Reproducing published extracts, images, figures, etc

Identify works where you do not own the copyright, including:

• Your own published works where copyright has been assigned to the publisher
• Substantial amounts of text from books, journal articles, websites, etc.
• Whole journal articles or conference papers
• Images, photographs, figures, tables or graphs
• Maps
• Databases or data
• Computer programs
• Web pages

You don't need to seek permission where:

Your use is covered by the fair dealing exception for criticism, review and quotation in copyright law

You may use an extract of a third party work without permission provided it has already been made available to the public and is sufficiently acknowledged, see Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, Section 30 and The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Quotation and Parody) Regulations 2014.

How much you use is not defined in law, so you will need to decide if an author may object to your actions - obtain permission for anything more than a short quotation.

A work is out of copyright

In the UK most work is protected for the life of the author plus 70 years.

You already have permission

You may already have permission through a licence (e.g. Creative Commons), a publishing agreement, or terms and conditions of use (often found on a website) - check this includes making the work publicly available.

In all other cases, you must seek permission - if you do not, you are breaking copyright law and the copyright holder may ask you to remove your thesis from Spiral and/or ask for financial compensation.

Where you need to seek permission, identify the copyright holder - you may need to go to the original source. Look for the copyright symbol © followed by the name of the author or publisher (e.g. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd).

Journal and conference papers - at the bottom of the page or PDF

Books - on the reverse of the title page at the front of the book (look out for separate copyright information next to images)

Websites - at the bottom of the website or as part of the item description on a content sharing site e.g. YouTube or Flickr

To find author contact details, try the WATCH Project or Society of Authors

If you can't trace the copyright holder it is important to assess the risk of reproducing the work - they may take legal action for unauthorised use and request financial compensation. If you include the work, show evidence that you carried out a ‘good faith’ search for the author’s contact details and record this in your permission summary table (see Step 5).

If you don't have permission to reproduce a work, you must request it from the copyright holder.  If the copyright holder is a publisher, you can usually do this online on the article webpage or via Rightslink.  If you need to email or send a letter, use our Request to reproduce an extract from a third party's published work (Word) template.

Do not leave this to the end of your writing-up period as publishers can take a long time to reply via email or letter. If you do not get a reply, contact them again after 4-6 weeks.

Keep a copy of all request letters and replies.

You are required to submit an appendix containing proof of permission, where this has been granted, and letters requesting permission, where no reply was received.

You can use the Permissions summary table for third party copyright works Word template. If used, this template must accompany the original proof of permission(s) in your appendix.

If a publisher offers to charge you a fee to reproduce their content, and you do not wish to pay it, or if they refuse permission, you must not include the work in your thesis.   Instead, replace it with a reference or description and provide a link (URL) to the original work.

Where permission has been granted, cite and reference the extract and add a statement next to the content, e.g.“Image reproduced with permission of the rights holder, Elsevier.”

The College requires a copyright statement to be included at the beginning of your thesis. It is important as it tells readers what they may and may not do with the content of your thesis.

PhD students, registered for an Imperial College London Degree are allowed to choose a licence for their thesis from the six licences offered by Creative Commons. Visit Selecting a Creative Commons Licence for more information about these licences and to select a copyright statement for your thesis.