Seeking permission to include third party copyright material in the electronic version of your thesis

When contacting rights owners to seek permission to include their material within your thesis it is important that you are clear about what you are asking for. The following is a suggested wording that can be incorporated into letters / emails that you send to rights holders:

I am contacting you to seek permission to include the following material within the electronic version of my PhD/MPhil (insert relevant level) thesis:

[Provide full details of the material you intend to include]

The thesis will be made available in Surrey Research Insight, the University of Surrey’s repository (http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/).  The repository is non-commercial and openly available to all.

If you are not the rights holder for this material I would be grateful if you would advise me whom to contact.