γ-ray production by proton and α-particle induced reactions onC12,O16,Mg24, and Fe

{gamma}-ray production cross sections for proton and {alpha}-particle interactions with {sup 12}C, {sup 16}O, {sup 24}Mg, and Fe have been measured in the energy range 5-25 MeV with proton beams and 5-40 MeV with {alpha}-particle beams. Isotopically pure foils of {sup 24}Mg and foils of natural isotopical composition of C, MgO, and Fe have been used. {gamma}-ray angular distributions were obtained with five high-purity Ge detectors with bismuth germanate Compton shields placed at angles of 45 deg. to 157.5 deg. Cross sections for more than 50 different {gamma}-ray transitions were extracted, and for many of them no data have been published before. Comparison of present data with data available in the literature shows mostly good to excellent agreement. In addition to the production cross sections, high-statistics, low-background line shapes of the 4.438 MeV {sup 12}C {gamma} ray from inelastic scattering off {sup 12}C and spallation of {sup 16}O were obtained. Comparison with nuclear reaction calculations shows that these data place interesting constraints on nuclear reaction models.