Dear colleagues,
We had contacted by e-mail an author who has published his work on the internet. We found the article very interesting and wanted to make a reprint of the article in a print form. The author approved our request and gave his permission. After getting his permission for printing the paper we have edited the article and sent him the final PDF file for information. At this stage our publishing house had already started printing the journal. Surprisingly, we got a message from the author stating that he does not give his permission to print the article. Now the publishing house has finished all the work to be done for our December issue and we do not know what to do. Could you advise us in solving this matter?

H. Alper Tanriverdi
Managing Editor, ARTEMIS
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Did the author give his permission in writing? What is his reason for the change of mind?

You could pull the article from the issue and have an issue that is short a couple of pages. If it's too late to do that, ask the Legal Department of your publisher to find out where you stand legally, assuming, of course, that you got the permission in writing.

Alice Landwehr
Managing Editor, The Journal of Pediatrics
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In my opinion, your problem depends on your country's local laws about how to obtain permission from an author. Most of the time a written permission with his signature is adequate but you need to probe how you obtained his permission. We never use verbal or digital communications.

You should value the risk of a demand on plagiarism, reprint the magazine again (very expensive) or convince the author to obtain a valid permission from him.

Rodolfo Soca
General Director, "16 de Abril"; Cuban Journal of Medical Students
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It is rather unfortunate that you had gone to this extent and as you reached the last mile, the author decides to pull out the article. It is always interesting when authors decide to pull out an article that has already been accepted. Many researchers, not all, want to be published. You just wait and you may see the article in another journal. Or, there are several possibilities. But getting articles to be published was supposed to be consensual between editor and author. So, I would suggest, if you can, to pull the article (and the Table of Contents, of course).

Adamson Muula
Maalwi Medical Journal
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It seems to me that if the author's sign-off was required prior to publication, it should have been obtained before the PDF stage at which point further changes cannot be made or are too expensive to justify. If in fact the article was not being reprinted in its original form, any editorial changes should have been reviewed with the author before they became indelibly recorded. If written permission to reprint was obtained from the author, then editorial privileges are generally justified. Otherwise, they may not be, and unless the article is being reprinted in its entire unedited format, the author may have grounds to refuse that it be printed in any form other than the original. I think that perhaps some ego stroking and a detailed review of editorial changes with the author may work in your favour.

John L. Moore
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