When Does Reusing a Figure or Table From Your Own Work Require Citation or Permission?

If You Created the Figure or Table, Why Would You Need Permission to Use It Again?

You published a paper containing a figure you designed or a table you assembled. Years later, the same visual would be useful in another article, book chapter, thesis, presentation, or review. Since you created it, can you simply copy it into the new work?

Not always. Two separate questions arise. First, should you identify the earlier publication so readers understand that the material has appeared before? Second, do you currently have the legal right to reproduce or adapt the published material? Being the original author answers neither question automatically.

You May Need Citation, Permission, or Both

Authorship, Attribution, and Copyright Are Different Questions

You can be the creator without controlling every reuse right

When researchers say, "It's my figure," they may mean that they designed it, generated the data, and created the original artwork. That establishes authorship or creation, but it does not necessarily establish the current copyright status of the published version.

Publication agreements differ. Depending on the journal and publishing arrangement, an author may retain copyright, transfer copyright, or grant the publisher particular rights. An article may instead be distributed under an open license that expressly permits certain forms of reuse.

Before reproducing a previously published figure or table, check the actual rights statement associated with the publication rather than assuming that original authorship gives you unrestricted reuse rights.

Citation and permission answer different questions

This distinction is the same one that applies when considering plagiarism of figures, tables, frameworks, and conceptual models. A citation is not a copyright license, and copyright authorization does not eliminate the scholarly need to identify previously published material.

Exact reproduction should normally be identified as previously published

If you reproduce substantially the same figure or table from an earlier publication, readers should not be left with the impression that it was newly created for the current work.

The precise wording varies among publishers and citation styles. Depending on the circumstances, the caption may indicate that the material was reproduced from a previous publication, followed by the appropriate citation and any rights statement required by the copyright holder or license.

Do not invent a generic copyright line. Follow the wording required by the actual license, permission, publisher, or target publication.

Redrawing your own published figure may still count as an adaptation

Suppose you recreate an old figure using new colors, fonts, shapes, or software. If its substantive visual expression remains recognizably derived from the previously published version, the new item may be an adaptation rather than an entirely independent work.

Creative Commons, for example, defines adapted material in terms of copyrighted material that has been translated, altered, arranged, transformed, or otherwise modified in a manner requiring permission under the relevant copyright rights. Under CC BY 4.0, users may share and adapt licensed material, but they must provide appropriate credit, link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.

Other Creative Commons licenses impose additional conditions. A NoDerivatives license, for instance, does not grant the same freedom to share adapted versions, while NonCommercial and ShareAlike licenses add their respective conditions. The exact license therefore matters rather more than the reassuring presence of two letters beginning with "CC."

An adapted figure should distinguish the old contribution from the new one

Imagine that you take a figure from your previous article and add a new variable, remove one relationship, and reorganize the layout. The current figure may contain new intellectual work, but its relationship to the earlier version remains relevant.

Where appropriate, identify it as adapted from the previous work and cite that publication. If the earlier version is governed by a license or permission requiring particular attribution or adaptation language, follow those conditions as well.

The same principle applies to tables. Adding two columns to a previously published table does not necessarily erase the provenance of the original structure or content.

Creating a completely new figure from the same underlying data is different

Not every new visualization of previously published data is a reproduction of the old figure. You might take your underlying dataset and create a completely different visualization using a new analytical purpose and graphical expression.

In that case, the copyright analysis of the old figure may differ because you may not be reproducing its protected expression. Yet the publication history of the underlying data or findings can still matter. If those results were previously published, the new manuscript should not make them appear newly reported merely because the visualization changed.

The distinction between textual or visual reuse and republication of findings is important throughout publication ethics. A new design does not reset the scholarly history of the evidence.

Tables containing facts or data require careful analysis

Copyright generally does not protect facts as such, although original selection, arrangement, headings, explanatory text, and other expressive features may receive protection depending on the applicable law.

A new table built independently from your own underlying data may therefore present a different copyright question from copying the formatted table published in your earlier article. But prior-publication transparency still matters when the data or results have already entered the literature.

Open-access publication does not necessarily mean unrestricted reuse

"Open access" describes accessibility, but the actual reuse rights depend on the license attached to the work. Creative Commons licenses illustrate why the specific license matters.

For example, CC BY 4.0 permits copying, redistribution, and adaptation for any purpose as long as its conditions are followed. Those conditions include appropriate credit, a link to the license, and an indication of whether changes were made. Other Creative Commons licenses can impose NonCommercial, ShareAlike, or NoDerivatives conditions.

Your target publisher may also have requirements

Even where the source license permits reuse, the journal receiving the new manuscript may specify how previously published figures or tables must be labeled, cited, documented, or accompanied by permission records.

Author instructions may require you to upload permission documentation or identify reproduced and adapted material in captions. These policies can change, so verify the current requirements of the target journal rather than relying on instructions from a previous submission.

Theses, presentations, books, and journal articles may involve different reuse conditions

The intended destination can matter. Reusing a figure in a classroom presentation, depositing it in a thesis, republishing it in a commercial book, and placing it in another journal article do not necessarily present identical legal or contractual circumstances.

Copyright exceptions also vary among countries. Do not assume that a reuse permitted under one jurisdiction's fair-use or fair-dealing provisions is automatically permitted elsewhere.

Reusing your own figure is not merely a self-plagiarism question

It is tempting to classify the entire issue as self-plagiarism or text recycling. That captures only part of the problem.

The figure may have a prior publication history that needs acknowledgment, a copyright status that controls reproduction, and substantive findings that should not be presented as new. Keeping these dimensions separate produces a much more reliable decision than asking only, "Am I allowed to plagiarize myself?"

One Figure, Three Different Reuse Situations

Common Mistakes When Reusing Your Own Figures and Tables

Check Provenance and Rights Before You Copy the Image

The safest workflow begins with the original publication, not the image file stored on your computer. Determine how the published material is licensed and what the new use involves.

If you intend to reuse material repeatedly across publications, retain copies of publishing agreements and permission records. The five minutes spent filing them now may spare a future version of you from an unexpectedly archaeological afternoon.

Check Before Reusing Your Previously Published Figure or Table

Frequently Asked Questions About Reusing Your Own Figures and Tables

Your Figure Can Be Yours and Still Have a Publication History You Must Respect

How to Cite This Guide

This guide is intended to be read, shared, and used in research, teaching, and academic work. If you draw on its ideas, explanations, or other content, please acknowledge the source by citing the guide. Doing so gives appropriate credit and helps your readers locate the original resource.