There are many ways to get copyright permissions. If contacting the creator is an option, it's usually a good one. Sometimes, it's more complicated than that. Academic journal articles are written by authors, collected in journals, and then distributed by publishing houses. The publisher owns the content in the article, not the author. Article home pages (within journals within publishers) often have a button/link to "get permissions" that directs users to RightsLink, which is a feature of the Copyright Clearance Center. CCC accounts are free and available to the public. MAHEC librarians have an account and can help MAHEC affiliates navigate the permission process and can facilitate requests.
Users are not only bound by copyright law, but also governed by vendor agreements. Vendor agreements usually do not allow sharing. Individuals who have access to journal articles via subscriptions (institutional or personal) have such access for personal use. To share images from articles accessed in this way, special permission must be obtained.
Search for an image, then click the Tools button under the search bar, and select an option from the Usage Rights drop-down menu.
Double check the source to verify the reuse policy.
Citing does NOT equal permission for copyrighted material, but it's important to cite all content appropriately and include permissions on presentation slides or in slide notes in order to verify and to provide evidence if the copyright holder or anyone else has questions.
**All images (photos, cartoons, charts, graphs, etc) must have permissions. Many images are in the public domain or have Creative Commons licenses that allow free sharing. Graphics from academic articles (even if they're open access articles) require permissions to copy and share. See our copyright guide or ask your librarian how to find sharable images or get permissions.
MAHEC employees: Click here for the MAHEC Intranet, where you can access MAHEC's branding guidelines, policies, and PowerPoint templates. MAHEC log in required; must be onsite or logged into EHR to access Intranet.
