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Clearing permissions for the use of third party material in Oxford Journals articles

NB: The law governing copyright, especially as it refers to non-print media, is far from clear, but the following guidance is offered in good faith; of necessity, these guidelines are not comprehensive, but rather a simplification of the law governing copyright. Furthermore, these guidelines are based on English Law only. You should always seek advice when in doubt (contact details will be provided below).

What rights do you need to obtain?

When seeking permission to reproduce any kind of third party material in an Oxford Journal, please request the following:

  • Non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the specified article and journal
  • Print and electronic rights, preferably for use in any form or medium. If not possible to secure such broad-ranging rights, we do need the right to make the content available online (see below)
  • the right to use the material for the life of the work (no time-restrictions such as one year etc on the licence granted)
  • world-wide English-language rights. If rights for all languages can be secured, this is preferable
  • The right to use images with a resolution of 150 dpi in the PDF version of the journal or 72 dpi in the HTML version

Why are these rights needed?

In line with many other academic publishers, we now make our journals available in both print and electronic format. By electronic, we mean the simultaneous publication of the tables of contents, abstracts (where applicable), as well as the full text of the journal in PDF format, HTML format, or both on the Web. The journals are sold to personal and institutional subscribers on a subscription basis in the format of their choice (for institutions only): print and electronic; print only; or electronic only. We also sell individual articles to end users either in print or electronic format and need to keep an article intact for this purpose. In order for us to maintain consistency in the high quality and content of our journals (regardless of the users preferred format and method of delivery), we need to ensure that we secure ALL of the rights specified above.

When should you clear permissions?

It is essential to make sure that copyright permissions are obtained before the article is published in the journal. If not, there is always the risk of copyright infringement. Ideally, any clearances should be obtained prior to or immediately upon acceptance of the article for publication but, at the very least, before the article enters the production process. Please note that if any third party permissions have not been obtained before this time, it is possible that there could be a delay in the publication of an article.

Where possible, copies of all correspondence relating to this process should be retained and written confirmation that this has been completed provided to the Editorial Office/Oxford Journals together with your signed Licence to Publish/Assignment of Copyright form. This is of particular significance for any material that a journal decides (as an absolute last resort) to use without permission.

What is covered by copyright?/Is it still in copyright?

Terms of copyright in literary, dramatic, artistic, and musical works (whether published or not) depend on (i) when and where the work was first published; (ii) if and when the author has died; and (iii) the residence and nationality of the author. The rules are complicated, but the general rule is:

  • Copyright expires 70 years after the end of the calendar year in which the author died
  • If a work was unpublished (and this term has a broad meaning including public performance and broadcasting) at the date of the author’s death, then the period of copyright protection will be the longer of:
    a) 70 years after the end of the calendar year in which the author died; or
    b) 50 years after the end of the calendar year in which the work was first published (in the case of works first published before August 1, 1989) and 50 years from January 1, 1990 (in the case of works first published after August 1, 1989).

In the case of an unpublished document, you will need to seek permission from the owner of the document as well as the owner of any copyright in the document.

Typography right (new editions of existing works)

A new copyright may exist in a new edition of an existing work (typography right). If the new edition contains material alterations which suffice to make the totality of the new edition an original work, then the new edition will be a new copyright work. This is so whether or not the existing edition is in the public domain, but that copying must be done from the existing work and not from the new edition. If the existing work is still protected by copyright, then permission for use must be obtained from the rights owner. If the new edition is used and the old edition is still in copyright, permission must be obtained from the owner of the rights in the new edition and, if that owner does not also own the rights in the old edition, from the person who owns the rights in the old edition. Copyright on typography lasts for 25 years from publication.

Do I get permission?

Make sure you do not apply for permission when you do not actually need it! There is one important circumstance under which permission is not required, and you should consider carefully whether it applies in your case.

Fair use. Where copyright is in force, it is legal to quote brief extracts from books, articles, or musical works for the purposes of review or criticism, provided that the source is acknowledged (for music journals: in this context, ‘musical works’ is believed to included both scores and recordings), and this provision is believed to extend to electronic as well as to print publication. However you must note the following:

  • ‘Brief’ is generally understood to mean no more than 5% of the work and, in any event, no more than is necessary for the criticism or review in question (note that individual items in collections, e.g. songs, count as works in their own right)
  • You cannot include the materials just for illustration; the legality of the quotation depends on the presence of critical commentary on it or its use for critical commentary on another work (for music journals: for instance it might only be legal to reproduce an extract from a recording if you were commenting on the performance or the work recorded). Note that the requirement for critical commentary applies to each relevant copyright.

If you have any queries about the fair use provisions, please seek more advice. Contact details are provided below.

These fair use provisions do not, however, apply to illustrations or figures in books,since each illustration or figure is treated as a separate copyright item. You will need to obtain permission to reproduce them from the publishers, or where they are credited to third parties from those third parties.

Postcards, lyrics, cartoons: if the ‘fair use’ provisions cannot be accurately applied, then permission is required from the copyright holder to reproduce this kind of material. These are classed as literary works, and they are likely to have at least one level of copyright protection. In the case of lyrics and/or any other material that may be of a particularly high profile, even if you think ‘fair use’ may apply, it is best to seek permission as there is often a qualitative value attached to it.

I need permission, so what do I do?

You need to write to the copyright holder or owner of the rights in the material you want to reproduce:

Material from books/journals: the best contact, in the first instance, is the publisher. Even if the author retained the rights to the material, it is likely that the publisher will handle permissions centrally. If not, they will be able to refer you to the appropriate place.

Photographs: the copyright in all photographs taken after August 1, 1989 will be owned by the photographer, unless there is an agreement to the contrary. For photographs taken between June 1, 1957 and August 1, 1989, the 1956 Copyright Act defined the author as the person who owned the material on which the photograph was taken. The date of the photograph being taken is therefore essential. The length of the period of copyright for photographs is that outlined above.

Images/illustrations from museums, art galleries: the original illustration may long since be out of copyright, but if a museum or art gallery has a reproduction it is still likely that this will have some form of copyright protection. The first point of contact for permissions clearance here should always be the museum or art gallery concerned.

When requesting permission to reproduce the material, it is essential that you provide as much information as possible about the journal. For example:

[Name of journal] which is published by Oxford Journals [on behalf of X Society, a registered charity], is a scholarly journal with a print run of approximately X. It is also published in an electronic (Web-based) version, accessible only to subscribers and maintained as an electronic archive after initial publication. I am therefore seeking clearance for both the printed and the electronic versions of the journal and the uses just described. As a scholarly journal, [insert name of journal] does not offer any remuneration to authors (we do have the odd journal that does so would need to amend this) and I would therefore ask you to consider reducing or waiving any fees in respect of this permission. Thank you for your assistance in this matter, and we trust that you will be prepared to provide the necessary permissions without time limitation

To help you with the process, we have produced a Permission Request letter. If the letter is not provided alongside this document, a copy is available from the journal editorial office or from the Oxford Journals web site at www.oxfordjournals.org . Together with these guidelines and, in particular, the wording provided in the above paragraph, we hope that the process of clearing these permissions will be straightforward. However, i

Best efforts: It is not enough to write off to the copyright owners and then assume that permission will be given in due course. By being the owner of the copyright, the rights-holder is able to prevent others from copying the work, so they are well within their rights to say no. Every effort should therefore be made to trace and then obtain the required rights from the copyright holder. By ‘best efforts’, we would normally expect that no more than three or four attempts be made to contact a rights-holder. If at this stage, there has been no success, please try and find an alternative piece of material to use. Should this not be possible, please inform the Editorial Office of the journal concerned about the problem you are experiencing, and a ‘case-by-case’ decision can be made about whether or not to proceed with inclusion of the material. Please note that when deciding to proceed with the inclusion of a copyrighted work without permission, there is always the possibility and associated risk that you may be infringing someone’s copyright. We are committed to ensuring that as much as possible of an author’s original choice of third party material (illustrations, images, figures, etc.) is included in their article. However, sometimes the only entirely safe course of action is not to use the material.

No permission needed

Anonymous or pseudonymous works: for works made after August 1, 1989, copyright will not be infringed by any acts done at a time when:

  • it is not possible ‘by reasonable enquiry’ to identify the author; and
  • it is reasonable to assume copyright has expired or that the author died at least 70 calendar years ago.

Unfortunately, the picture is not so clear for works made pre-1989. If in doubt, advice should be sought from your publisher.

Out of copyright: the period of copyright, typographical right, etc. has expired. All that is required is a full acknowledgement to the original source.

Public domain: the advice from our Legal Department is that it is only really appropriate to consider a work as being in the public domain once the period of copyright has expired. However, for older works, it is important to ensure that there are no typographical rights that require clearance or acknowledgement.

In the case of US works, when authored by an employee of the US Government, it is standard practice for the copyright to reside with the Government and the works to be considered as being in the public domain. However, it is important not to assume that this is the case. Unless specifically informed otherwise, permission should still be sought to re-use the material.

Fair use: when the fair use provisions as outlined above can be applied.

When the copyright owner cannot be traced

In the text Publishing Law, Hugh Jones and Christopher Beeson emphasize that if the copyright owner cannot be traced then authors/publishers have to accept the risk that going ahead may well infringe someone’s copyright. As mentioned above, the decision to do this should be made following communication with the Editorial Office and/or Oxford Journals.

There are some useful organizations to contact if you are unable to trace the copyright owner:

WATCH (Writers, Artists and their Copyright Holders): tyler.hrc.utexas.edu This is a database containing primarily the names and addresses of copyright holders or contact persons for authors and artists whose archives are housed in libraries in North America or the UK.

British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies

Design and Artists Copyright Society

What to do if you encounter any difficulties with the permission granted, fees quoted, etc.


If you are unable to obtain any kind of response from a rights-holder:

a) consider the possibility of using an alternative piece of material
b) speak to the editor of the journal concerned about your concerns, especially if an image is fundamental to an article

You are granted permission, but there is a fee as well as terms and conditions attached which you do you not want to accept:

a) go back and negotiate the fee. Most rights holders are prepared to negotiate
b) if the rights holder is unwilling or unable to grant online rights, we can accept print permission alone, but the material would have to be blanked out in the online version of the journal. This is not ideal either for the article or the journal as a whole, but we can do this if necessary. In this case it is essential that you let the journal editorial office and the production office know which permissions have/have not been cleared, as early as possible.
c) if you have been offered online rights for a limited period of time, go back and request permission for the life of the work. It can help to emphasise that the material will be used in a scholarly journal, and that it will only be used within the context of the relevant journal article. If you still cannot agree with the rights holder, we can blank the material out online, as in (b) above.

You are unable to trace the rights holder:

a) search on the Internet, if not already done. Can often provide a lot of useful information
b) contact one of the organizations listed below to see if they can help
c) talk to the Editorial office of the journal concerned. They may be able to help.

Any other queries:

a) In the first instance, talk to the Editorial office of the journal concerned. The journal office will also be able to put you in touch with Oxford Journals’ permissions adviser, if necessary
b) Alternatively, contact the Oxford Journals Commissioning Editor or Production Editor for the journal concerned
c) Or, contact the Rights and New Business Development Department at Oxford Journals with details of your queries.