home » parts of the manuscript »
APS Journals only infrequently allow the use of previously published material, usually consisting of figures or tables. Original research papers are required to contain original artwork and data sets, never accepted for publication elsewhere. The only exception to this rule might be a Fig. 1 showing the experimental setup, previously published in a similar article by the authors. However, in Invited Reviews, Historical Perspectives, or special articles such as Lectures (i.e., in the Editorial pages) we allow the use of previously published illustrative material, provided appropriate permissions are supplied by the author. Two types of permissions are needed for every borrowed piece of material: from the first/senior author and from the publisher. This procedure is a matter of the Copyright Law, and no paper can be published without appropriate permissions on file at APS.
Author's permission is NOT needed if the author of the borrowed material is the same as the author of the current article.
Permissions are NOT needed for any material that is described as "modified," "adapted," "based on data from," "redrawn from" or otherwise changed/altered. (However, the source publication must be cited in the reference list.)
You may hence encounter a combination of these rules and their exceptions, and you will need to be careful to interpret those correctly. Please contact the Editorial Manager if you have questions.
If the permission letters did not arrive with the accepted paper, the copy editor must contact the author immediately and request that she/he contact the authors and publishers of the borrowed material and obtain permissions for the specified figures/tables. Analyze the situation before contacting the author and provide specific information, e.g., "Please provide author's permissions for Figs. 1, 4, and 5; publisher's permissions for Figs. 2 and 3; and both author's and publisher's permissions for Figs. 6 and 7." Provide the corresponding author with a deadline for permissions received at APS and reflecting the first pages deadline (allowing you to move the article to the next issue if permissions are not received on time).
The journal or book from which the material has been taken needs to be included in the reference list. Add if necessary.
The citation in the legend should appear at the end of the legend as a separate statement in brackets ("with permission" is not needed):
Legend text. [From Smith and Brown (27).]
Note: Some publishers require a specific method of citation. Check carefully the permission statement from each publisher and quote verbatim the requested permission statement, which may include a full name of the publisher and other details.
home » parts of the manuscript »
last edited 07/15/03