Permissions Information for Journal Authors: Permissions and Licenses

When fair use does not apply, seeking permission from a rights holder is perfectly acceptable. The guidelines that follow apply to both copyright permissions and other kinds of licenses.

What Duke University Press Requires

Our recommended permission request language is as follows:

“Non-exclusive worldwide publishing rights for use of the identified image(s) or text excerpt(s), in all media and formats, within the article to be included in the journal issue in whole or in part, with no time/term restrictions.”

This appears as part of our standard image/text permissions (PDF).

Permission requests do not have to use this exact language, as long as the rights above have been obtained. If you are unsure, contact your journal’s editorial office.

For cover art permissions, see below.

Problematic Terms/Restrictions

Duke University Press can not accept the following license terms/restrictions:

• Time terms, such as “10 years”
• Geographic restrictions limiting use to certain countries or territories, such as “North America only,” “France,” etc.
• “Print only” or “electronic only”

If a license includes any of the above, you will be asked to get them removed or altered.

The following restrictions are acceptable:

• English language only, or one language only
• One-time use, one edition use, life of the edition, or similar
• Print run limits

Cover Art Permissions

When requesting an image for cover use, make that clear to the rights holder. An image is much more visible on a cover than it is within an issue, and someone who is fine with their artwork appearing alongside an article may feel it is too private, provocative, or risky for cover use. Covers are also more commercially valuable, and a rights holder may reasonably want to be paid/paid more for their image to be used in that way. Therefore, you should explicitly tell a rights holder when you are seeking cover use. (Also, make sure to use our cover art permissions form (PDF) rather than the standard image/text permissions PDF.)

Important: permission to use an image in an article does not automatically grant permission to use that image on the cover of the issue. You must ask about cover use separately, or in addition to use in your article.

Documentation Standards

In addition to Duke University Press’s standard permission forms and formal permission licenses issued by others, we can accept the following:

• Permissions granted via email. Include the entire conversation/thread, unless it is excessively long. In that case, provide us with messages documenting the permission request, terms/conditions/restrictions on use, and the actual grant of permission.
• Permissions granted via social media messaging, documented via screen grabs/screen captures. See the email guidelines above.
• Oral permission. You will need to send an email or provide other textual documentation describing how you received permission, from whom, when, and so on.

Some additional notes:

• If a permission or license references a set of requirements or terms and conditions that are not part of the license document itself, authors need to provide them. This may mean scanning both sides of a license document if the terms and conditions appear on the reverse, forwarding a separate terms and conditions document, or “printing” a PDF copy of a website listing use requirements.
• Permissions not in English must be translated. However, this only applies to relevant sections of the document or correspondence. See the email guidelines above for what is needed. The translation can be done directly on the license, or as a separate document.
• Invoices and receipts are less important than documents describing the rights obtained, limitations on use, etc. This is what we need to know about as a publisher. (We trust that you have paid any necessary fees.)