Permissions & Copyright

The Museum of Comparative Zoology encourages the reproduction of museum material in scholarly and general publications as a means of broadening accessibility to researchers and the public. The MCZ will cooperate in such projects to the greatest extent allowable with the appropriate permissions.

The MCZ retains the copyright to papers published by the MCZ, and all original media is ©President and Fellows of Harvard CollegeThis includes images on film, digital media, or other media made by or on behalf of the requestor. 

Non-Commercial Use

Non-commercial use of MCZ media is allowed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license as long as the user gives appropriate credit to the MCZ (credit line should read: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University; ©President and Fellows of Harvard College), provides a link to the license, and indicates if changes were made. The MCZ tracks the use of its specimens and asks that publications including MCZ media should be sent to the appropriate departmental collection.

Commercial Use

Permissions for reproduction of MCZ materials for commercial purposes must be obtained in advance and are for one-time use only. Fees for commercial use are determined solely by the MCZ. To request permission to use MCZ copyrighted materials, such as photographs, video, and 3D scans taken of a specimen or publication images and figures, please fill out the Reproduction Request for Commercial Use form and email to Melissa Aja

Media Made by Requestor 

A general condition of MCZ specimen use is that all resulting media is ©President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copies of images and other media, which should include the associated metadata, must be provided to the appropriate MCZ collection department for archiving. The MCZ provides a set of guidelines for all such media use and the associated metadata

Artistic Renderings

For artists who are producing a unique work that is based on incorporated objects of MCZ copyrighted material, an addendum broadening the copyright permissions may be considered.  This consideration is determined solely by the MCZ.

Questions can be directed to Melissa Aja