How to Get Copyright Approval for Figures: Elsevier, Wiley, Nature, and Science

A single reused chart without permission can turn a clean manuscript into a copyright dispute months after acceptance. Getting copyright approval for figures from Elsevier, Wiley, Springer Nature, and Science means routing a request through the right portal, picking the correct reuse category, and keeping the resulting license on file long before a journal or thesis committee asks for it. Most researchers discover this only after a reviewer flags a reproduced graph, or a university repository refuses to release a thesis chapter until every borrowed image carries documented permission. The mechanics differ by publisher. Elsevier and Springer Nature route most requests through RightsLink, the Copyright Clearance Center’s automated licensing platform, Wiley operates its own RightsLink instance on each journal’s site, and Science handles permissions through that same clearinghouse. None of these processes are difficult once you know which button to click and which reuse category actually applies. What follows walks through each publisher’s current mechanism, the STM gratis allowance most authors never hear about, and a full worked example of requesting permission for a single figure.

Key Takeaways

• Elsevier, Wiley, Springer Nature, and Science all route most permission requests through RightsLink, the Copyright Clearance Center’s licensing platform, though Elsevier also keeps a manual channel for content RightsLink does not cover.
• CC-BY and other open Creative Commons licenses need attribution only, not a separate permission request.
• STM Publishing’s 2024 guidelines let signatory publishers, including Elsevier, Wiley, and Springer Nature, reuse up to three figures or tables from a single article for free, provided the source is properly acknowledged.
• Thesis and dissertation reuse of a single figure is often free, but the license should still be requested and saved as documentation.
• Selecting the wrong reuse category is the single most common cause of unnecessary fees and delays.

What Requires Copyright Approval and What Does Not

Copyright protects the specific visual expression of data, not the underlying facts behind it. A bar chart summarizing survival rates belongs to whoever drew it, while the survival rates themselves belong to no one. That distinction decides most of what follows.

Three categories of figures typically need no separate permission. Content published under a Creative Commons CC-BY, CC-BY-SA, CC0, or public domain license can be reused with attribution alone, since the license already grants reuse rights the moment the article was published. A figure built from raw data, even one that echoes the shape of a chart seen elsewhere, carries no copyright claim from the original source, because copyright covers the specific expression rather than the pattern in the numbers. Facts, statistics, and findings extracted from a paper and redrawn as a genuinely new figure also fall outside copyright, provided the new figure is an original rendering rather than a traced copy.

Everything else usually needs a license. A figure lifted directly from a subscription journal, even a single small panel from a six-panel composite, requires permission from whoever holds the copyright, which is often the publisher rather than the original author once a copyright transfer agreement has been signed. Reusing a previously published figure of your own sits in a gray zone that depends entirely on what was signed at first publication. Many publishers grant authors a personal reuse license as part of the standard agreement, but most journals’ author-rights pages recommend checking that specific agreement rather than assuming blanket permission. Fair use and fair dealing exceptions exist in some jurisdictions, but the doctrine was built around short text excerpts and criticism, not figure reproduction, and courts and publishers apply it inconsistently across countries. Treat fair use as a possible defense rather than a substitute for a license.

Researchers who also need to prepare the figures themselves to a publishable standard, separate from the permissions question, can review Editverse’s guide to research figure standards for formatting and resolution requirements most journals check before acceptance.

How Elsevier Copyright Approval Actually Works

Elsevier keeps two separate doors open for permission requests, and picking the wrong one wastes time. Articles hosted on ScienceDirect carry a “Get rights and content” link positioned under the title and author list, to the right of the DOI. Clicking it opens RightsLink, where a dropdown lists reuse types such as thesis, journal article, book, or conference presentation, followed by a Quick Price check that shows the fee, if any, before anything is committed.

Material that lives outside ScienceDirect, such as some older book content or select reference works, routes through Elsevier’s own Permission Request Form instead. The Global Rights Department states a standard turnaround of 15 working days for that manual channel, longer than the near-instant grants RightsLink issues for most academic reuse. When a deadline is tight, Elsevier’s own guidance suggests noting it directly in the comments field of the request.

Elsevier is also a signatory to the STM Permission Guidelines, covered in detail below, which grant free reuse of a small number of figures from another signatory publisher’s article under specific conditions. Open access articles published under Elsevier’s CC-BY license need no RightsLink request at all, only correct attribution to the original source.

Wiley’s Copyright Permission Process Through RightsLink

Wiley runs a RightsLink instance on every individual journal’s own website rather than one central portal, so a request always starts from the specific article page holding the figure. Locate the article on Wiley Online Library, find the permissions link near the abstract or in the article tools sidebar, and RightsLink walks through the same reuse-type and Quick Price steps used across the wider Copyright Clearance Center network.

Corresponding authors publishing with Wiley must also secure written permission before reproducing a figure from a different publisher inside their own new Wiley submission, a requirement laid out in Wiley’s Permissions Guidelines for Authors alongside the standard copyright transfer paperwork. Authors reusing their own prior Wiley figures should check the specific license signed at first publication, since Wiley’s standard agreements typically preserve some personal reuse rights, though the exact scope varies by journal and by whether the original article was subscription or open access.

Springer Nature and Nature-Branded Journal Copyright Permissions

Springer Nature, including Nature-branded titles, places its permissions link at the bottom of the article page on SpringerLink or Nature.com, sometimes duplicated in the sidebar as “Reprints and Permissions.” That link also opens RightsLink, and Springer Nature recommends creating a separate RightsLink account rather than reusing a SpringerLink login, since the two systems do not share credentials.

Questions that fall outside what the automated system can answer go to Copyright Clearance Center’s dedicated Springer Nature support line, reachable at +1-855-239-3415 or +1-978-646-2777, or by email at sp*******************@*******ht.com. Springer Nature’s own permissions and third-party distribution page also covers less common situations RightsLink was not built for, including translation rights and bulk reuse across many articles at once, which typically need direct correspondence with the publisher rather than an automated license.

Science and AAAS Journals: A Shared Permissions Path

Science and the rest of the AAAS journal family also route permission requests through RightsLink, the same Copyright Clearance Center infrastructure Elsevier, Wiley, and Springer Nature rely on, rather than running a separate proprietary system. The request form sits on the individual article’s page at science.org, and AAAS’s own reprints and permissions page directs authors toward that same clearinghouse for reuse in theses, coursepacks, and new publications.

AAAS content carries a narrower set of reuse categories than some other publishers offer by default, so double check the exact wording of the reuse type before assuming a thesis-related option also covers a conference poster or a grant application figure. When a specific use case genuinely falls outside every listed category, AAAS’s permissions team can be reached directly rather than through the automated form, though that route runs on the slower email-correspondence timeline typical of any manual request.

Publisher Copyright Approval Mechanisms at a Glance

The STM Gratis Limit Most Authors Never Hear About

Few researchers know that STM Publishing, the international association representing Elsevier, Wiley, Springer Nature, and most other major scientific publishers, maintains a reciprocal agreement letting signatory publishers reuse a small amount of each other’s material at no cost. Under the 2024 Permission Guidelines, a signatory publisher, and by extension an author publishing with one, can reuse up to three figures, tables, or images from a single article or book chapter published by another signatory, along with up to 400 words of text from that same source, without paying a fee, provided the reuse carries full and correct acknowledgment of the original.

The table below summarizes the core gratis limits for journal-article reuse. Full conditions, including a separate cap for reuse across an entire book or annual journal volume, sit in STM’s published guidelines linked in the references below.

That allowance covers reuse between STM signatory publishers and their authors, though it does not automatically extend to a self-published thesis repository or a personal website, so confirm the specific context against the guidelines before assuming the gratis limit applies. Not every publisher listed as a signatory requires a request at all for material within these limits. Some ask only for notification, others require nothing beyond the acknowledgment itself, and a handful still expect a formal RightsLink request even within the gratis range. STM’s published signatory list documents which category each publisher falls into.

A Worked Example: Requesting Copyright Approval for One Figure

Seeing the process run once makes the abstract steps concrete. The walkthrough below is illustrative, built to show how the pieces fit together. No such thesis, author, or figure exists, and every detail is for demonstration only.

Priya is finishing the introduction chapter of her PhD thesis and wants to reproduce a single bar chart from a paper she read in an Elsevier-published journal, planning to credit the original authors beneath the reproduced figure regardless of the outcome. Her workflow looks like this.

She opens the article on ScienceDirect and finds the “Get rights and content” link beneath the title, next to the DOI. Clicking through takes her to RightsLink, where a dropdown asks what she plans to do with the figure. She selects “reuse in a thesis or dissertation” rather than “reuse in a journal article,” since picking the wrong category resets the review and can trigger a fee that would not otherwise apply.

A short form asks for her institution, her thesis title, and her expected submission date. She fills these in and clicks Quick Price. Because thesis reuse of a single figure typically falls inside the free-of-charge tier most publishers offer graduate researchers, the price returns as $0.00. RightsLink still asks her to create a free account, including basic card details for identity verification, even though nothing gets charged. She accepts the license terms and downloads the PDF license immediately, since the automated system grants it without human review for this reuse category.

The whole process takes under ten minutes. Priya saves the license PDF in the same folder as her thesis files and adds a citation beneath the reproduced figure crediting the original article, exactly as the license terms require. When her graduate school’s formatting reviewer later asks for proof of permission for every borrowed figure, the saved license is what she hands over.

Realistic Timelines and Costs You Should Actually Expect

RightsLink’s automated path is the fast option. A reuse request that matches a pre-approved category, including most thesis and classroom uses, can return a license within minutes of clicking submit, with no human reviewer involved at any point. Academic reuse in a new journal article often falls into this same instant category, particularly for a single figure or a small number of them.

Manual requests move slower. Elsevier’s own Global Rights Department quotes a standard turnaround of 15 working days for content that falls outside RightsLink’s automated coverage, and other publishers’ manual permissions teams run on comparable timelines when a request needs human judgment, such as bulk reuse across many articles or a use case the dropdown menu does not cover. Build that timeline into a submission schedule rather than assuming every request clears in minutes.

Cost follows a similar split. Thesis and dissertation reuse of a single figure usually carries no charge, though a license should still be requested and kept as documentation even when the price shows as zero. Commercial reuse, such as a figure appearing in a paid textbook or a marketing document, more often returns an actual fee through Quick Price. Reuse that falls inside the STM gratis limits described above avoids charges entirely between signatory publishers, provided the acknowledgment requirement is met. None of these figures are fixed rules for every publisher and every use case, so treat Quick Price as the authoritative answer for a specific request rather than a general rule of thumb.

Mistakes That Delay or Sink a Copyright Approval Request

A handful of errors account for most of the delays researchers run into.

Selecting the wrong reuse category tops the list. Choosing “journal article” when the actual use is a thesis, or picking “print only” when the work will also appear in an open access repository, can trigger a fee that a correctly categorized request would have avoided, and fixing it after submission usually means starting over rather than editing the existing request.

Assuming an open access article needs no permission at all causes the opposite problem. Gold open access and gratis open access describe how an article is accessed, not whether the figures inside it carry a reuse license. An article can be free to read and still carry a restrictive license that blocks reuse without permission, so check the specific Creative Commons license attached to the figure rather than the access status of the journal. Editverse’s guide to open access types breaks down exactly which licenses grant reuse rights and which do not.

Waiting until the week before submission to start requesting permissions leaves no room for a manual review that takes 15 working days or longer. Editors and thesis committees rarely accept a pending request as a placeholder, and a missing license can hold up an entire submission over a single figure. Building permission requests into the same timeline used for a manuscript submission checklist catches this early rather than the week it becomes a crisis.

Forgetting to keep the downloaded license is the quiet one. RightsLink licenses do not automatically attach themselves to a manuscript file, and a researcher who cannot produce the PDF a reviewer or graduate school asks for is functionally in the same position as someone who never requested permission at all.

Copyright Approval Sits Beside Other Research Integrity Questions

Figure permission rarely travels alone. A manuscript that reuses a figure without a license raises the same kind of scrutiny as text reused without citation, and journals increasingly check both during the same production step. Editverse’s guide to citation ethics and avoiding plagiarism covers the text side of that same integrity question, including how self-plagiarism and text recycling get evaluated. Figures pulled from a source and edited just enough to look different raise a related concern that editors treat similarly to image manipulation, so a properly licensed and clearly cited figure protects a manuscript on more than one front at once.

Getting authorship and credit right on a manuscript that includes borrowed figures matters too. Editverse’s authorship guidelines and its companion piece on reference management tools both cover the adjacent documentation habits that keep a submission clean from first draft to acceptance. Researchers still choosing where to submit can also consult Editverse’s comparison of journal finder tools before assuming a given journal’s permissions process will match what is described here, since a smaller or society-run journal outside these four publishers may run a simpler, fully manual process instead.

Getting Expert Help With Copyright Approval and Manuscript Preparation

Chasing permissions for a dozen figures across four different publisher systems eats time that could go toward the actual manuscript, particularly on a tight submission or thesis-defense deadline. Editverse’s publication support services include help identifying which figures in a manuscript actually need a license, tracking multiple RightsLink requests to completion, and making sure every reproduced figure carries the exact citation wording its license requires.

Researchers preparing a manuscript that also needs broader editing support can review Editverse’s manuscript editing services, which cover formatting, figure preparation, and reference verification alongside the substantive editing most submissions need before a journal will consider them.

Conclusion

Getting copyright approval for figures from Elsevier, Wiley, Springer Nature, and Science comes down to knowing which door to use, RightsLink for the fast path or a manual request form for everything the dropdown menu does not cover, and confirming the reuse category before clicking submit. CC-BY figures need attribution rather than a license. Everything else, including a single panel borrowed for a thesis introduction, needs a documented license kept on file long after the manuscript is accepted.

None of the four publishers covered here makes the underlying rule complicated. Figure ownership almost always sits with the publisher once a copyright transfer agreement is signed, RightsLink turns that into a license within minutes for most academic reuse, and the STM gratis allowance quietly covers more requests than most researchers realize. Building permission requests into the manuscript timeline, rather than treating them as a last-minute formality, is what actually prevents the delay.

References

1. Gasparyan AY, Ayvazyan L, Kitas GD. Open access: changing global science publishing. Croat Med J. 2013;54(4):403-406. doi:10.3325/cmj.2013.54.403 [PMID: 23986284]
2. Elsevier. Permissions. Elsevier Policies and Standards. elsevier.com
3. Elsevier. How can I get permission to reproduce or re-use Elsevier content? Journal Article Publishing Support Center. elsevier.support
4. Wiley. Obtaining Permission to Reproduce Material. Wiley Author Services. authors.wiley.com
5. Springer Nature. Request permission to reuse Springer Nature content. Springer Nature Partners. springernature.com
6. Science / AAAS. Reprints and Permissions. science.org
7. STM Association. 2024 Permission Guidelines (updated 26 June 2024). stm-assoc.org