Key considerations for using third party content in your article

When you submit your article our submission system will ask if permission has been obtained for any third party content. You need to answer this question before you can complete your submission. A false answer to this question would constitute a breach of contract by you.

When you submit your article, you will see one of the following screens, depending on which submission system the journal uses.

Submission Portal

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Editorial Manager

Want to find out more about the author publishing agreement? Click here.

All original works will have copyright status, and so copyright protection applies automatically to any original works that have been created/written. This can include content, images, photos, advertisements, songs, music, websites, databases. Copyright automatically comes into effect when you start sharing your ideas. Copyright does not need to be registered and notice of copyright does not need to be given for the work to have the copyright protection. As such, it is best to assume that all content is protected by copyright, unless you have a good reason to believe otherwise.

Published content should include a visible statement to describe the copyright status. For example, a journal article will include a clearly visible copyright line, usually on the first page of the PDF and denoted by ©, which will also show who the rightsholder is.

You may also consider using PLSclear or Copyright Clearance Center Marketplace, which allow you to enter a manuscript title into their search box and begin a permissions request to the correct rightsholder.

Please note that not all publishers are signed up with these services, so you may be directed to the publisher.

You should clarify reuse conditions with the rightsholder of the work even if the content was created by you. For example, if you want to reference a table that was previously published in another article, you may need to check with the publisher of that article about the terms for reusing the table.

You can find the relevant information on these webpages:

You must include the information that is outlined below.

What information do I need to provide when seeking permission for reuse?

First, check if the rightsholder whose content you wish to reuse is a signatory of the STM Permissions guidelines.

When you are asking a rightsholder for permission to reproduce, copy or adapt any kind of third party content, please provide them with the following information.

Information about your article

Information about the content your wish to reproduce

When submitting your request to the third party content rightsholder, please ask for the following license terms

The rightsholder can grant you permission either to include their content under the same terms as your article’s new license; or to include their content with further reuse prohibited and a clear caption below the material. All third party content must be fully referenced (see below).

What information do I need to provide in the captions/figure legends?

Taylor & Francis expects any third party content or sources to be fully referenced.

In addition to a detailed description of what the figure shows, full attribution must be given, including a statement to confirm where permission to use that third party content was obtained from.

Example format: [Description of figure]; From [or Adapted from] “Title of Article,” by A. N. Author and C. O. Author, year, Title of Journal, Volume, p. xx. Copyright [year] by Name of Rightsholder. Reprinted [or Adapted] with permission.

You must also make sure that the captions for any third party content correctly reflect the specific conditions under which permission has been granted. The rightsholder may provide you with a specific acknowledgement or permission attribution which will need to be added alongside the reproduced work.

For example: © 1991. Damien Hirst. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission.

The caption should also make clear the license conditions, under which permission has been provided.

Please note that the editorial team or production department may request to see copies of all permissions documentation and approval from third parties for your article at any point in the publication process. Please make sure documentation is stored securely.

If you are not sure if permission is needed for any third party content you want to include in your article, please contact us and we can help you.

You can also find information on the individual journal’s Instructions for Authors page, or you can contact the journal Editor for specific submission-related queries.

Reproduction of third party content may be allowed without permission in limited circumstances where short extracts of text or other types of material are being used for the purpose of criticism and review. This is known as “fair use” or “fair dealing”.

If you are not obtaining permission from the rightsholder for this reason, please inform the editorial team in the cover letter, or make a query to the Editor prior to submission. You will need to additionally explain when answering the submission questions for the journal.

Please note that a quotation from a song lyric or a poem does not fall under the fair use exemption in any circumstances. Use of song lyrics or poem excerpts will always require written permission from the rightsholder.

Please refer to the Publishers Association permission guidelines for further information on fair dealing and copyright exceptions.

Any third party content used under the fair dealing legislation still requires an accompanying acknowledgement, which must include the title(s) of the work(s), author name(s) and relevant dates.

If you are reusing or adapting content which includes various types of multimedia content (e.g., a video that contains music), you must consider the potential rights involved and reuse conditions for each type of multimedia content.

Also, be aware that the rightsholder of the content could include multiple parties (e.g. the creator and/or the rightsholder of the video and the creator and/or the rightsholder of the music). Permission for reuse must be obtained in writing from each rightsholder.

Before commencing your study, when using a scale or survey, check the terms and conditions, which will indicate what you can do with that material.

If you are unsure if a scale or questionnaire is protected, please contact the Rightsholder in the first instance.

You should request formal written permission from the rightsholder, even when you are reproducing an extract. The rightsholder may apply a reproduction or use fee and will advise on the correct attribution statement and form of license. 

It is essential that proper acknowledgment and attribution is given to the patent owner. Examples of how to reference patents can be found in the Taylor & Francis Standard Reference Guide (excerpt below).

Reference format: Inventor, A. A., inventor, B. B., & Inventor, C. C. (yyyy). Title of the patent: Subtitle (Patent No. #,###,###). Patent Office Name. https://URL

Reference example: Pfeifer, A., Muhs, A., Pihlgren, M., Adolfsson, O., & Van Leuven, F. (2017). Humanized tau antibody (U.S. Patent No. 9,657,091). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=9,657,091

Citation examples: Pfeifer et al. (2017) [narrative]; (Pfeifer et al., 2017) [parenthetical]

Further guidance on describing and illustrating patents is available at:

If the content you wish to reuse was published in an open access article, first identify the type of copyright license assigned to the article. Generally, the license will be a variety of a Creative Commons open access license. Once you’ve identified the license type (e.g., CC-BY-NC), you can read more about the associated permissions on:

This guidance on permissions applies to both OA and subscription articles. Whether you are publishing your article on an open access basis or not, you need to seek permission to reuse any third party content.

When clearing permission, for an OA publication you will need to make it clear that your article is being published as an open access article, and state what license it will be published under, so that the rightsholder can state how their material should be referenced.

For example, if your article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, but the Rightsholder does not want their figure to be licensed under the same license conditions, you would need to indicate this clearly by placing a caption below the figure “© 1990 Dr Smith. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission”.