Permissions Policy for the Use of SPE-Copyrighted Material

Permission to Publish SPE Papers

• Authors requesting permission to publish their SPE-copyrighted papers in a non-SPE magazine/journal will be granted a one-time permission to publish if the paper is not being considered for publication in an SPE journal. The permission is for one-time journal publication only, and provides for no other distribution than publication in a single issue. SPE retains all other rights as provided for under SPE copyright, including the right to distribute the paper in all media.
• Direct requests from third-party organizations to publish an SPE-copyrighted paper in a magazine or journal shall not be granted. SPE will consider such requests only if made by an author of the paper. It is SPE’s practice is to release journal publication rights to the author, who may in turn transfer such rights to a publisher.
• Requests from third parties to distribute copies of SPE-copyrighted papers (such as for short courses) or to republish SPE-copyrighted papers in a collection (book or CD-ROM) will be granted upon payment of a fee to SPE (see Table 1). Papers may not be distributed via the Internet. The fee will be waived for a request by the paper’s author or his/her employer if the request is to distribute the paper within the company or for limited (up to 50 copies) educational or professional activities. “Employer” is the organization for which the author worked at the time he/she wrote the material. Subsequent employers do not qualify.

Papers published in all the above situations shall prominently display the following statement:
© (YEAR) Society of Petroleum Engineers

Permission for Electronic Distribution/Storage of SPE Papers

• A company or organization may post SPE-copyrighted papers written by its employees on its Intranet, accessible only to employees of the company, if (a) the author was an employee of the company at the time the paper was written, (b) the paper was written within the scope of the author’s employment, and (c) the first page or screen includes prominent acknowledgement of SPE copyright.
• A company or organization may post SPE-copyrighted papers authored by its employees on electronic sites established by several companies jointly working on a project if (a) the site is accessible only to working group members (such groups will typically not include more than 50 individuals), (b) SPE-copyrighted material is posted only for the duration of the project, (c) the author was an employee of the company at the time the paper was written, (d) the paper was written within the scope of the author’s employment, and (e) the first page or screen includes prominent acknowledgement of SPE copyright.
• A company or organization may post an abstract of SPE-copyrighted papers written by its employees on generally accessible Internet sites if (a) the abstract is no more than 300 words long and without illustrations, (b) the author was an employee of the company at the time the paper was written, (c) the paper was written within the scope of the author’s employment, and (d) the first page or screen includes prominent acknowledgement of SPE copyright.
• No other posting of SPE-copyrighted papers on electronic networks, including the Internet, or electronic bulletin board services is permitted without the permission of SPE.
• No SPE-copyrighted paper may be held in or distributed from an electronic database other than one developed for SPE itself.

Permission to Use Tables and Figures From SPE Publications

• SPE will grant permission to reproduce tables or figures from SPE-copyrighted papers provided that these elements are original to the paper. That is, if it is apparent that the SPE paper’s author republished the material from another source, SPE may not grant permission and the requestor must contact the original copyright holder.
• Each table or figure used in another paper shall reference the source SPE paper in the References and include the following statement in the caption: © YEAR Society of Petroleum Engineers Ref. X
• SPE will charge a research fee and a reproduction fee for such requests. The suggested schedule of fees are as follows:

The research fee is for staff time required to confirm copyright status. A research fee will be assessed for each source (paper or book) that must be investigated. Multiple items from the same source will be assessed only one research fee. The document fee is for permission to reproduce the material.

Requests for permission to reproduce SPE papers or exceptions to this policy should be made in writing to Society of Petroleum Engineers, Customer Service, P.O. Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, email service@spe.org.