Westminster John Knox Press (WJK) offers these rights and permissions guidelines to assist those seeking to license our works or obtain permission to share excerpts.
Academic Course Packs
A course pack is a collection of journal, magazine, or newspaper articles; book excerpts; and other materials selected by a course instructor for distribution to students as required or supplemental reading. Permission is always required to distribute copyrighted material in a course pack.
Copyright Clearance Center processes all course pack requests on behalf of Westminster John Knox Press. Please visit www.copyright.com to obtain permission.
Republication
Do you wish to republish excerpts from a WJK work in a forthcoming book or journal? Small amounts of material may not require permission. WJK’s fair use allowance follows the University of Chicago fair use guidelines. A new work will be considered to be within the bounds of fair use if:
– It reproduces not more than 5 percent, in the aggregate, of the WJK Work,
and no complete poems or prayers*;
– It reproduces, in one place, not more than 300 consecutive words from the
WJK Work;
– Material reproduced from the WJK Work makes up not more than 5 percent
of the new work; and
– It reproduces not more than 5,000 words, in the aggregate, from a given
WJK Work.
These guidelines are cumulative. A use must comply with all of them to be considered fair.
*Special Worship Exceptions
The words of an individual prayer, poem, or liturgical text may be reprinted without special permission in a worship bulletin for one-time use only, in up to two hundred bulletins, provided that the WJK source work is cited. Citations should include the following elements: [Title], [author], © [copyright year as shown on copyright page], and the phrase “Used by Permission of Westminster John Knox Press.” This worship exception applies to works published by WJK, Presbyterian Publishing, or Geneva Press only.
If your proposed use falls outside these guidelines, please complete the Republication Request Form. Please check carefully to ensure that the material you wish to excerpt is original to our publication. If receipt of permission from another copyright holder is acknowledged in our text, please seek permission from the source indicated.
Licensing
WJK welcomes inquiries regarding licensing of our works for foreign language translations, audio editions, or English-language territory rights. Please complete the Licensing Request Form and submit via email to rights@wjkbooks.com.
Please understand that we do not contract directly with translators. Before any translation can be authorized, we must have a contract in place with a foreign language publisher.
Music
Do you need permission to use a text or tune from one of our hymnals? Please visit our music permissions page for more information.
Study Groups
Study groups may share up to five pages of original content from a book with groups of up to fifteen people. For permission to share more pages or to distribute with larger groups, please email rights@wjkbooks.com. If receipt of permission from another copyright holder is acknowledged in our text, please seek permission from the source indicated.
Questions?
If you have questions about the above, please email rights@wjkbooks.com. You may also fax 502-569-5113, or write to the address below.
Westminster John Knox Press
Rights and Permissions Department
100 Witherspoon Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396