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Copyright Guide: Requesting Permissions
This guide will inform you of copyright and issues pertaining to the use of copyrighted materials. It will not supply legal advice.
Requesting permissions to use copyright content
The first step to requesting permissions is to find the copyright owner. Because authors sometimes transfer their copyrights to publishers during the publication process, the copyright owner is often the publisher and not the original creator. It is a good idea to visit the publisher site to locate information on permissions requesting. Some publishers have developed tools to help you locate the right person to ask for permissions. For example:
- Penguin Publishing Group Titles DatabasePenguin Publishing Group advertises a number of ways to locate copyright owners and request permissions, including a Titles Database
- RightsLinkMany scholarly publishers use RightsLink, by the Copyright Clearance Center, to handle basic permissions requests.
- OUP RightsLink InstructionsOxford University Press instructions for Rightslink.
Once you've located the copyright owner, and if they do not have a proscribed method of accepting permissions requests (like RightsLink), you should remember to include as much information about your proposed use as possible in your request.
Figure Notes and Notes to the Reader
If, in your paper, you are including a figure, image, poem or other complete material for which the copyrights belong to someone else, you should include a figure note or a note to the reader in addition to obtaining permission for the use. A figure note should include the citation of the original publication as well as copyright notice and permissions information.
Figure notes usually appear directly under a figure or in a footnote on the same page. For example (APA style):
Journal article:Note. From “Title of the article,” by W. Jones and R. Smith, 2007, Journal Title, 21, p. 122.Copyright 2007 by Copyright Holder. Reprinted with permission.Book:Note. From Title of Book (p. 103), by A.N. Author and C.O. Author, 1994, Place of Publication:Publisher. Copyright 1994 by the Name of Copyright Holder. Reprinted with permission.
If using material that was released with a creative commons license, the notes would include this information instead of the statement on copyright. For example:
Journal article:Note. From “Title of the article,” by W. Jones and R. Smith, 2007, Journal Title, 21, p. 122. CC-BY-NC 2007 by Copyright Holder. Used with Permission.
- Copyright and Permissions on Academic Writer (formerly APA Style Central)Video Tutorial on APA Style Central about using and properly notating copyrighted materials in APA style.