Journals Library

Material requiring permission

The following list details the usual material that you will need to obtain permission to use in your paper or supplementary material. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, and if in doubt about whether you should seek permission, it is always best to err on the side of caution and contact the publisher you wish to use material from.

  • A single quotation or several short quotes from a full-length book of over 300 words from a book
  • A single quotation of over 50 words from another a journal, newspaper or magazine article
  • A quotation of any length from a website
  • Charts, tables or graphs or other representations where the author is using the entire representation or has used a substantial amount of material from another work
  • Photographs
  • Reproduction of web pages or screenshots
  • Certain trademark usage
  • Certain photographs containing recognisable people
  • Reproduction of advertisements
  • Any third-party software used in a CD, DVD or website supporting an author’s work
  • Film stills and film grabs
  • Ordnance Survey maps, map extracts and redrawn maps
  • Quotations from informal writings, such as speeches, interviews, mission statements, questionnaires, classroom discussions or student works

If the data is presented in a different way in charts, tables, graphs and figures, permission is not needed, but the source should be credited. If a table or figure has been adapted you will need to use your judgement as to how different your adaptation is from the original. If in doubt contact the original publisher. Use of data originally described within text does not require permission to be presented in a new format, such as a new table.

More information on copyright can be found on the Intellectual Property Office website. Please see our Step-by-step guide to obtaining permissions for further information.