The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) owns the copyright on all material published in American Mineralogist, Reviews in Mineralogy, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, The Lattice, Geological Materials Research, MSA Website, MSA Special Papers, indexes, and Elements. Works prepared by U.S. government employees in the course of their work is in the public domain and are not copyrighted by MSA.

MSA obtains copyright ownership from authors as a professional service. MSA's holding the copyright centralizes the process and allows permission to be given even if the author(s) can no longer be located. This also prevents materials from becoming unusable by the community because of uncertainty about who holds the copyright. Anyone wanting to reproduce articles, figures, tables, etc. need only contact MSA for permission to do so. There is no charge for reproducing materials in most cases.

Authors retain the copyright to books published in the MSA Monograph series. If you wish to reproduce materials from these, you will need to contact the authors directly.

Do you need to seek permission to reproduce material published by MSA?

Each publication includes a statement of copyright policy for that publication that permits and describes limited usage. These statements are found on the front or back of the title page in the so-called "masthead" statement. In most cases, these statements grant to individual scientists the right to reproduce a limited number of copies for purposes that further education and/or science, including classroom use. If your usage falls within the statement appearing in the publication in which you are interested, you need no further permission from MSA for that usage.

Other usages are also allowed by these statements, with instructions to remit a fee to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), along with the ISSN or ISBN number of the publication. Within the U.S., the CCC collects and remits payments to MSA. Other organizations throughout the world are authorized by MSA to collect and remit payments for copyright usage in various countries. If your usage falls within the scope of these usages, please follow our instructions or observe the lawful practice within your country if you are outside the U.S.

If the person seeking permission is the author of the original material, you don't need to contact MSA. Your original copyright assignment gave you rights for future usage.

Works prepared by U.S. government employees in the course of their work is in the public domain and are not copyrighted. It is the responsibility of those seeking permission(s) to determine if an article meets this test and is in the public domain.

Permission to reproduce material from MSA publications is not given by default. That is, requests including phrases such as "if I do not hear from you by (some date), I will assume that consent is given" is not a substitute for explicit permission from MSA.

How to seek permission from MSA

If your usage does not fall within the permissions granted in the masthead statements or exceptions above, you must write to MSA to seek permission for the usage. Requests must be in writing and must be specific as to:

• What material you wish to use. Include figure or table numbers, and the article reference giving authors or article title, the MSA publication, year, volume number, and page numbers.
• The title of the publication in which you propose to use the material.
• Reproduction in a thesis or dissertation. Will copies be available for sale from other sources?
• Whether or not the material will be modified, and a general statement as to the extent of the modification.

If the material is to be used in a book, also include:

• the name of the book publisher.
• What languages do you want rights for.
• What parts of the world do you want rights for.
• How many copies will be reproduced, and at what price (if any) will they be sold.

Please send your permission request to MSA at

Reproduction Requests
Mineralogical Society of America
3635 Concorde Pkwy Ste 500
Chantilly VA 20151-1125
United States of America

Phone: 703-652-9950
FAX: 703-652-9951
e-mail: j_a_speer@minsocam.org

or use our online permission request form.

Please allow one to two weeks for processing and mailing of simple permission requests. It may take longer for complicated requests covering a great deal of material or complicated usages. Urgent requests usually cannot be accommodated. E-mail permissions are presently not given because they are not legal documents.

Processing fees and license fees

There are no processing fees.

License fees for actual usage may be assessed, depending on the proposed usage. License fees are assessed when the proposed usage is large, commercial in nature, or when it may result in a distribution that would compete with the MSA publication.

Electronic capture

Approval for electronic capture of complete MSA journal and book articles is usually not given because it competes directly with MSA's own distribution of print and electronic matter. When it is permitted, appropriate license fees may be assessed, and a contract stating the limits of such capture and distribution is required.

Posting on your Web Site

Posting on the World Wide Web of material covered by MSA's copyright is prohibited without specific permission from MSA. There is one exception. An author or group of authors may post without further permission, on their own personal or organizational website(s) the title, authors, and full abstract of their paper(s), providing

• the posting cites the MSA publication in which the material appears,
• the citation includes the address line: "The Mineralogical Society of America, 3635 Concorde Pkwy Ste 500, Chantilly VA 20151-1125 USA (http://www.minsocam.org)", and
• the abstract as posted is identical to that which appears in the MSA publication.