Can I Use This Image?

We encourage you to use images created by you or your research team. Please acknowledge the creator of the image with your submission.

Very often, photos, figures, and graphics that you submit will be from your published paper. Journal copyright does not apply to papers published under DOE’s public use policies. Use these with appropriate acknowledgment to the author or creator. You may also credit the journal where it is published.

If an image is posted on a U.S. government website, it is in the public domain. Feel free to use these images, but give credit (e.g., “Image courtesy of NOAA”). Many government entities maintain image libraries on their website and image repositories, such as Flickr. See a list of image resources.

Platforms like Microsoft 365 offer subscribers thousands of royalty-free images, including icons, illustrations, videos, and more. In Word, for example, these images can be found at the top tab: insert  > pictures > stock images.

If you wish to illustrate your science with an image from a third party, you must obtain written permission from the owner of the image. The owner/creator owns the copyright of the work unless the creator has released the copyright to another entity. It is your responsibility to obtain and document written permission from the copyright owner, share that documentation with ASR at pubs@arm.gov, and retain this documentation in your records. Use these images with caution.

Images in which the copyright has expired are in the public domain. The period during which an image enters the public domain varies by country. It is safe to assume that a work published or created in the U.S. before 1924 is in the public domain. For works created after 1924, a useful rule of thumb is the life of the author or artist, plus 70 years. Use these images with caution and document public domain status.

Commonly called CC, this encompasses a set of licenses to standardize copyright permission and attribution. CC licenses are used extensively on sites like Flickr and Wikipedia. There are seven types of CC licenses. The safest options when looking for images are attribution-only and CC0 1.0 public domain licenses. Remember, any license that includes the word “attribution” means that you must give credit to the creator. Learn more about CC here. Use these images with caution.

Under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act, “fair use” allows certain uses of copyrighted works without obtaining permission from the copyright owner. However, determining if something qualifies as fair use can be difficult and is subject to interpretation. Therefore, ASR does not allow images exempted under the claim of fair use.

In recent years, free image websites that offer searchable imagery at no cost have grown in popularity. These include Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay, and others. While these sites may provide quick access to high-quality images, each depends on uploads by independent users. It is possible that a user may upload an image that they do not own, putting you, your institution, and ASR at risk. Do not use these images on the ASR website.

AI-generated images may draw upon copyrighted original images in the generation of the requested image. They may also call into question the scientific credibility of your submission. Do not use these images on the ASR website.