Third-party copyrighted material

Guidance on including material that someone else has created (‘Third-party materials’) which is subject to copyright in your publication.

If you wish to include materials (images, figures) that someone else has created in a publication, you need to have permission to do so.

Before you submit your manuscript:

You must understand whether you have permission to reuse third-party material, how to ‘clear’ (obtain) permissions, and the costs involved.
You should also include a credit line for the material, which communicates to readers where third-party copyright applies and that you have the necessary permissions to reproduce the material.

In this guidance
When and how to get permission
Obtaining copyright permissions
Copyright exceptions
Identifying the rights holder
What if you can't secure permission (or identify the rights holder)
When you can reuse without seeking permission
Creative Commons
Public Domain
Trademarks
Credit lines: acknowledging copyright & trademark holders
Text & Data Mining

When and how to obtain permissions

Obtaining copyright permissions

Copyright law varies from country to country and may also vary across the type of work. In the UK, the rights of a creator to control how their work is used and reproduced is governed by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (the CDPA); the UK Copyright Service Fact Sheet provides an overview.

If a third party owns the copyright in material you want to reuse in your publication and has not made it available under an open licence, you will need to ask permission to reuse it. Rights holders may grant you permission (a licence) to do so at no cost or request a fee.

Gaining permission can take months if there is a delay in the rights holder responding to you. You should carefully consider the costs and clearance timescales for third-party materials in your publication planning. Ideally, you can ‘clear permissions’ before your publication is submitted for review.

A rights holder may request a fee or provide permission at no cost.
You can only use material if you have gained specific permission for that reuse, so be clear in your request how and where you are reusing it.
If you want to reuse it in another context, you will probably need to make a new request.
In your request for permission, ask the copyright holder how they wish to be credited and let them know that you will be asserting their copyright in any credit line.

Remember that a photograph of a person constitutes their personal data. See the Library’s guidance on Personal Data & Scholarly publications for guidance on when you do and don’t need to obtain consent to reproduce a photograph, as well as recommendations for ensuring you are disclosing the minimum data necessary.

Copyright exceptions

In the UK, the CDPA allows some exceptions to copyright to allow limited use of copyrighted works without the permission of the copyright owner.

Copyright exceptions like those for criticism, review, or quotation are commonly used.
Some of these exceptions are subject to a ‘Fair Dealing’ limit; you must only use the minimum material needed to make your point and must credit the rights holder (‘sufficient acknowledgement’).

Caution: Because scholarly publications are often published online with a global distribution, many publishers will not accept a copyright exception in lieu of permission from the copyright holder. We do not recommend you rely on copyright exceptions, unless you are following appropriate scholarly practice around quoting and criticising other work. If you intend to use a copyright exception for any other purpose, you must only do so after checking the publisher’s policy around ‘Fair Dealing’ use. You can find out more about copyright exceptions on our Copyright Essentials guidance webpage.

Identifying the rights holder

Identifying the copyright status of material and identifying the author or current copyright holder (publisher, etc) is the first step towards being able to reproduce third-party material. An individual, company or organisation can be a ‘rights holder’.

In many cases, copyright or contact information for the rights holder is included in the work itself.

Specific copyright statements are normally included on the imprint page (back of the title page) for books and other published works
The 'Information' or 'Copyright' sections of an online article as well as the PDF version (varies by publisher) normally include a copyright statement.
Images and figures often include a specific 'credit line' when incorporated into other works which includes the copyright information and an indication of whether the material was reproduced with permission or is available without restrictions on its reuse (eg public domain or open access).

Here are some specific third-party materials for which it can be tricky to determine the copyright status and rights holder:

Digital reproductions of public domain works

This is an evolving area. The emerging position is that digitisation of a public domain work does not itself generate a new copyright. However:

Many cultural organisations continue to assert copyright ownership over these images.
They might also apply other policies restricting download or charging a fee for high-resolution copies of these images.
You should check their terms and conditions, as well as any guidance about reproducing images, to see if and how to obtain permission.

If you take a photograph of a public domain work

For example, a Van Gogh portrait in a gallery – you could reproduce that image because you created it (and are the copyright holder). However, if there was any restriction on your access to the images (eg you only had permission from the gallery to take a ‘reference’ photograph of the work) you may not have permission to reuse it in a publication.

Ask for permission – inquire with the museum or gallery for permission to use your reference photograph in a publication or request a copy suitable for publication from them.
Caution: Photographs you take of a copyrighted work are still subject to the original copyright (since their copyrighted work is in your photograph) and you likely require the permission of the original copyright holder to reproduce the image.

If you created a figure, photograph, or illustration

You are normally the creator and copyright holder. You can decide how the image is used. However, if the material was produced in the course of your employment or under specific contract to a third-party, double-check who owns the copyright.

Film, TV, or video game stills and sound recordings

These are all subject to copyright. To reproduce these images in a publication, you will often need permission.

What if you can’t secure permission

If you can identify the rights holder but can’t secure permission, you cannot include the material in your publication. Your options include:

finding an alternative material that you have permission to reuse
providing a link to the material hosted externally, eg on a museum/archive website
removing reference to the third-party material entirely.

If you can’t identify the rights holder, and so can’t secure permission, it can sometimes still be possible to include the material. Make sure you keep records of what you have done to investigate who holds the copyright and contact the Library for copyright advice.

When you can reuse without seeking permission

Creative Commons

Creators can release their work under a Creative Commons licence, which gives permissions, in advance, for reuse. The licence will indicate how they agree for you to use the material and how they wish to be credited.

Caution: You should assume copyright restrictions apply to third party materials unless clearly stated otherwise.

The Library has more detailed guidance available separately about Creative Commons licences.

Public Domain

In the UK, most work comes into the ‘public domain’ 70 years after the death of the creator(s). A creator can also ‘dedicate’ a work to the public domain early, before the expiry of their copyright. Material in the public domain is no longer subject to copyright and can be reused in any way without requiring permission.

Caution: Content which is publicly available is not necessarily in the public domain – if you can’t verify the public domain status, assume copyright applies.

Trademarks

A trademark is a form of intellectual property protection, similar to copyright. A company needs to register its trademark, eg for a phrase, logo or brand names. If you want to reproduce an image that contains a trademarked phrase or logo, you may need to seek permission from the trademark holder.

If you do obtain permission, include text within the credit line that states ‘[Name’s] trademark included by permission of [trademark holder].’
An alternative to requesting permission to reproduce a trademark might be to blur the trademark in the material you want to reproduce so that it is illegible or unrecognisable.
If you feel the trademark is a very small element of an image, and isn’t significant, it may be sufficient to include a disclaimer like “Product names included in this image are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent an endorsement”.

Credit lines: acknowledging copyright & trademark holders

Securing permission often relies on a promise to use the credit line to communicate the creator’s copyright remains in effect and that only you had permission to reuse the material. You will need to adapt the credit line to fit the reference format you are using, but here are some examples:

Reproduced under Creative Commons licence	© [Year produced], [Creator name]. Reproduced under [specific Creative Commons license].
Permission secured from copyright holder	© [Year produced], [Creator name]. Reproduced by permission.
Figure/image produced by you	© [Year produced], [your name], [either ‘All rights reserved’ or the relevant Creative Commons license you wish to release the figure/image under].
Public domain (permission not required)	While permission is not required to reproduce third-party material that is in the public domain, academic best practice is still to include a reference where possible with an explicit statement about the public domain status. eg: [Year produced], [Creator name], image in the public domain [or] no copyright applies.
Reproducing under a copyright exception	It is not always necessary to explicitly state a copyright exception applies and you are reusing material under fair dealing; simply acknowledging the original creator and rights holder is sufficient. However, if you wish to include an explicit reference, here is an example: © [Year produced], [organisation], fair dealing for the purposes of non-commercial research and, where excerpts are quoted for analysis, criticism/review, under CDPA 1988.
Trademark (as appropriate, see above)	[Name’s] trademark included by permission of [trademark holder]. © [Year produced], [Creator name] etc… Product names included in this image are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent an endorsement. © [Year produced], [Creator name] etc…

Text and Data Mining

Text and data mining (TDM) uses computational techniques to analyse large amounts of information to identify patterns, trends and other useful information.

If you need to undertake TDM as part of your research, a copyright exception may apply. You can find out more about this exception and the University’s advice on the Copyright for Researchers webpage.