Things you need to know

We encourage open and objective discussion of technical and professional subjects in our publications. The following guidelines will help you whether you're writing a paper proposal, a manuscript or a book.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

Permissions Procedure

Copyright Policy

Downloads

Questions?

Email permissions@spe.org

Permissions for reuse

Copyright allows us to perform a valuable service for our industry. Rather than needing to locate the authors, we can give permission for use of SPE-copyrighted materials. To defray our costs, fees apply to certain types of use, especially those that are commercial in nature.

Below is a summary of the most important areas regarding permissions. For full information, download the topics to the right.

Conference Authors

If you presented a paper at an SPE conference, you may request a one-time return of rights to publish your paper in a non-SPE magazine or journal. 

  • Requesting return of rights means you are forfeiting right to have your paper reviewed and considered for publication in an SPE journal.  If your paper has been submitted for peer review, it will be withdrawn. 

To request this permission, send the Author Return of Publication Rights form to permissions@spe.org.

Distributing Printed Copies

Authors or their employer may distribute up to 50 printed copies of their SPE paper for educational or professional activities without notification to SPE. This permission can be used multiple times (such as to distribute copies from an employer’s trade show booth or for use in a training course that the author is conducting).

  • If more than 50 copies are desired, refer to the fees table for authors.

Requests from third parties to distribute copies for training courses or as papers in a collection may be granted upon payment of a fee. Refer to fees table. To request permission, complete the Permissions Request Form  and submit to permissions@spe.org.

Distributing Electronic Copies

Storage or distribution of SPE copyrighted material by any individual or organization on a generally accessible internet site is almost never allowed, and only with prior written permission from SPE.  SPE does not support the creation of databases or storage locations for SPE papers by non-SPE entities.

  • Authors or their empooyers may place a pdf of papers they have written on a company intranet site. Papers may not be posted on any type of generally accessible internet site.
  • SPE papers downloaded from OnePetro can be posted to limited access workspaces to be shared among project teams or a joint industry project (JIP) if the number of people with access to the site does not exceed 50 and the papers are posted for the duration of the project only.

We will consider requests for use on a customer extranet or other limited access site on a case-by-case basis, but fees will apply. To request additional permission, complete the Permissions Request Form and submit to permissions@spe.org.

Tables and Figures from our Publications

We will grant permission to reproduce tables or figures provided that these elements are original to the paper (author republished the material from another source). For material from JPT or The Way Ahead, we may require additional time to research whether SPE holds copyright to the figures or tables. Each table or figure used in another publication shall reference the source SPE paper or periodical in the references.

SPE will charge a research fee and a reproduction fee for such requests. Refer to the fees table.

General Permissions

  • You may make up to 5 photocopies of a single article, or up to 15 pages from a book, to share with colleagues for a one-time use. This cannot be used repeatedly to copy longer works in their entirety.
  • You may provide a link from your website to material on SPE.org, OnePetro.org, JPT Online.org, energy4me.org, or any other SPE website as long as it is in a manner that does NOT imply SPE endorsement and does NOT include the SPE, JPT, OnePetro, or energy4me logo. 

  • You may post or publish an abstract of 300 words or less, that does not include any figures, graphics or equations.  The abstract must note SPE copyright and the year.

  • An author, or the author’s employer, may distribute a paper within their company by paper or electronic form, such as via an intranet without prior approval from SPE.