Sample Letter for requesting permission to use copyrighted material:

Dr. Ima Chemist
Professor of Chemistry
Ruthenium College
44 Atomic Way
Transition, ME 10107
(123) 456-7890 (ph)
(098) 765-4321 (fax)

Dear Journal of Really Cool Inorganic Chemistry,

I am writing to request permission to use Figure 1 of Article Name and Full Citation (and DOI if known) as part of a learning object uploaded to VIPEr (the Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource) at www.ionicviper.org. 
VIPEr is an online teaching materials repository and interactive social networking environment for inorganic chemistry educators. It was developed by a small, not-for-profit group of inorganic chemists from predominantly undergraduate institutions known as IONiC: the Interactive Online Network of Inorganic Chemists. Learning objects at the website include laboratory activities, in-class activities, problem sets, and literature discussions. Users can rate these learning objects and leave comments to indicate how they implemented them in their own classroom. The resource utilizes the expertise of chemists in different sub-fields of inorganic chemistry to create learning objects in a variety of sub-specialties such as organometallic chemistry, materials chemistry, and bioinorganic chemistry. There are also a variety of other interactive activities such as forum discussions on inorganic teaching, research, and instrumentation, textbook ratings, and polls.   The majority of users of this site are professors of Inorganic Chemistry at primarily undergraduate institutions. While some content is restricted to verified faculty users (e.g. Problem Sets), other content is freely available to non-registered users. Your permission to allow the reprint of the requested figure will contribute to undergraduate inorganic chemistry education as well as further acquaint students with your publications.

If you do not hold the copyright on the above figure, I would appreciate any contact information you have regarding the copyright holder(s).  If you would like any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

A duplicate copy of this request has been provided for your records. If you agree with my request as described above, please sign the release form below and send one copy with the self-addressed return envelope I have provided.

Sincerely,

Ima Chemist




Permission granted for the use of the material as described above:

Agreed to: ___________________________________ Name & Title: ________________________________
Company/Affiliation: __________________________ Date: ________________________________________






If you do not control the copyright on all of the above mentioned material, I would appreciate any contact information you can give me regarding the proper rights holder(s), including current address(es). Otherwise, your permission confirms that you hold the right to grant the permission requested here.