I've come across an academic work, a summary of which would make good guidance in a professional publication. What is the protocol to be followed in respect of the copyright of the authors and of the academic publishing company?
2 Answers
You wrote you wanted a summary of an existing work and depending on what you want I see two directions this could go.
Option A you essentially want some quotes or subsections from the existing work. In this case you need to mostly talk to the publisher of the academic work who likely has most of the copyright.
Option B you essentially want a newly written text with the same content as the academic work but summarized and written for your target audience. In this case you should talk to the authors and ask them to write something new for you.
Sidenote, as you intend to publish this in a professional publication you would need to pay for this in either case.
I don't know if this is exactly a protocol as such, but the only time I published a book my publishers told me they would take care of all that. They have shedloads of staff who know exactly what the copyright rules and laws are, across jurisdictions, and know how to deal with other publishers to ensure everything is copasetic.
So I'd say, get your publisher to figure it out.
(Full disclosure: my publisher is one of the biggest in the world of educational publishing, so it's possible they are better resourced than others.)
