summary
Many academic publications are enhanced with images, from fine art reproductions to graphics showing the results of scientific research. Including images in books and articles can complement the text, visually demonstrate the author’s analysis, and engage the reader. however, the use of images in publications raises copyright issues, which can be complex, time-consuming, and costly. To help authors navigate this process, publishers often provide specific guidance, including rights that must be claimed, acceptable file formats, image resolution, etc. See the Oxford Journals Third Party Permissions Request or the Johns Hopkins University Press Image Guidelines for examples.
The main issues to be aware of when incorporating images into your post are:
You are reading: Using photographs in books
permission
The right to post a copyrighted image is controlled by the copyright owner, so every copyrighted image you use must have permission or fall under an exception to the general copyright statute. copyright, such as public domain, fair use or open access. copyright permission fees are sometimes waived or reduced for scholarly publications; if not, however, they can be quite expensive and time consuming to obtain. We recommend that you start the permissions process early to avoid last-minute complications that may delay the publication of your work. In addition to copyright permission, some museums and other image providers charge a fee for the production or use of a digital image from their collections, even if the underlying work is in the public domain. like permission fees, usage fees are sometimes waived or reduced for scholarly publications.
high resolution images
publishers will require a high resolution image for publication (usually at least 300 dpi). These can come from museums, archives, other collections, your own work, or stock photo providers. a usage fee may be charged, the amount of which can vary significantly depending on who is providing the image and how you are using it.
printing costs
The cost of printing images can be considerable for the publisher, so be sure to discuss with your publisher how many images you will publish, whether they will be in color, and whether a grant will be required if the manuscript contains a large number of images. number of images.
privacy and publicity rights
If you have a photo with people in it, privacy or publicity rights may need to be addressed.
read more
- susan bielstein, copyright clearance: a publisher’s perspective (2005) (article starts on page 19)
- susan bielstein, permissions, a survival guide: talk direct on art as intellectual property (2006) ) (ebook – georgetown netid required for off campus access)
- lois farfel stark, obtaining image permissions for her book: an author’s perspective ( 2018)
principles of copyright
public domain
If you can find a usable image in a book or magazine article published before 1927, it will be in the public domain and therefore free of copyright restrictions. The Library’s Gelardin New Media Center can help you obtain a high-resolution image for publication. certain images published between 1927 and 1989 may also be in the public domain, depending on whether they were published with a copyright notice and if the copyright was renewed. For more information, use this public domain table or contact librarycopyright@georgetown.edu.
Works of the United States Government are also in the public domain and may be used freely.
Some museums, libraries, and archives make public domain images freely available with few or no restrictions. read more in the image search section.
open access / creative commons
wikimedia commons has a large collection of images that are licensed under the creative commons licensing system. restrictions, if any, are listed with the image. It’s important to recognize that if you use wikimedia, you are relying on copyright information provided by the person uploading the image. you should review copyright information carefully to ensure it appears accurate.
many of wikimedia’s licenses allow only non-commercial use. The definition of non-commercial for the purposes of the CC BY-NC license is, “non-commercial means not intended or directed primarily for commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” creative commons provides more guidance on how to interpret the nc license.
fair use
In certain circumstances, publishers may feel comfortable relying on fair use when publishing images accompanying scholarly works.
Guidelines from the University Art Association Visual Arts Fair Use Code of Best Practices guidelines set forth the fair use grounds for using art for educational purposes:
principle in their analytical writing about art, scholars and other writers (and, by extension, their publishers) may invoke fair use to quote, excerpt, or reproduce copyrighted works, subject to certain limitations:
limitations
- The writer’s use of the work, whether in whole or in part, must be justified by the analytical goal, and the user must be prepared to articulate that justification.
- the analytical goal of the writer must take precedence over the mere representation of the work(s) used.
- the amount and type of material used and (for images) the size and resolution of published reproduction should not exceed those appropriate for objective analysis.
- justifications for use and the amount used should be considered with special care in relation to reproductions in digital format of works born in digital format, where there is an increased risk that reproductions may function as substitutes for the originals.
- reproductions of works must represent the original works as accurately as possible under the circumstances.
- the brief must provide attribution of the original work as is customary in the field, unless possible measure ble.
your own work
If you have your own high resolution photo, you are free to use it as you own the copyright to your photo. however, if your photograph is a copyrighted work of art, permission from the artist will be required unless it is fair use. Note that many museums do not allow photography of works in their collections, so getting your own image of a work of art may not be an option. Although architectural works are subject to copyright protection, photographs of buildings visible to the public may be used. 17 usc § 120(a).
permission
If your image does not fall into any of the above categories, you will need to seek permission from the copyright holder to use the image. you may be able to get permission from one of the sites listed in the next section, or you may need to seek permission from the artists or their representatives. The Artists’ Rights Society represents the intellectual property rights interests of visual artists and their estates worldwide and covers works in private collections as well as museums and galleries. ars has a permit request form. Please note that ars only handles permission requests and does not provide images of the works.
For more general information on how to apply for permission, please visit our permission application page.
search images
museums, libraries and archives
Some museums, libraries, and archives have public domain image collections available for use in scholarly publications. the content of the collections and the permitted uses vary between institutions. many do not allow images to be used as cover art as this is generally considered commercial use and some limit use to print publications. Below is a list of libraries and museums that offer works with few or no restrictions.
- British Library: The British Library Collection on flickr allows access to millions of public domain images from the Library’s collections. Higher quality images, if required, are available for purchase through the British Library. For more information, visit the library’s online image page.
- j. paul getty museum – the getty makes available, free of charge, all available digital images to which getty owns the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose. more information about the content of the collections is available on the open content program page.
- library of congress – prints and photographs – this collection has more than 1,200,000 digitized images from the library’s collections. copyright information is available for each image; look for the field marked “rights warning”. many collections have no known usage restrictions. For more information on the use of the collection, please read the copyright and other restrictions that apply to the publication/distribution of images. information on use restrictions by collection is also available.
- national gallery of art – nga images is a repository of images presumed to be in the public domain from the collections of the national gallery of art. Users may download, free of charge and without requiring permission from the Gallery, any image of a work in the Gallery’s collection that the Gallery believes is in the public domain and free of other known restrictions.
- new york public library: this collection contains more than 180,000 public domain photographs, postcards, maps, and other public domain items from the library’s special collections in high-resolution, downloadable files. high-resolution downloads are available without permission and without restrictions on use.
- victoria & Albert Museum: These art images from the V&A collections are available for scholarly publication with some limitations (print runs of up to 4,000 copies or 5 years of online use). Please read the full terms and conditions to see if your use qualifies.
stock image sites
There are many companies that provide both a high-quality image for publication and a license for publication. These sites usually have a good selection of images, the images are of high quality, and the search functions are sophisticated. license fees vary considerably and can be high, although you may be able to negotiate a discount for use in a scholarly publication.
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For some of the sites listed below, pricing will vary depending on what rights you need for publication: print/electronic, region of the world, number of languages, number of books, where the image will be placed (inside/ cover) and the size of the image. after entering that information, a license fee based on your usage will be displayed. license fee not automatically available for some images; for those, you will usually receive an email message after you submit your application. you should check with your publisher when selecting options to ensure you have selected the appropriate options for your book or article.
- art resource (rights-based license fee)
- bridgeman images (rights-based license fee)
- getty images (rights-based license fee) rights-based license required)
- istock (flat fee)
- shutterstock (flat fee)
artist
artstor (georgetown netid required for off-campus access) is a subscription database that includes some images specifically licensed for scholarly publication. These images are identified by “iap” (Images for Academic Publishing) below the thumbnail image in search results. usage details, including print run size and credit line, vary between iap images. you can view them by clicking the iap icon below the thumbnail image. the terms and conditions agreement is displayed when you download the image. Most artist images, however, are not in the IAP program and are not licensed for use in scholarly publications. To use a non-IAP image in a book or article, you’ll usually need to seek permission or go through a fee-based stock photo archive, often artistic resources, to obtain a license. Artstor provides contact information for permissions in the “rights” section of the image information page.
You can also find usable images for publication on the sites listed.
additional options
- college art association image source list
- georgetown library copyright and media: images page
- georgetown library image guide
specific uses
cover images
Images that appear on a book cover often require specific permission for that use and a higher fee.
film frames
the university press association has this statement about fair use and film stills in their permissions faq:
You may use enlargements of advertising frames and still images (both from movies and TV shows) where you can justify their inclusion in the work under fair use guidelines, for example, where it can be argued that the illustration serves as an quote from the filmic “text” to illustrate a point. Be conservative in selecting material: If the still image or frame illuminates a point you’re making or is specifically discussed, then the use may qualify as fair use. Where possible, limit the number of frames reprinted from any one film and from different films that represent the subject matter of your work. if your use is decorative, you must seek permission from the rights holder to include it. When buying material from a photo agency, read the conditions stated in the agreement and on the back of the photo very carefully (especially the fine print). In all cases, please acknowledge the original copyright holder. For a more in-depth look at fair use in relation to still images and frame enlargements, the fair use section of the society for cinema and media studies website offers a number of policy statements and disciplinary guidelines that may be helpful.
If your use goes beyond fair use or if your publisher has a more restrictive policy, you will need to obtain permission from the copyright owner. Most major movie studios have a licensing division you can apply to: MGM, Sony, Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, Universal, and Walt Disney Studios, for example. for smaller producers, you will need to contact them directly with your request.
tables, graphs and figures
Publishers differ in the permissions they require for graphics, so a good first step is to check with your publisher about their policies. Some sample policies are:
- princeton university press – “when a chart, graph, or table is reproduced in a critical study of the work or to support an argument of the writer, permission is not required. the data is not copyrighted. unless beech is a creative element for data representation that is reproduced without alteration, fair use may be asserted, with attribution.”
- harvard university press – “data is not copyrighted. However, graphs such as tables and graphs are copyrighted if the data is organized or presented in a unique way or if the graph provides an interpretation of the data if you plan to reprint a graph from another source that is copyrighted author, obtain permission tables and graphs, adapt existing tables and graphs, or create your own tables and graphs that will not be subject to copyright protection, see the following guidelines for credit: the form e The standard of crediting tables and graphs that you are reprinting ing is: source: credit.”
- oxford university press – “as a guide, you should always request permission to: . . . images (paintings, drawings, graphics, engravings, photographs, cartoons, etc.); figures and maps; tables.”
There are permission guidelines that many stm publishers use to set policies for the reuse of images from their posts. the guidelines include free permission to use a limited number of figures/tables/images from journal articles or books, although please note that not all members have adopted policies exactly as written in the guidelines.
Many publishers that follow the stm guidelines, or have similar policies, provide free permissions through the copyright clearance center marketplace, so those requests are generally quick, easy, and free. the marketplace system requires information about your publication and exactly what rights you are seeking. for charts, graphs, or figures that don’t conform to the guidelines, license fees typically range from $20 to $50, although that depends on many factors and could be higher or lower.
If you have questions about the use of images in a scholarly publication, please email librarycopyright@georgetown.edu.