Permission Requests

Material in RSC and other publishers' publications is subject to all applicable copyright, database protection, and other rights. Therefore for any publication, whether printed or electronic, permission must be obtained to use material for which the author(s) does not already own the copyright. This material may be, for example, a figure, diagram, table, photo or some other image. Note that permission is not needed to re-use your own figures, diagrams, etc, which were originally published in an RSC publication. However, permission should be requested for use of the whole article or chapter.

Use of RSC Material in RSC Publications

Authors contributing to RSC publications (journal articles, book or book chapters) do not need to formally request permission to reproduce material contained in another RSC publication. Permission should, however, be requested for use of a whole article or chapter. For all cases of reproduction the correct acknowledgement should be given in the caption of the reproduced material.  The acknowledgement depends on the RSC publication in which the material was published and the RSC publication in which it is being reproduced. The form of the acknowledgement to be included in the caption can be found on the page entitled Acknowledgements for reproduction of RSC material in RSC publications.

Author Use of Own Material in Third Party Publications

Authors of RSC publications (journal articles, book or book chapters) do not need to formally request permission to reproduce material contained in their own article or chapter which was originally published in an RSC publication. Permission should, however, be requested for use of the whole article or chapter, except for the exception specified below.   For all cases of reproduction the correct acknowledgement should be given in the caption of the reproduced material.  The acknowledgement depends on the RSC publication in which the material was published.   The form of the acknowledgement to be included in the caption can be found on the page entitled Acknowledgements to be used by RSC authors. 

Author Use of Own Material in Theses and Dissertations

Authors of articles in RSC journals or chapters in RSC books do not need to formally request permission to reproduce their article or book chapter in their thesis or dissertation.  For all cases of reproduction the correct acknowledgement should be given in the caption of the reproduced material.  The acknowledgement depends on the RSC publication in which the material was published.   The form of the acknowledgement to be included in the caption can be found on the page entitled Acknowledgements to be used by RSC authors.   

Please ensure that your co-authors are aware that you are including the paper in your thesis.

Use of Third Party Material in RSC Publications

The RSC must ensure that the material we publish does not infringe the copyright of others. We require the author(s) to obtain, at the earliest opportunity, the relevant permissions that might be needed from third parties to include material that belongs to someone else.  

Please check how the publisher/copyright owner of the third party material wishes to receive permission requests.  

• A number of publishers have opted out of receiving express permissions as long as they fall under the rules of the STM Permission Guidelines.  Please see the link below for a list of these publishers. 
• If they do not fall into the category above, the majority of publishers now use RightsLink from the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) in the US to process their requests.   A link to the list of the RightsLink Enabled Publishers is given below.
• Other publishers have their own permission request forms and/or specify what information they need to process any permission request.
• If the publisher/copyright owner does not have a specific procedure please complete and submit the Permission Request Form for non-RSC Material form and send it to the permission administrator or editor of the relevant publication.
• If the copyright owner has opted to publish under a Creative Commons licence, licensees are required  to get permission to do any of the things with a work that the law reserves exclusively to a licensor and that the licence does not expressly allow. Licensees must credit the licensor, keep copyright notices intact on all copies of the work, and link to the license from copies of the work.     

In all cases the following rights need to be obtained:

Permission is required to include the specified material in the work described and in all subsequent editions of the work to be published by The Royal Society of Chemistry for distribution throughout the world, in all media including electronic and microfilm and to use the material in conjunction with computer-based electronic and information retrieval systems, to grant permissions for photocopying, reproductions and reprints, to translate the material and to publish the translation, and to authorise document delivery and abstracting and indexing services.

Plesae note that the RSC is also a signatory to the STM Permission Guidelines.

Please plan to submit your request well ahead of publication of your material.

If you are submitting a book typescript, you should enclose a completed Books Permission Confirmation Form to confirm that all permissions have been received.

Use of RSC Material in Non-RSC Publications

If you require permission to use material from an RSC publication or website in a non-RSC publication, and you are not the author of the RSC publication, the following procedures should be followed.

Before sending in any request you should check that the material you wish to reproduce is not credited to a source other than the RSC.   The credit will be given in the caption of the image or sometimes in the list of references.

• For processing permissions to reproduce material from an RSC journal the RSC now offers the RightsLink service.   Go to the Instructions for Using RightsLink page to find out progress these requests.
• If you are reproducing material from an RSC book, RSC Education Department publication or website you must complete and submit the online Permission Request Form (or the printed Permission Request Form for RSC Material).    Requests are usually for use of a figure or diagram, but they may also be for use of the entire article or chapter.   Requests to use individual figures or diagrams are invariably granted.   Permission for another publisher to print an entire RSC article or chapter may be granted in special circumstances. 

Please plan to submit your request well ahead of publication of your material.   Please note that the RSC is unable to supply artwork for the material you may wish to reproduce.

Permission requests are handled by the Publishing Services Department.