. FPS assumes no liability for copyright infringement or plagiarism from content included in submitted materials.

Confidentiality

We recognize that submitted manuscripts may be unpublished or in active revision prior to publication, and FPS treats all submitted manuscripts and materials as confidential. At times, we may use author-submitted materials to support BYU classroom instruction, editing research, and student portfolios. In all cases, your work will never be shared with any party outside of FPS without your express written permission.

FPS editing work is often performed by trained student editors operating under the supervision of FPS professional staff. All editors are expected to maintain strict confidentiality outside of the FPS work environment with respect to the content of any materials they work with.

When plagiarism screening is requested as part of FPS’s editorial process, submitted manuscripts will not be added to any public or shared repository when using our approved screening detection service (i.e., Turnitin). For more information on how FPS uses technology, please see our AI Use Policy.

FPS Content

All original content on the FPS website, including text, graphics, and other materials produced by FPS, is protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without permission. Please refer to the policies from the BYU Copyright Licensing Office for additional information.

Questions

FPS will review and update this policy periodically. Authors with questions or concerns about our copyright policy are encouraged to reach out through our contact page.