STM Permissions Guidelines & Signatories
Since their introduction in the 1980's (with major revisions in 1998 and 2003), the STM Permissions Guidelines on the re-use of limited amounts of material from published works have helped STM member companies (list below) faciliate the publishing process in many cases where delays and costs would have otherwise been incurred.
STM 2003 Permissions Guidelines
Signatories to STM 2003 Permissions Guidelines
as of 11 May 2008
STM PERMISSIONS GUIDELINES
October 2003
These Guidelines concern the granting of permission to re-use limited amounts of material from published works in subsequent print and electronic publications. The Guidelines set out general principles for working practice based upon historical practice, common decency and fairness. Adherence to the Guidelines is purely voluntary and it is not intended that they should in any way affect the ability of STM publishers to make commercial judgements about the re-use of their material.
In the text below, the publisher is assumed to be the rightsholder. When the publisher is not the rightsholder, the principles may still provide useful guidance.
The International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM) believes it is in the interest of scholarly and professional publishers, their authors and the scholarly and professional community as a whole to facilitate the exchange of information by setting out common principles with respect to the granting of permissions for the use of limited amounts of material in other published works.
STM publishers support an approach based on common decency and fairness as well as mutual trust. We recognize that scholarly articles often require the direct reproduction of illustrative material (such as figures, tables, structures) for the purposes of discussion or comparison with other data, and that the electronic version of an article needs to contain the same illustrative material in order to maintain the authenticity of the record in both print and digital form. We therefore recommend the following Guidelines as the best working practice for dealing with permissions:
1. Permission should be granted free of charge for the following:
a maximum of three figures (including tables) from a journal article or book chapter and a maximum of five figures (including tables) from a whole book single text extracts of less than 400 words or series of text extracts totalling less than 800 words
It is recognized that these are broad Guidelines that will not necessarily apply to every situation. Some examples for which a charge might be appropriate would be:
• the re-use of amounts in excess of the above
• material essential to the character of the previously published book or article, when re-use could compromise the sale of the publications (e.g. complex illustrations such as anatomical drawings; cartoons; maps; works of art; creative photographs)
This list is illustrative rather than exhaustive – the key point is that these Guidelines encourage free-of-charge granting for that which is likely to represent the vast majority of permissions requested for STM material, but it in no way gives carte blanche for inappropriate re-use, and always leaves the ultimate decision at the discretion of the publisher.
2. If permission is given for the re-use of material in print, it should also be granted for any electronic version of that work, provided that the material is incidental to the work as a whole, the electronic version is essentially equivalent to or substitutes for the print version, and embedded material (or a specific link to it) remains in situ and is not separately exploited as, for example, part of a database or some other use which might conflict with or prejudice the exploitation of the material by the publisher.
3. When granting permission, STM publishers should agree in principle not to request a complimentary copy of the newly published work except in limited circumstances, for example where an author requests a copy because of the extent or character of the republished material.
4. STM publishers should not make the granting of permission contingent upon receipt of written permission from the author or artist, except when the author or artist holds the copyright or specifically requests this right, provided that full credit is given to the author or artist as described in section 4 below. Any re-use must maintain the integrity of the quoted material.
5. Full credit should be given to the author(s) and publisher(s) of the material(s) re-used. STM publishers should not require a specific credit line format provided the “quoting” publisher includes the following information clearly referenced to the republished material:
a. For material republished from books: author, title, edition, publisher, city, Copyright © year
b. For material republished from journal articles: author, title of article, title of journal, volume number, issue number (if relevant), page range (or first page if this is the only information available), date, publisher
6. STM publishers are encouraged to have any permission granted for a first edition apply also to a second and subsequent editions and for editions in other languages. It should be noted that permission to use a figure in a book does not constitute permission to use it as a cover or other promotional design. Such permission needs to be sought separately and explicitly.
7. STM publishers are encouraged to respond promptly to requests for permission even if they have to refer the request or do not control the rights themselves.
8. E-mail or Web requests and grants may be made, especially for free-of-charge permissions, as long as the granting publisher has a system and policy that accommodates this.
9. These Guidelines are intended to facilitate the exchange of scholarly and professional information. The Guidelines provide general principles to encourage publishers to permit the use of a reasonable amount of material in other published works, without charge, and with a minimum of administrative difficulties. At the same time, the Guidelines leave the ultimate decision with respect to copyright protection and policy in the hands of the publisher.
Publishers may add their names to a list of signatories of the STM Guidelines. In so doing they would not be committed to follow any specific conduct with regard to permissions, but would be supporting the spirit of the Guidelines in facilitating the exchange of scholarly and professional information.
Signatories to 2003 TM Permissions Guidelines
Updated 7 May 2008
American Chemical Society, Washington, D. C., USA
American Institute of Physics, New York, N.Y., USA
American Psychological Association, Washington, D. C., USA
Ardor Scribendi, New York, N.Y., USA
John Benjamins, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, Switzerland
Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, England
BMJ Publishing Group, London, England
CABI, UK
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England
Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich, Germany
Co-Action Publishing, Denmark, Norway Sweden
Deutsher Ärzte-Verlag, Köln, Germany
El Manual Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico
Electronic Publishing Services, London, England
Elsevier, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Elsevier, Japan KK
Hans Huber Verlag, Bern, Switzerland
Henry Stewart Talks, London, England
S. Hirzel Verlag, GMBH, Stuttgart, Germany
Igaku-Shoin, Tokyo, Japan
Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), Stevenage, England
Institute of Physics (IOP), Bristol, England
John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, England
Koninklijke Van Gorcum, Assen, the Netherlands
Lucius & Lucius Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Germany
The Mainichi Newspapers, Tokyo, Japan
Marcel Dekker, New York, N.Y., USA
Multi Science Publishing, Essex, England
Nankodo Co., Ltd, Tokyo, Japan
Nature Publishing Group, England
Oxford University Press/Journals
Pharmaceutical Press, London, England
Polish Scientific Publishers (PWN), Warsaw, Poland
Portland Press, London, England
Prentice-Hall of India, New Delhi, India
Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England
Sage Publications, UK & USA
Springer Science + Business Media, Berlin, Germany
Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, England
Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany
William Andrew, US
Woodhead Publishing Limited, UK
World Health Organization, Department of Knowledge Management, Switzerland
World Scientific Publishers, Singapore
