Owing to the matter of legality, GBR requires to receive a signed Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) from the author’s end before publication can proceed. Signed forms are required for all contribution types (apart from letters and correspondence).
This policy also facilitates international protection against infringement, defamation or plagiarism; enables the most efficient processing of publishing licensing and permissions in order that the contribution be made available to the fullest extent both directly and through intermediaries, and in both print and electronic form; and enables GBR to maintain the integrity of a contribution once refereed and accepted for publication by facilitating centralized management of all media forms including linking, reference validation and distribution.
At first, your article must be accepted then, you should receive information related to the specific license signing process for the journal to which you have submitted your work. Further, information of the corresponding author must be included to whom you should return the signed form (usually the GBR Editor for the journal).