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So, I've seen a really nice figure in a paper; what's the best way to 'get a copy'?

Will it be on the publisher's website? Do I need to draw my own version? Email the author?

And, finally, how does the answer vary for (a) those wishing to republish the figure in their own work, (b) those not wishing to publish the figure e.g. for student coursework.

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Getting a copy of a figure is easy: Use the marquee tool in your favorite PDF viewer. Getting permission to reuse it is a bit more complicated. – JeffE Sep 4 '12 at 22:40
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Ask permission from the copyright holder first. Give complete information on how the figure will be used (e.g., will you profit from using it?). If you are going to modify the figure, state that it was adapted from the source. Also, you usually need to include a copyright statement with the figure (e.g., (c) 2012 Copyright holder's name) as well as mentioning the source of the figure. – Joel Reyes Noche Sep 5 '12 at 0:06
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Many publishers have a copyright permission page on their website that may indicate when you do not need to seek permission. For a similar question, see meta.cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/385/… – Jeromy Anglim Sep 5 '12 at 4:41
A good tool for this is the open-source linux program pdfimages, which is distributed as part of the ubuntu poppler-utils package. – Ben Crowell Sep 9 '12 at 1:14

2 Answers

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Unless the paper is available under a very permissive license, such as Creative Commons Attribution, you will need to seek permission. (There may be other legal possibilities, such as fair use or fair dealing, but that's a little subtle. See this story for more information on that.)

The copyright owner is the person you need permission from. Who that is will generally be marked on the published paper (often it is the publisher, and sometimes the author). If the publisher holds the copyright, then it is still polite to ask permission from the authors as well, although this is not legally required.

Big commercial publishers will often have a department for dealing with this, typically with a name like "Permissions". If you can't find such a department, then you can try just writing to the journal in question (look at their web page to try to find e-mail addresses).

If you are lucky, they will quickly approve your use of the figure. If you are not lucky, they will ask for money.

And, finally, how does the answer vary for (a) those wishing to republish the figure in their own work,

There are definitely legal issues here.

(b) those not wishing to publish the figure e.g. for student coursework.

If you never make the work available to the public, then it is hard to imagine that the copyright owner will ever learn about it or complain (and they would look foolish if they tried to sue someone for using their figure in a homework assignment). However, you still have a moral obligation to cite the source of the figure.

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At least in the US, using a figure in your coursework that will never be published falls under "fair use". You do not need permission, but you definitely should cite. – Ben Norris Sep 5 '12 at 11:08
Asking the publisher for permission is the worst thing you can possibly do. In the US, fair use applies to both of the cases described by the OP. Publishers wish you didn't know that fair use existed, so they will try to extort money from you for your use of a legal right that is automatically yours. – Ben Crowell Sep 9 '12 at 1:08
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In many cases it's acutally not at all clear that fair use applies to reprinting a figure in your own paper, and there's genuine debate on this among knowledgeable people (see, for example, the comments in the story I linked to). There are cases where you can make a very compelling case for fair use, for example if you are criticizing or commenting on the figure itself. However, most cases are less clear-cut, and many publishers will be unwilling to reprint figures without explicit permission (they don't care enough about establishing that this is fair use to want to risk a legal fight). – Anonymous Mathematician Sep 9 '12 at 2:07
@BenCrowell: That's bad advice. If you are planning to use the figure in a publication, then it is required to secure permission. Failure to do so exposes you to all sorts of bad consequences, including possibly retraction of the publication! – aeismail♦ Oct 14 '12 at 9:27
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In addition to the answer by @AnonymousMathematician, it's important to remember how to cite a figure from another paper in your own. This link gives a good explanation on how to do so: for publications using the APA style guide, for instance, it should be in the format

Figure #. Description/Note. Adapted from “Title of Article,” by F. M. Author and C. D. Author, year, Title of Journal, volume, p. xx. Copyright year by the Name of Copyright Holder. Adapted [or Reprinted] with permission.

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I edited this because different publishers have different guidelines. In some cases, you can say "Reprinted from Ref. XX with permission," and the longer copyright notice isn't required. – aeismail♦ Oct 14 '12 at 9:29

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