Copyright, Permissions and Terms

Permissions

Information for the re-use of the Geological Society Published material and content

All articles published in Geological Society books and journals that do not have the Open Access padlock logo (including ones that are free to access online) are subject to the conditions below.

Re-publishing material from Geological Society of London (GSL) copyright

Using material from GSL publications

Extensive quotation (more than c. 100 words) and reproduction of previously published illustrations (even if re-drawn) require permission from the rights holder (GSL in this case). In the UK, material remains in copyright until 70 years after the death of the author.

GSL is not usually the rights holder for cover photographs, and permission must be sought from the owner/photographer.

Please check that GSL is the original publisher and that the material required has not been taken from another source.

For a figure that has been modified or re-drawn in a GSL publication the rights are still held by the original copyright holder. In those cases, you must contact the original rights holder.

Material that can be used without permission:

• Authors may re-use their own material without permission subject to the exceptions listed below. They may include the whole article in a PhD or other thesis provided that it will not be published, and that the original source is fully acknowledged in the standard form (see below for examples). If the thesis is to be included in the institution’s electronic repository or other online host, authors must use their own finally accepted version, not the typeset PDF (unless it is Gold Open Access). Please also see Copyright Policy and Terms of Use for Authors and Sharing your article. Authors may not re-publish their whole article, or a substantial part of it, without permission. Such permission will be granted only in exceptional circumstances.

• Anyone may use up to three items (text extracts of 100 words or less, figures or tables) from GSL published material without permission or charge provided that a proper acknowledgement of source is made (see below for examples). If formal permission is required for three items or less please apply via the Copyright Clearance Center or PLS (see details below).

• The abstracts of articles can be reproduced without permission or fees provided that a full reference and a link to the article abstract page are included.

If your article forms part of a multi-author book, the publisher must ensure that the total number of items from GSL publications does not exceed three (this does not apply to journal issues).

Re-using material in another GSL publication

You may use material from GSL publications in another GSL publication without permission from GSL subject to the exceptions listed below. However, if there are more than three items from an individual article, you must seek the author’s consent directly. If they do not respond within four weeks, you can assume that consent is given.

Exceptions

You may not use more than 25% of any GSL published article in a single publication and no publication should contain more than 25% in total from GSL publications. This does not prevent the inclusion of whole articles in course packs and the like (which do not constitute republication).

You may not post a typeset PDF of a GSL article on any website, repository or server (see Lyell Collection terms and conditions for more information).

Example acknowledgement of source

Example 1.

Figure caption: ‘Fig. 1. Simplified geological map (from Bolle et al. 2020, fig. 2).’

– with the reference to ‘Bolle, O., Diot, H., Fransen, W. and Higgins, M.D. 2020. Central sagging of a giant mafic intrusion: the Ediacaran Sept Îles Layered Intrusion (Québec, Canada). Journal of the Geological Society, London, 178, jgs2020-029, https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2020-029’ included in the reference list.

Example 2.

Figure caption: ‘Fig. 2. Increase in citations of palaeoecological articles over the years 2000–15 (modified from van Asperen et al. 2020, fig. 1).’

– with the reference to ‘van Asperen, E.N., Perrotti, A. and Baker, A. 2020. Coprophilous fungal spores: NPPs for the study of past megaherbivores. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 511, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP511-2020-41’ included in the reference list.

Uses where permissions is required

For more than three items, please use the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) or Publishers' Licensing Services (PLS) to obtain a quote and pay for permission. 

CCC - You can search CCC Marketplace by title, DOI, ISSN or author. Please register/sign in to apply for permission. CCC help pages.

PLS - You can search PLSclear by title, ISBN/ISSN, author, or keyword. Please register/sign in to apply for permission. There is a PLSclear video guide and you can also visit the PLSclear help portal should you need assistance.

If there are more than three items from an individual article, you must also seek the author’s consent. If they do not respond within four weeks, you can assume consent. You should contact the author at the address on the original article, or use Google Scholar or other search engine to trace them.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their correspondence gets forwarded when they move. For papers published before 1980, a more pragmatic approach can be taken with author consent. If you want GSL to check the authors’ contact details there may be a charge for the service and there is no guarantee that we have the correct address.