Whether your book contains a single image, choice excerpts, or dozens of readings, all third-party content that appears in your text will need to be properly vetted and approved by the Cognella licensing team. Our team of licensing professionals will work hard to quickly and affordably secure the necessary permissions to republish the third-party content (book chapters, articles, images, graphs, photographs, etc.) you select.
Please note, we do not require you to include sources that you researched while working on your book within your readings and excerpts log, but rather only instances of text taken verbatim from other sources and included within your manuscript. Noting research sources is more appropriate if you plan to include a bibliography within your text. Speak with your project editor if you’d like to learn more.
While researching and selecting third-party content, be aware that certain publishers impose restrictions regarding the amount and/or type of content that may be included in a work. For example, McGraw-Hill and Pearson/Prentice-Hall impose particularly strict limitations on the use of their materials. Trying to incorporate their content into Cognella texts has proven difficult in the past. As a result, we advise authors to refrain from selecting content from these publishers.
Please note, materials found via the internet (both text and images) are often subject to copyright despite their status as “open source” materials. “Open source” simply means something is available for all to view, but there may be restrictions implicit in reprinting the work for commercial use. Unless you’re absolutely sure a piece of third-party content is in the public domain, it’s safe to assume it will require licensing, regardless of where you found it. Watch our video on public domain for more information: vimeo.com/96847303.
Licensing fees can vary dramatically from publisher to publisher. To help mitigate potential problems, including last-minute republication denials or excessively high fees, we ask that you send us both a readings and excerpts log with comprehensive bibliographic information and an image log as early in the publishing process as possible. Our team will carefully review the third-party content selections included in your readings and excerpts log and image log, and work with you to resolve any issues that may arise. (Please refer to our Quick Guide: Completing Your Readings and Excerpts Log and Quick Guide: Selecting Images for detailed information on how to create readings and excerpts and image logs.)
Fair use of text is not allowed in Cognella titles, with the exception of block quotes and images. In order to clear a block quote or image as fair use, it must be discussed within the text in an editorial manner.
Here are some of the things we consider when determining whether an image can be cleared as fair use:
- Why is the image a good representation of the concept you’re presenting?
- What elements within the image are important for the reader to notice?
- What specific approach was used in creating the image?
- What makes this image a successful example? Conversely, what would’ve made this an unsuccessful presentation?
- What information was used in order to create the image?
Finally, please be aware that we must wait until licenses have been granted for all third-party content before we can market and sell your work. Initially, we often obtain permission to use third-party content on a one-off, short-term basis to ensure your text is available for your own preliminary classroom use. However, the licensing agreements required to republish third-party content on a broader scale (in other words, on the national market) are more complicated and, thus, typically take longer to solidify.
We encourage you to consult your editor and ask whatever questions you may have regarding the licensing of third-party content as you consider previously published material for your text.