So, I've seen a really nice figure in a paper; what's the best way to 'get a copy'? Will it be on the publisher's website? Do I need to draw my own version? Email the author? And, finally, how does the answer vary for (a) those wishing to republish the figure in their own work, (b) those not wishing to publish the figure e.g. for student coursework.
36.7k 10 10 gold badges 112 112 silver badges 163 163 bronze badges asked Sep 4, 2012 at 20:59 User 17670 User 17670 2,260 2 2 gold badges 17 17 silver badges 18 18 bronze badgesGetting a copy of a figure is easy: Use the marquee tool in your favorite PDF viewer. Getting permission to reuse it is a bit more complicated.
Commented Sep 4, 2012 at 22:40Ask permission from the copyright holder first. Give complete information on how the figure will be used (e.g., will you profit from using it?). If you are going to modify the figure, state that it was adapted from the source. Also, you usually need to include a copyright statement with the figure (e.g., (c) 2012 Copyright holder's name) as well as mentioning the source of the figure.
Commented Sep 5, 2012 at 0:06Many publishers have a copyright permission page on their website that may indicate when you do not need to seek permission. For a similar question, see meta.cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/385/…
Commented Sep 5, 2012 at 4:41A good tool for this is the open-source linux program pdfimages, which is distributed as part of the ubuntu poppler-utils package.
Commented Sep 9, 2012 at 1:14@PeterGreen And that's one of many reasons why Adode Reader is not my favorite PDF viewer! Either Preview or Skim on the Mac produces a nice vector version.
Commented Feb 24, 2016 at 5:18Unless the paper is available under a very permissive license, such as Creative Commons Attribution, you will need to seek permission. (There may be other legal possibilities, such as fair use or fair dealing, but that's a little subtle. See this story for more information on that.)
The copyright owner is the person you need permission from. Who that is will generally be marked on the published paper (often it is the publisher, and sometimes the author). If the publisher holds the copyright, then it is still polite to ask permission from the authors as well, although this is not legally required.
Big commercial publishers will often have a department for dealing with this, typically with a name like "Permissions". If you can't find such a department, then you can try just writing to the journal in question (look at their web page to try to find e-mail addresses).
If you are lucky, they will quickly approve your use of the figure. If you are not lucky, they will ask for money.
And, finally, how does the answer vary for (a) those wishing to republish the figure in their own work,
There are definitely legal issues here.
(b) those not wishing to publish the figure e.g. for student coursework.
If you never make the work available to the public, then it is hard to imagine that the copyright owner will ever learn about it or complain (and they would look foolish if they tried to sue someone for using their figure in a homework assignment). However, you still have a moral obligation to cite the source of the figure.